abstract
array
center
description
displaymath
document
enumerate
eqnarray
equation
figure
filecontents
: Write an external fileflushleft
flushright
itemize
letter
environment: writing letterslist
math
minipage
picture
quotation
and quote
tabbing
table
tabular
thebibliography
theorem
titlepage
verbatim
verse
\newcommand
& \renewcommand
\providecommand
\newcounter
: Allocating a counter\newlength
: Allocating a length\newsavebox
: Allocating a box\newenvironment
& \renewenvironment
\newtheorem
\newfont
: Define a new font (obsolete)\protect
\ignorespaces & \ignorespacesafterend
Next: About this document, Up: (dir) [Contents][Index]
This document is an unofficial reference manual (version of March 2018) for LaTeX2e, a document preparation system.
• About this document: | Bug reporting, etc. | |
• Overview: | What is LaTeX? | |
• Document classes: | Some of the various classes available. | |
• Fonts: | Italic, bold, typewriter, etc. | |
• Layout: | Controlling the page layout. | |
• Sectioning: | How to section properly. | |
• Cross references: | Automatic referencing. | |
• Environments: | Such as enumerate & itemize. | |
• Line breaking: | Influencing line breaks. | |
• Page breaking: | Influencing page breaks. | |
• Footnotes: | How to produce footnotes. | |
• Definitions: | Define your own commands, etc. | |
• Counters: | Internal counters used by LaTeX. | |
• Lengths: | The length commands. | |
• Making paragraphs: | Paragraph commands. | |
• Math formulas: | How to create mathematical formulas. | |
• Modes: | Paragraph, Math or LR modes. | |
• Page styles: | Various styles of page layout. | |
• Spaces: | Horizontal and vertical space. | |
• Boxes: | Making boxes. | |
• Color: | Defining and using colors. | |
• Graphics: | Importing graphics from outside LaTeX. | |
• Special insertions: | Inserting reserved and special characters. | |
• Splitting the input: | Dealing with big files by splitting. | |
• Front/back matter: | Tables of contents, glossaries, indexes. | |
• Letters: | The letter class.
| |
• Terminal input/output: | User interaction. | |
• Command line: | System-independent command-line behavior. | |
• Document templates: | Starter templates for various document classes. | |
• Concept Index: | General index. | |
• Command Index: | Alphabetical list of LaTeX commands. |
This is an unofficial reference manual for the LaTeX2e document preparation system, which is a macro package for the TeX typesetting program (see Overview). This document’s home page is http://puszcza.gnu.org.ua/software/latexrefman/. That page has links to the current output in various formats, sources, mailing list archives and subscriptions, and other infrastructure.
In this document, we will mostly just use ‘LaTeX’ rather than ‘LaTeX2e’, since the previous version of LaTeX (2.09) was frozen decades ago.
LaTeX is currently maintained by a group of volunteers (http://latex-project.org). The official documentation written by the LaTeX project is available from their web site. This document is completely unofficial and has not been reviewed by the LaTeX maintainers. Do not send bug reports or anything else about this document to them. Instead, please send all comments to latexrefman@tug.org.
This document is a reference. There is a vast array of other sources of information about LaTeX, at all levels. Here are a few introductions.
Two pages of recommended references to LaTeX documentation.
Writing your first document, with a bit of both text and math.
The guide for document authors that is maintained as part of LaTeX. Many other guides by many other people are also available, independent of LaTeX itself; one such is the next item:
A short introduction to LaTeX, translated to many languages.
Introduction to the TeX system, including LaTeX, with further references.
Next: Document classes, Previous: About this document, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
LaTeX is a system for typesetting documents. It was originally created by Leslie Lamport and is now maintained by a group of volunteers (http://latex-project.org). It is widely used, particularly for complex and technical documents, such as those involving mathematics.
A LaTeX user writes an input file containing text along with interspersed commands, for instance commands describing how the text should be formatted. It is implemented as a set of related commands that interface with Donald E. Knuth’s TeX typesetting program (the technical term is that LaTeX is a macro package for the TeX engine). The user produces the output document by giving that input file to the TeX engine.
The term LaTeX is also sometimes used to mean the language in which the document is marked up, that is, to mean the set of commands available to a LaTeX user.
The name LaTeX is short for “Lamport TeX”. It is pronounced
LAH-teck or LAY-teck, or sometimes LAY-tecks. Inside a document,
produce the logo with \LaTeX
. Where use of the logo is not
sensible, such as in plain text, write it as ‘LaTeX’.
• Starting and ending: | The standard beginning and end of a document. | |
• Output files: | Files produced. | |
• TeX engines: | Programs that can compile TeX and LaTeX. | |
• LaTeX command syntax: | General syntax of LaTeX commands. |
Next: Output files, Up: Overview [Contents][Index]
LaTeX files have a simple global structure, with a standard beginning and ending. Here is a “hello, world” example:
\documentclass{article} \begin{document} Hello, \LaTeX\ world. \end{document}
Here, the ‘article’ is the so-called document class, implemented in a file article.cls. Any document class can be used. A few document classes are defined by LaTeX itself, and vast array of others are widely available. See Document classes.
You can include other LaTeX commands between the
\documentclass
and the \begin{document}
commands.
This area is called the preamble.
The \begin{document} ... \end{document}
is a so-called
environment; the ‘document’ environment (and no others) is
required in all LaTeX documents (see document). LaTeX
provides many environments itself, and many more are defined separately.
See Environments.
The following sections discuss how to produce PDF or other output from a LaTeX input file.
Next: TeX engines, Previous: Starting and ending, Up: Overview [Contents][Index]
LaTeX produces a main output file and at least two accessory files. The main output file’s name ends in either .dvi or .pdf.
.dvi
If LaTeX is invoked with the system command latex
then it
produces a DeVice Independent file, with extension .dvi. You
can view this file with a command such as xdvi
, or convert
it to a PostScript .ps
file with dvips
or to a
Portable Document Format .pdf
file with dvipdfmx
.
The contents of the file can be dumped in human-readable form with
dvitype
. A vast array of other DVI utility programs are
available (http://mirror.ctan.org/dviware).
.pdf
If LaTeX is invoked via the system command pdflatex
,
among other commands (see TeX engines), then the main output is
a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Typically this is a
self-contained file, with all fonts and images included.
LaTeX also produces at least two additional files.
.log
This transcript file contains summary information such as a list of loaded packages. It also includes diagnostic messages and perhaps additional information for any errors.
.aux
Auxiliary information is used by LaTeX for things such as
cross references. For example, the first time that LaTeX finds a
forward reference—a cross reference to something that has not yet
appeared in the source—it will appear in the output as a doubled
question mark ??
. When the referred-to spot does eventually
appear in the source then LaTeX writes its location information to
this .aux
file. On the next invocation, LaTeX reads the
location information from this file and uses it to resolve the
reference, replacing the double question mark with the remembered
location.
LaTeX may produce yet more files, characterized by the filename
ending. These include a .lof
file that is used to make a list
of figures, a .lot
file used to make a list of tables, and a
.toc
file used to make a table of contents. A particular class
may create others; the list is open-ended.
Next: LaTeX command syntax, Previous: Output files, Up: Overview [Contents][Index]
LaTeX is defined to be a set of commands that are run by a TeX implementation (see Overview). This section gives a terse overview of the main programs.
latex
pdflatex
In TeX Live (http://tug.org/texlive), if LaTeX is invoked
via either the system command latex
or pdflatex
,
then the pdfTeX engine is run (http://ctan.org/pkg/pdftex).
When invoked as latex
, the main output is a .dvi
file; as pdflatex
, the main output is a .pdf file.
pdfTeX incorporates the e-TeX extensions to Knuth’s original
program (http://ctan.org/pkg/etex), including additional
programming features and bi-directional typesetting, and has plenty of
extensions of its own. e-TeX is available on its own as the system
command etex
, but this is plain TeX (and produces
.dvi).
In other TeX distributions, latex
may invoke e-TeX
rather than pdfTeX. In any case, the e-TeX extensions can be
assumed to be available in LaTeX.
lualatex
If LaTeX is invoked via the system command lualatex
, the
LuaTeX engine is run (http://ctan.org/pkg/luatex). This
program allows code written in the scripting language Lua
(http://luatex.org) to interact with TeX’s typesetting.
LuaTeX handles UTF-8 Unicode input natively, can handle OpenType
and TrueType fonts, and produces a .pdf file by default.
There is also dvilualatex
to produce a .dvi file,
but this is rarely used.
xelatex
If LaTeX is invoked with the system command xelatex
, the
XeTeX engine is run (http://tug.org/xetex). Like LuaTeX,
XeTeX natively supports UTF-8 Unicode and TrueType and OpenType
fonts, though the implementation is completely different, mainly using
external libraries instead of internal code. XeTeX produces a
.pdf file as output; it does not support DVI output.
Internally, XeTeX creates an .xdv
file, a variant of DVI,
and translates that to PDF using the (x
)dvipdfmx
program, but this process is automatic. The .xdv
file is only
useful for debugging.
Other variants of LaTeX and TeX exist, e.g., to provide additional support for Japanese and other languages ([u]pTeX, http://ctan.org/pkg/ptex, http://ctan.org/pkg/uptex).
Previous: TeX engines, Up: Overview [Contents][Index]
In the LaTeX input file, a command name starts with a backslash
character, \
. The name itself then consists of either
(a) a string of letters or (b) a single non-letter.
LaTeX commands names are case sensitive so that \pagebreak
differs from \Pagebreak
(the latter is not a standard command).
Most commands are lowercase, but in any event you must enter all
commands in the same case as they are defined.
A command may be followed by zero, one, or more arguments. These
arguments may be either required or optional. Required arguments are
contained in curly braces, {...}
. Optional arguments are
contained in square brackets, [...]
. Generally, but not
universally, if the command accepts an optional argument, it comes
first, before any required arguments.
Inside of an optional argument, to use the character close square
bracket (]
) hide it inside curly braces, as
in \item[closing bracket {]}]
. Similarly, if an optional
argument comes last, with no required argument after it, then to make
the first character of the following text be an open square bracket,
hide it inside curly braces.
LaTeX has the convention that some commands have a *
form that
is related to the form without a *
, such as \chapter
and
\chapter*
. The exact difference in behavior varies from command
to command.
This manual describes all accepted options and *
-forms for the
commands it covers (barring unintentional omissions, a.k.a. bugs).
• Environment: | Area of the source with distinct behavior. | |
• Declaration: | Change the value or meaning of a command. | |
• \makeatletter and \makeatother: | Change the status of the at-sign character. |
Next: Declaration, Up: LaTeX command syntax [Contents][Index]
Synopsis:
\begin{environment name} ... \end{environment name}
An area of LaTeX source, inside of which there is a distinct
behavior. For instance, for poetry in LaTeX put the lines between
\begin{verse}
and \end{verse}
.
\begin{verse} There once was a man from Nantucket \\ ... \end{verse}
See Environments for a list of environments.
The environment name at the beginning must exactly match that at
the end. This includes the case where environment name ends in a
star (*
); both the \begin
and \end
texts must
include the star.
Environments may have arguments, including optional arguments. This example produces a table. The first argument is optional (and causes the table to be aligned on its top row) while the second argument is required (it specifies the formatting of columns).
\begin{tabular}[t]{r|l} ... rows of table ... \end{tabular}
Next: \makeatletter and \makeatother, Previous: Environment, Up: LaTeX command syntax [Contents][Index]
A command that changes the value, or changes the meaning, of some other
command or parameter. For instance, the \mainmatter
command
changes the setting of page numbers from roman numerals to arabic.
Previous: Declaration, Up: LaTeX command syntax [Contents][Index]
\makeatletter
and \makeatother
Synopsis:
\makeatletter ... definition of commands with @ in their name .. \makeatother
Used to redefine internal LaTeX commands. \makeatletter
makes
the at-sign character @
have the category code of a letter,
11. \makeatother
sets the category code of @
to 12,
its original value.
As each character is read by TeX for LaTeX, it is assigned a
character category code, or
catcode for short. For instance, the backslash \
is
assigned the catcode 0, for characters that start a command. These two
commands alter the catcode assigned to @
.
The alteration is needed because many of LaTeX’s commands use
@
in their name, to prevent users from accidentally defining a
command that replaces one of LaTeX’s own. Command names consist of a
category 0 character, ordinarily backslash, followed by letters,
category 11 characters (except that a command name can also consist
of a category 0 character followed by a single non-letter symbol).
So under the default category codes, user-defined commands cannot
contain an @
. But \makeatletter
and \makeatother
allow users to define or redefine commands named with @
.
Use these two commands inside a .tex file, in the preamble, when
defining or redefining a command with @
in its name. Don’t use
them inside .sty or .cls files since the
\usepackage
and \documentclass
commands set the at sign to
have the character code of a letter.
For a comprehensive list of macros with an at-sign in their names see http://ctan.org/pkg/macros2e. These macros are mainly intended to package or class authors.
The example below is typical. In the user’s class file is a command
\thesis@universityname
. The user wants to change the
definition. These three lines should go in the preamble, before the
\begin{document}
.
\makeatletter \renewcommand{\thesis@universityname}{Saint Michael's College} \makeatother
• \@ifstar: | Define your own commands with *-variants. |
\@ifstar
Synopsis:
\newcommand{\mycmd}{\@ifstar{\mycmd@star}{\mycmd@nostar}} \newcommand{\mycmd@nostar}[non-starred command number of args]{body of non-starred command} \newcommand{\mycmd@star}[starred command number of args]{body of starred command}
Many standard LaTeX environments or commands have a variant with the
same name but ending with a star character *
, an asterisk.
Examples are the table
and table*
environments and the
\section
and \section*
commands.
When defining environments, following this pattern is straightforward
because \newenvironment
and \renewenvironment
allow the
environment name to contain a star. For commands the situation is more
complex. As in the synopsis above, there will be a user-called command,
given above as \mycmd
, which peeks ahead to see if it is followed
by a star. For instance, LaTeX does not really have a
\section*
command; instead, the \section
command peeks
ahead. This command does not accept arguments but instead expands to
one of two commands that do accept arguments. In the synopsis these two
are \mycmd@nostar
and \mycmd@star
. They could take the
same number of arguments or a different number, or no arguments at all.
As always, in a LaTeX document a command using at-sign @
must be enclosed inside a \makeatletter ... \makeatother
block
(see \makeatletter and \makeatother).
This example of \@ifstar
defines the command \ciel
and a
variant \ciel*
. Both have one required argument. A call to
\ciel{night}
will return "starry night sky" while
\ciel*{blue}
will return "starry not blue sky".
\newcommand*{\ciel@unstarred}[1]{starry #1 sky} \newcommand*{\ciel@starred}[1]{starry not #1 sky} \newcommand*{\ciel}{\@ifstar{\ciel@starred}{\ciel@unstarred}}
In the next example, the starred variant takes a different number of
arguments than does the unstarred one. With this definition, Agent
007’s ``My name is \agentsecret*{Bond},
\agentsecret{James}{Bond}.''
is equivalent to ``My name is
\textsc{Bond}, \textit{James} textsc{Bond}.''
\newcommand*{\agentsecret@unstarred}[2]{\textit{#1} \textsc{#2}} \newcommand*{\agentsecret@starred}[1]{\textsc{#1}} \newcommand*{\agentsecret}{\@ifstar{\agentsecret@starred}{\agentsecret@unstarred}}
There are two sometimes more convenient ways to accomplish the work of
\@ifstar
. The suffix package allows the construct
\newcommand\mycommand{unstarred version}
followed by
\WithSuffix\newcommand\mycommand*{starred version}
. And
LaTeX3 has the xparse package that allows this code.
\NewDocumentCommand\foo{s}{\IfBooleanTF#1 {starred version}% {unstarred version}% }
The document’s overall class is defined with this command, which is normally the first command in a LaTeX source file.
\documentclass[options]{class}
The following document class names are built into LaTeX. (Many other document classes are available as separate packages; see Overview.)
article
For a journal article, a presentation, and miscellaneous general use.
book
Full-length books, including chapters and possibly including front matter, such as a preface, and back matter, such as an appendix (see Front/back matter).
letter
Mail, optionally including mailing labels (see Letters).
report
For documents of length between an article
and a book
,
such as technical reports or theses, which may contain several chapters.
slides
For slide presentations—rarely used today. In its place the
beamer
package is perhaps the most prevalent (see beamer template).
Standard options are described in the next section.
• Document class options: | Global options. | |
• Additional packages: | Bring in packages. | |
• Class and package construction: | Create new classes and packages. |
Next: Additional packages, Up: Document classes [Contents][Index]
You can specify so-called global options or class options to
the \documentclass
command by enclosing them in square brackets.
To specify more than one option, separate them with a comma, as in:
\documentclass[option1,option2,...]{class}
Here is the list of the standard class options.
All of the standard classes except slides
accept the following
options for selecting the typeface size (default is 10pt
):
10pt 11pt 12pt
All of the standard classes accept these options for selecting the paper size (these show height by width):
a4paper
210 by 297mm (about 8.25 by 11.75 inches)
a5paper
148 by 210mm (about 5.8 by 8.3 inches)
b5paper
176 by 250mm (about 6.9 by 9.8 inches)
executivepaper
7.25 by 10.5 inches
legalpaper
8.5 by 14 inches
letterpaper
8.5 by 11 inches (the default)
When using one of the engines pdfLaTeX, LuaLaTeX, or XeLaTeX
(see TeX engines), options other than letterpaper
set
the print area but you must also set the physical paper size. One way
to do that is to put \pdfpagewidth=\paperwidth
and
\pdfpageheight=\paperheight
in your document’s preamble.
The geometry
package provides flexible ways of setting the print
area and physical page size.
Miscellaneous other options:
draft
final
Mark (draft
) or do not mark (final
) overfull boxes with a
black box in the margin; default is final
.
fleqn
Put displayed formulas flush left; default is centered.
landscape
Selects landscape format; default is portrait.
leqno
Put equation numbers on the left side of equations; default is the right side.
openbib
Use “open” bibliography format.
titlepage
notitlepage
Specifies whether there is a separate page for the title information and
for the abstract also, if there is one. The default for the
report
class is titlepage
, for the other classes it is
notitlepage
.
The following options are not available with the slides
class.
onecolumn
twocolumn
Typeset in one or two columns; default is onecolumn
.
oneside
twoside
Selects one- or two-sided layout; default is oneside
, except
that in the book
class the default is twoside
.
For one-sided printing, the text is centered on the page. For two-sided
printing, the \evensidemargin
(\oddsidemargin
) parameter
determines the distance on even (odd) numbered pages between the left
side of the page and the text’s left margin, with \oddsidemargin
being 40% of the difference between \paperwidth
and
\textwidth
, and \evensidemargin
is the remainder.
openright
openany
Determines if a chapter should start on a right-hand page; default is
openright
for book
, and openany
for report
.
The slides
class offers the option clock
for printing
the time at the bottom of each note.
Next: Class and package construction, Previous: Document class options, Up: Document classes [Contents][Index]
Load a package pkg, with the package options given in the comma-separated list options, as here.
\usepackage[options]{pkg}.
To specify more than one package you can separate them with a comma,
as in \usepackage{pkg1,pkg2,...}
, or use multiple
\usepackage
commands.
Any options given in the \documentclass
command that are unknown
to the selected document class are passed on to the packages loaded with
\usepackage
.
Previous: Additional packages, Up: Document classes [Contents][Index]
You can create new document classes and new packages. For instance, if
your memos must satisfy some local requirements, such as a
standard header for each page, then you could create a new class
smcmemo.cls
and begin your documents with
\documentclass{smcmemo}
.
What separates a package from a document class is that the commands in a
package are useful across classes while those in a document class are
specific to that class. Thus, a command to set page headers is for a
package while a command to make the page headers say Memo from the
SMC Math Department
is for a class.
Inside of a class or package file you can use the at-sign @
as a
character in command names without having to surround the code
containing that command with \makeatletter
and
\makeatother
. See \makeatletter and \makeatother. This allow
you to create commands that users will not accidentally redefine.
Another technique is to preface class- or package-specific commands with
some string to prevent your class or package from interfering with
others. For instance, the class smcmemo
might have commands
\smc@tolist
, \smc@fromlist
, etc.
• Class and package structure: | Layout of the file. | |
• Class and package commands: | List of commands. |
A class file or package file typically has four parts.
\NeedsTeXFormat
and \ProvidesClass
or \ProvidesPackage
commands.
smcmemo
class might be called with an option to read in a file with a list of
people for the to-head, as \documentclass[mathto]{smcmemo}
, and
therefore needs to define a command
\newcommand{\setto}[1]{\def\@tolist{#1}}
used in that
file.
\documentclass[option list]{class
name}
, to modify the behavior of the class. An example is when you
declare \documentclass[11pt]{article}
to set the default
document font size.
Here is a starting class file, which should be saved as stub.cls where LaTeX can find it, for example in the same directory as the .tex file.
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e} \ProvidesClass{stub}[2017/07/06 stub to start building classes from] \DeclareOption*{\PassOptionsToClass{\CurrentOption}{article}} \ProcessOptions\relax \LoadClass{article}
It identifies itself, handles the class options via the default of
passing them all to the article
class, and then loads the
article
class to provide the basis for this class’s code.
For more, see the official guide for class and package writers, the Class Guide, at http://www.latex-project.org/help/documentation/clsguide.pdf (much of the descriptions here derive from this document), or the tutorial https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb26-3/tb84heff.pdf.
Previous: Class and package structure, Up: Class and package construction [Contents][Index]
These are the commands designed to help writers of classes or packages.
\AtBeginDvi{specials}
Save in a box register things that are written to the .dvi file at the beginning of the shipout of the first page of the document.
\AtEndOfClass{code}
\AtEndOfPackage{code}
Hook to insert code to be executed when LaTeX finishes
processing the current class or package. You can use these hooks
multiple times; the code
will be executed in the order that you
called it. See also \AtBeginDocument.
\CheckCommand{cmd}[num][default]{definition}
\CheckCommand*{cmd}[num][default]{definition}
Like \newcommand
(see \newcommand & \renewcommand) but does
not define cmd; instead it checks that the current definition of
cmd is exactly as given by definition and is or is not
long as expected. A long command is a command that accepts
\par
within an argument. The cmd command is expected to be
long with the unstarred version of \CheckCommand
. Raises an
error when the check fails. This allows you to check before you start
redefining cmd
yourself that no other package has already
redefined this command.
\ClassError{class name}{error text}{help text}
\PackageError{package name}{error text}{help text}
\ClassWarning{class name}{warning text}
\PackageWarning{package name}{warning text}
\ClassWarningNoLine{class name}{warning text}
\PackageWarningNoLine{package name}{warning text}
\ClassInfo{class name}{info text}
\PackageInfo{package name}{info text}
\ClassInfoNoLine{class name}{info text}
\PackageInfoNoLine{package name}{info text}
Produce an error message, or warning or informational messages.
For \ClassError
and \PackageError
the message is
error text, followed by TeX’s ?
error prompt. If the
user then asks for help by typing h
, they see the help
text.
The four warning commands are similar except that they write
warning text on the screen with no error prompt. The four info
commands write info text only in the transcript file. The
NoLine
versions do not show the number of the line generating the
message, while the other versions do show that number.
To format the messages, including the help text: use
\protect
to stop a command from expanding, get a line break with
\MessageBreak
, and get a space with \space
when a space
character does not allow it, like after a command. Note that LaTeX
appends a period to the messages.
\CurrentOption
Expands to the name of the currently-being-processed option. Can only
be used within the code argument of either \DeclareOption
or \DeclareOption*
.
\DeclareOption{option}{code}
\DeclareOption*{code}
Make an option available to a user, for invoking in their
\documentclass
command. For example, the smcmemo
class
could have an option allowing users to put the institutional logo on the
first page with \documentclass[logo]{smcmemo}
. The class file
must contain \DeclareOption{logo}{code}
(and later,
\ProcessOptions
).
If you request an option that has not been declared, by default this
will produce a warning like Unused global option(s): [badoption].
Change this behaviour with the starred version
\DeclareOption*{code}
. For example, many classes extend
an existing class, using a declaration such as
\LoadClass{article}
, and for passing extra options to the
underlying class use code such as this.
\DeclareOption*{% \PassOptionsToClass{\CurrentOption}{article}% }
Another example is that the class smcmemo
may allow users to keep
lists of memo recipients in external files. Then the user could invoke
\documentclass[math]{smcmemo}
and it will read the file
math.memo
. This code handles the file if it exists and otherwise
passes the option to the article
class.
\DeclareOption*{\InputIfFileExists{\CurrentOption.memo}{}{% \PassOptionsToClass{\CurrentOption}{article}}}
\DeclareRobustCommand{cmd}[num][default]{definition}
\DeclareRobustCommand*{cmd}[num][default]{definition}
Like \newcommand
and \newcommand*
(see \newcommand & \renewcommand) but these declare a robust command, even if some code
within the definition is fragile. (For a discussion of robust and
fragile commands see \protect.) Use this command to define new
robust commands or to redefine existing commands and make them
robust. Unlike \newcommand
these do not give an error if macro
cmd already exists; instead, a log message is put into the
transcript file if a command is redefined.
Commands defined this way are a bit less efficient than those defined
using \newcommand
so unless the command’s data is fragile and the
command is used within a moving argument, use \newcommand
.
The etoolbox
package offers commands \newrobustcmd
,
\newrobustcmd*
, \renewrobustcmd
, \renewrobustcmd*
,
\providerobustcmd
, and \providerobustcmd*
which are similar
to \newcommand
, \newcommand*
, \renewcommand
,
\renewcommand*
, \providecommand
, and
\providecommand*
, but define a robust cmd with two advantages
as compared to \DeclareRobustCommand
:
\protect
mechanism, so they do not incur
the slight loss of performance mentioned above, and
\new…
,
\renew…
, and \provide…
, as the standard
commands, so they do not just make a log message when you redefine
cmd that already exists, in that case you need to use either
\renew…
or \provide…
or you get an error.
\IfFileExists{file name}{true code}{false code}
\InputIfFileExists{file name}{true code}{false code}
Execute true code if LaTeX can find the file file
name and false code otherwise. In the second case it inputs the
file immediately after executing true code. Thus
\IfFileExists{img.pdf}{\includegraphics{img.pdf}}{\typeout{WARNING:
img.pdf not found}}
will include the graphic img.pdf if it is
found but otherwise just give a warning.
This command looks for the file in all search paths that LaTeX uses,
not only in the current directory. To look only in the current
directory do something like \IfFileExists{./filename}{true
code}{false code}
. If you ask for a filename without a
.tex
extension then LaTeX will first look for the file by
appending the .tex
; for more on how LaTeX handles file
extensions see \input.
\LoadClass[options list]{class name}[release date]
\LoadClassWithOptions{class name}[release date]
Load a class, as with \documentclass[options
list]{class name}[release info]
. An example is
\LoadClass[twoside]{article}
.
The options list, if present, is a comma-separated list. The release date is optional. If present it must have the form YYYY/MM/DD.
If you request a release date and the date of
the package installed on your system is earlier, then you get a warning
on the screen and in the log like You have requested, on input
line 4, version `2038/01/19' of document class article, but only version
`2014/09/29 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class' is available.
The command version \LoadClassWithOptions
uses the list of
options for the current class. This means it ignores any options passed
to it via \PassOptionsToClass
. This is a convenience command
that lets you build classes on existing ones, such as the standard
article
class, without having to track which options were passed.
\ExecuteOptions{options-list}
For each option option in the options-list, in order, this command
executes the command \ds@option
. If this command is not
defined then that option is silently ignored.
It can be used to provide a default option list before
\ProcessOptions
. For example, if in a class file you want the
default to be 11pt fonts then you could specify
\ExecuteOptions{11pt}\ProcessOptions\relax
.
\NeedsTeXFormat{format}[format date]
Specifies the format that this class must be run under. Often issued
as the first line of a class file, and most often used as:
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}
. When a document using that class is
processed, the format name given here must match the format that is
actually being run (including that the format string is case
sensitive). If it does not match then execution stops with an error
like ‘This file needs format `LaTeX2e' but this is `xxx'.’
To specify a version of the format that you know to have certain
features, include the optional format date on which those features
were implemented. If present it must be in the form YYYY/MM/DD
.
If the format version installed on your system is earlier than
format date then you get a warning like ‘You have requested
release `2038/01/20' of LaTeX, but only release `2016/02/01' is
available.’
\OptionNotUsed
Adds the current option to the list of unused options. Can only be used
within the code argument of either \DeclareOption
or
\DeclareOption*
.
\PassOptionsToClass{option list}{class name}
\PassOptionsToPackage{option list}{package name}
Adds the options in the comma-separated list option list to the
options used by any future \RequirePackage
or \usepackage
command for package package name or the class class name.
The reason for these commands is: you may load a package any number of
times with no options but if you want options then you may only supply
them when you first load the package. Loading a package with options
more than once will get you an error like Option clash for package
foo.
(LaTeX throws an error even if there is no conflict between the
options.)
If your own code is bringing in a package twice then you can collapse
that to once, for example replacing the two
\RequirePackage[landscape]{geometry}\RequirePackage[margins=1in]{geometry}
with the single
\RequirePackage[landscape,margins=1in]{geometry}
. But if you
are loading a package that in turn loads another package then you need
to queue up the options you desire for this other package. For
instance, suppose the package foo
loads the package
geometry
. Instead of
\RequirePackage{foo}\RequirePackage[draft]{graphics}
you must
write \PassOptionsToPackage{draft}{graphics}
\RequirePackage{foo}
. (If foo.sty
loads an option in conflict
with what you want then you may have to look into altering its source.)
These commands are useful for general users as well as class and package
writers. For instance, suppose a user wants to load the graphicx
package with the option draft
and also wants to use a class
foo
that loads the graphicx
package, but without that
option. The user could start their LaTeX file with
\PassOptionsToPackage{draft}{graphicx}\documentclass{foo}
.
\ProcessOptions
\ProcessOptions*\@options
Execute the code for each option that the user has invoked. Include it
in the class file as \ProcessOptions\relax
(because of the
existence of the starred command).
Options come in two types. Local options have been specified for this
particular package in the options argument of
\PassOptionsToPackage{options}
,
\usepackage[options]
, or
\RequirePackage[options]
. Global options are those given
by the class user in \documentclass[options]
(If an option
is specified both locally and globally then it is local.)
When \ProcessOptions
is called for a package pkg.sty, the
following happens:
\DeclareOption
, it looks to see if that option is either a
global or a local option for pkg
. If so then it executes the
declared code. This is done in the order in which these options were
given in pkg.sty.
\ds@
option if it has been defined somewhere (other than by
a \DeclareOption
); otherwise, it executes the default option code
given in \DeclareOption*
. If no default option code has been
declared then it gives an error message. This is done in the order in
which these options were specified.
When \ProcessOptions
is called for a class it works in the same
way except that all options are local, and the default code for
\DeclareOption*
is \OptionNotUsed
rather than an error.
The starred version \ProcessOptions*
executes the
options in the order specified in the calling commands, rather than in
the order of declaration in the class or package. For a package this
means that the global options are processed first.
\ProvidesClass{class name}[release date brief additional information]
\ProvidesClass{class name}[release date]
\ProvidesPackage{package name}[release date brief additional information]
\ProvidesPackage{package name}[release date]
Identifies the class or package, printing a message to the screen and the log file.
When a user writes \documentclass{smcmemo}
then LaTeX loads
the file smcmemo.cls. Similarly, a user writing
\usepackage{test}
prompts LaTeX to load the file
test.sty
. If the name of the file does not match the declared
class or package name then you get a warning. Thus, if you invoke
\documentclass{smcmemo}
, and the file smcmemo.cls has
the statement \ProvidesClass{xxx}
then you get a warning like
You have requested document class `smcmemo', but the document
class provides 'xxx'.
This warning does not prevent LaTeX from
processing the rest of the class file normally.
If you include the optional argument, then you must include the date, before
the first space if any, and it must have the form YYYY/MM/DD
. The rest
of the optional argument is free-form, although it traditionally identifies
the class, and is written to the screen during compilation and to the
log file. Thus, if your file smcmemo.cls contains the line
\ProvidesClass{smcmemo}[2008/06/01 v1.0 SMC memo class]
and your
document’s first line is \documentclass{smcmemo}
then you will
see Document Class: smcmemo 2008/06/01 v1.0 SMC memo class
.
The date in the optional argument allows class and package users to ask
to be warned if the version of the class or package installed on their
system is earlier than release date, by using the optional arguments
such as \documentclass{smcmemo}[2018/10/12]
or
\usepackage{foo}[[2017/07/07]]
. (Note that package users only
rarely include a date, and class users almost never do.)
\ProvidesFile{file name}[additional information]
Declare a file other than the main class and package files, such as
configuration files or font definition files. Put this command in that
file and you get in the log a string like File: test.config
2017/10/12 config file for test.cls
for file name equal to
‘test.config’ and additional information equal to
‘2017/10/12 config file for test.cls’.
\RequirePackage[option list]{package name}[release date]
\RequirePackageWithOptions{package name}[release date]
Load a package, like the document author command \usepackage
.
See Additional packages. An example is
\RequirePackage[landscape,margin=1in]{geometry}
. Note that the
LaTeX development team strongly recommends use of these commands over
Plain TeX’s \input
; see the Class Guide.
The option list, if present, is a comma-separated list. The
release date, if present, must have the form YYYY/MM/DD. If
the release date of the package as installed on your system is earlier
than release date then you get a warning like You have
requested, on input line 9, version `2017/07/03' of package jhtest, but
only version `2000/01/01' is available
.
The \RequirePackageWithOptions
version uses the list of options
for the current class. This means it ignores any options passed to it
via \PassOptionsToClass
. This is a convenience command to allow
easily building classes on existing ones without having to track which
options were passed.
The difference between \usepackage
and \RequirePackage
is
small. The \usepackage
command is intended for the document file
while \RequirePackage
is intended for package and class files.
Thus, using \usepackage
before the \documentclass
command
causes LaTeX to give error like \usepackage before
\documentclass
, but you can use \RequirePackage
there.
Next: Layout, Previous: Document classes, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
Two important aspects of selecting a font are specifying a size and a style. The LaTeX commands for doing this are described here.
• Font styles: | Select roman, italics, etc. | |
• Font sizes: | Select point size. | |
• Low-level font commands: | Select encoding, family, series, shape. |
Next: Font sizes, Up: Fonts [Contents][Index]
The following type style commands are supported by LaTeX.
This first group of commands is typically used with an argument, as in
\textit{text}
. In the table below, the corresponding
command in parenthesis is the “declaration form”, which takes no
arguments, as in {\itshape text}
. The scope of the
declaration form lasts until the next type style command or the end of
the current group.
These commands, in both the argument form and the declaration form,
are cumulative; e.g., you can say either \sffamily\bfseries
or
\bfseries\sffamily
to get bold sans serif.
You can alternatively use an environment form of the declarations; for
instance, \begin{ttfamily}...\end{ttfamily}
.
These font-switching commands automatically insert italic corrections
if needed. (See \/, for the details of italic corrections.)
Specifically, they insert the italic correction unless the following
character is in the list \nocorrlist
, which by default consists
of a period and a comma. To suppress the automatic insertion of
italic correction, use \nocorr
at the start or end of the
command argument, such as \textit{\nocorr text}
or
\textsc{text \nocorr}
.
\textrm (\rmfamily)
Roman.
\textit (\itshape)
Italics.
\textmd (\mdseries)
Medium weight (default).
\textbf (\bfseries)
Boldface.
\textup (\upshape)
Upright (default).
\textsl (\slshape)
Slanted.
\textsf (\sffamily)
Sans serif.
\textsc (\scshape)
Small caps.
\texttt (\ttfamily)
Typewriter.
\textnormal (\normalfont)
Main document font.
Although it also changes fonts, the \emph{text}
command
is semantic, for text to be emphasized, and should not be used as a
substitute for \textit
. For example, \emph{start
text \emph{middle text} end text}
will result in the
start text and end text in italics, but middle text
will be in roman.
LaTeX also provides the following commands, which unconditionally
switch to the given style, that is, are not cumulative. Also,
they are used differently than the above commands:
{\cmd...}
instead of \cmd{...}
. These
are two unrelated constructs.
\bf
Switch to bold face.
\cal
Switch to calligraphic letters for math.
\it
Italics.
\rm
Roman.
\sc
Small caps.
\sf
Sans serif.
\sl
Slanted (oblique).
\tt
Typewriter (monospace, fixed-width).
The \em
command is the unconditional version of \emph
.
(Some people consider the unconditional font-switching commands, such
as \tt
, obsolete and that only the cumulative commands
(\texttt
) should be used. Others think that both sets of
commands have their place and sometimes an unconditional font switch
is precisely what you want; for one example,
see description
.)
The following commands are for use in math mode. They are not
cumulative, so \mathbf{\mathit{symbol}}
does not
create a boldface and italic symbol; instead, it will just be in
italics. This is because typically math symbols need consistent
typographic treatment, regardless of the surrounding environment.
\mathrm
Roman, for use in math mode.
\mathbf
Boldface, for use in math mode.
\mathsf
Sans serif, for use in math mode.
\mathtt
Typewriter, for use in math mode.
\mathit
(\mit)
Italics, for use in math mode.
\mathnormal
For use in math mode, e.g., inside another type style declaration.
\mathcal
Calligraphic letters, for use in math mode.
In addition, the command \mathversion{bold}
can be used for
switching to bold letters and symbols in
formulas. \mathversion{normal}
restores the default.
Finally, the command \oldstylenums{numerals}
will typeset
so-called “old-style” numerals, which have differing heights and
depths (and sometimes widths) from the standard “lining” numerals,
which all have the same height as uppercase letters. LaTeX’s
default fonts support this, and will respect \textbf
(but not
other styles; there are no italic old-style numerals in Computer
Modern). Many other fonts have old-style numerals also; sometimes the
textcomp
package must be loaded, and sometimes package options
are provided to make them the default. FAQ entry:
http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=osf.
Next: Low-level font commands, Previous: Font styles, Up: Fonts [Contents][Index]
The following standard type size commands are supported by LaTeX. The table shows the command name and the corresponding actual font size used (in points) with the ‘10pt’, ‘11pt’, and ‘12pt’ document size options, respectively (see Document class options).
Command | 10pt | 11pt | 12pt |
---|---|---|---|
\tiny | 5 | 6 | 6 |
\scriptsize | 7 | 8 | 8 |
\footnotesize | 8 | 9 | 10 |
\small | 9 | 10 | 10.95 |
\normalsize (default) | 10 | 10.95 | 12 |
\large | 12 | 12 | 14.4 |
\Large | 14.4 | 14.4 | 17.28 |
\LARGE | 17.28 | 17.28 | 20.74 |
\huge | 20.74 | 20.74 | 24.88 |
\Huge | 24.88 | 24.88 | 24.88 |
The commands as listed here are “declaration forms”. The scope of
the declaration form lasts until the next type style command or the
end of the current group. You can also use the environment form of
these commands; for instance, \begin{tiny}...\end{tiny}
.
Previous: Font sizes, Up: Fonts [Contents][Index]
These commands are primarily intended for writers of macros and packages. The commands listed here are only a subset of the available ones.
\fontencoding{encoding}
Select the font encoding, the encoding of the output font. There are a
large number of valid encodings. The most common are OT1
,
Knuth’s original encoding for Computer Modern (the default), and
T1
, also known as the Cork encoding, which has support for the
accented characters used by the most widespread European languages
(German, French, Italian, Polish and others), which allows TeX to
hyphenate words containing accented letters. For more, see
https://ctan.org/pkg/encguide.
\fontfamily{family}
Select the font family. The web page http://www.tug.dk/FontCatalogue/ provides one way to browse through many of the fonts easily used with LaTeX. Here are examples of some common families:
pag | Avant Garde |
fvs | Bitstream Vera Sans |
pbk | Bookman |
bch | Charter |
ccr | Computer Concrete |
cmr | Computer Modern |
cmss | Computer Modern Sans Serif |
cmtt | Computer Modern Typewriter |
pcr | Courier |
phv | Helvetica |
fi4 | Inconsolata |
lmr | Latin Modern |
lmss | Latin Modern Sans |
lmtt | Latin Modern Typewriter |
pnc | New Century Schoolbook |
ppl | Palatino |
ptm | Times |
uncl | Uncial |
put | Utopia |
pzc | Zapf Chancery |
\fontseries{series}
Select the font series. A series combines a weight and a width. Typically, a font supports only a few of the possible combinations. Some common combined series values include:
m | Medium (normal) |
b | Bold |
c | Condensed |
bc | Bold condensed |
bx | Bold extended |
The possible values for weight, individually, are:
ul | Ultra light |
el | Extra light |
l | Light |
sl | Semi light |
m | Medium (normal) |
sb | Semi bold |
b | Bold |
eb | Extra bold |
ub | Ultra bold |
The possible values for width, individually, are (the meaning and relationship of these terms varies with individual typefaces):
uc | Ultra condensed |
ec | Extra condensed |
c | Condensed |
sc | Semi condensed |
m | Medium |
sx | Semi expanded |
x | Expanded |
ex | Extra expanded |
ux | Ultra expanded |
When forming the series string from the weight and width, drop the
m
that stands for medium weight or medium width, unless both
weight and width are m
, in which case use just one
(‘m
’).
\fontshape{shape}
Select font shape. Valid shapes are:
n | Upright (normal) |
it | Italic |
sl | Slanted (oblique) |
sc | Small caps |
ui | Upright italics |
ol | Outline |
The two last shapes are not available for most font families, and small caps are often missing as well.
\fontsize{size}{skip}
Set the font size and the line spacing. The unit of both parameters
defaults to points (pt
). The line spacing is the nominal
vertical space between lines, baseline to baseline. It is stored in the
parameter \baselineskip
. The default \baselineskip
for
the Computer Modern typeface is 1.2 times the \fontsize
.
Changing \baselineskip
directly is inadvisable since its value is
reset every time a size change happens; see \baselinestretch
, next.
\baselinestretch
LaTeX multiplies the line spacing by the value of the
\baselinestretch
parameter; the default factor is 1. A change
takes effect when \selectfont
(see below) is called. You can
make a line skip change happen for the entire document, for instance
doubling it, by doing \renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{2.0}
in
the preamble.
However, the best way to double-space a document is to use the setspace package. In addition to offering a number of spacing options, this package keeps the line spacing single-spaced in places where that is typically desirable, such as footnotes and figure captions. See the package documentation.
\linespread{factor}
Equivalent to
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{factor}
, and
therefore must be followed by \selectfont
to have any effect.
Best specified in the preamble, or use the setspace
package, as
just described.
\selectfont
The effects of the font commands described above do not happen until
\selectfont
is called, as in
\fontfamily{familyname}\selectfont
. It is often useful
to put this in a macro:
\newcommand*{\myfont}{\fontfamily{familyname}\selectfont}
(see \newcommand & \renewcommand).
\usefont{enc}{family}{series}{shape}
The same as invoking \fontencoding
, \fontfamily
,
\fontseries
and \fontshape
with the given parameters,
followed by \selectfont
. For example:
\usefont{ot1}{cmr}{m}{n}
Next: Sectioning, Previous: Fonts, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
Commands for controlling the general page layout.
• \onecolumn: | Use one-column layout. | |
• \twocolumn: | Use two-column layout. | |
• \flushbottom: | Make all text pages the same height. | |
• \raggedbottom: | Allow text pages of differing height. | |
• Page layout parameters: | \headheight \footskip .
| |
• Floats: | Figures, tables, etc. |
Next: \twocolumn, Up: Layout [Contents][Index]
\onecolumn
Start a new page and produce single-column output. If the document is
given the class option onecolumn
then this is the default
behavior (see Document class options).
This command is fragile (see \protect).
Next: \flushbottom, Previous: \onecolumn, Up: Layout [Contents][Index]
\twocolumn
Synopses:
\twocolumn \twocolumn[prelim one column text]
Start a new page and produce two-column output. If the document is given
the class option twocolumn
then this is the default
(see Document class options).
If the optional prelim one column text argument is present, it is typeset in one-column mode before the two-column typesetting starts.
This command is fragile (see \protect).
These parameters control typesetting in two-column output:
\columnsep
The distance between columns. The default is 35pt. Change it with a
command such as \setlength{\columnsep}{40pt}
You must change
it before the two column environment starts; in the preamble is a good
place.
\columnseprule
The width of the rule between columns. The rule appears halfway between
the two columns. The default is 0pt, meaning that there is no rule.
Change it with a command such as
\setlength{\columnseprule}{0.4pt}
, before the two-column
environment starts.
\columnwidth
The width of a single column. In one-column mode this is equal to
\textwidth
. In two-column mode by default LaTeX sets the
width of each of the two columns to be half of \textwidth
minus
\columnsep
.
In a two-column document, the starred environments table*
and
figure*
are two columns wide, whereas the unstarred environments
table
and figure
take up only one column (see figure
and see table). LaTeX places starred floats at the top of a page.
The following parameters control float behavior of two-column output.
\dbltopfraction
The maximum fraction at the top of a two-column page that may be
occupied by two-column wide floats. The default is 0.7, meaning that
the height of a table*
or figure*
environment must not
exceed 0.7\textheight
. If the height of your starred float
environment exceeds this then you can take one of the following actions
to prevent it from floating all the way to the back of the document:
[tp]
location specifier to tell LaTeX to try to put
the bulky float on a page by itself, as well as at the top of a page.
[t!]
location specifier to override the effect of
\dbltopfraction
for this particular float.
\dbltopfraction
to a suitably large number,
to avoid going to float pages so soon.
You can redefine it, for instance with
\renewcommand{\dbltopfraction}{0.9}
.
\dblfloatpagefraction
For a float page of two-column wide floats, this is the minimum fraction
that must be occupied by floats, limiting the amount of blank space.
LaTeX’s default is 0.5
. Change it with \renewcommand
.
\dblfloatsep
On a float page of two-column wide floats, this length is the distance
between floats, at both the top and bottom of the page. The default is
12pt plus2pt minus2pt
for a document set at 10pt
or
11pt
, and 14pt plus2pt minus4pt
for a document set at
12pt
.
\dbltextfloatsep
This length is the distance between a multi-column float at the top or
bottom of a page and the main text. The default is 20pt plus2pt
minus4pt
.
\dbltopnumber
On a float page of two-column wide floats, this counter gives the
maximum number of floats allowed at the top of the page. The LaTeX
default is 2
.
This example uses \twocolumn
’s optional argument of to create a
title that spans the two-column article:
\documentclass[twocolumn]{article} \newcommand{\authormark}[1]{\textsuperscript{#1}} \begin{document} \twocolumn[{% inside this optional argument goes one-column text \centering \LARGE The Title \\[1.5em] \large Author One\authormark{1}, Author Two\authormark{2}, Author Three\authormark{1} \\[1em] \normalsize \begin{tabular}{p{.2\textwidth}@{\hspace{2em}}p{.2\textwidth}} \authormark{1}Department one &\authormark{2}Department two \\ School one &School two \end{tabular}\\[3em] % space below title part }] Two column text here.
Next: \raggedbottom, Previous: \twocolumn, Up: Layout [Contents][Index]
\flushbottom
Make all pages in the documents after this declaration have the same height, by stretching the vertical space where necessary to fill out the page. This is most often used when making two-sided documents since the differences in facing pages can be glaring.
If TeX cannot satisfactorily stretch the vertical space in a page
then you get a message like ‘Underfull \vbox (badness 10000) has
occurred while \output is active’. If you get that, one option is to
change to \raggedbottom
(see \raggedbottom). Alternatively,
you can adjust the textheight
to make compatible pages, or you
can add some vertical stretch glue between lines or between paragraphs,
as in \setlength{\parskip}{0ex plus0.1ex}
. Your last option
is to, in a final editing stage, adjust the height of individual pages
(see \enlargethispage).
The \flushbottom
state is the default only if you select the
twoside
document class option (see Document class options).
Next: Page layout parameters, Previous: \flushbottom, Up: Layout [Contents][Index]
\raggedbottom
Make all later pages the natural height of the material on that page; no rubber vertical lengths will be stretched. Thus, in a two-sided document the facing pages may be different heights. This command can go at any point in the document body. See \flushbottom.
This is the default unless you select the twoside
document class
option (see Document class options).
Next: Floats, Previous: \raggedbottom, Up: Layout [Contents][Index]
\columnsep
\columnseprule
\columnwidth
The distance between the two columns, the width of a rule between the
columns, and the width of the columns, when the document class option
twocolumn
is in effect (see Document class options).
See \twocolumn.
\headheight
Height of the box that contains the running head. The default in the
article
, report
, and book
classes is ‘12pt’,
at all type sizes.
\headsep
Vertical distance between the bottom of the header line and the top of
the main text. The default in the article
and report
classes is ‘25pt’. In the book
class the default is: if the
document is set at 10pt then it is ‘0.25in’, and at 11pt and 12pt
it is ‘0.275in’.
\footskip
Distance from the baseline of the last line of text to the baseline of
the page footer. The default in the article
and report
classes is ‘30pt’. In the book
class the default is: when
the type size is 10pt the default is ‘0.35in’, while at 11pt it is
‘0.38in’, and at 12pt it is ‘30pt’.
\linewidth
Width of the current line, decreased for each nested list
(see list). That is, the nominal value for \linewidth
is to
equal \textwidth
but for each nested list the \linewidth
is decreased by the sum of that list’s \leftmargin
and
\rightmargin
(see itemize).
\marginparpush
\marginsep
\marginparwidth
The minimum vertical space between two marginal notes, the horizontal space between the text body and the marginal notes, and the horizontal width of the notes.
Normally marginal notes appear on the outside of the page, but the
declaration \reversemarginpar
changes that (and
\normalmarginpar
changes it back).
The defaults for \marginparpush
in both book
and
article
classes are: ‘7pt’ if the document is set at 12pt,
and ‘5pt’ if the document is set at 11pt or 10pt.
For \marginsep
, in article
class the default is
‘10pt’ except if the document is set at 10pt and in two-column mode
where the default is ‘11pt’.
For \marginsep
in book
class the default is ‘10pt’ in
two-column mode and ‘7pt’ in one-column mode.
For \marginparwidth
in both book
and article
classes, in two-column mode the default is 60% of \paperwidth
- \textwidth
, while in one-column mode it is 50% of that
distance.
\oddsidemargin
\evensidemargin
The \oddsidemargin
is the extra distance between the left side of
the page and the text’s left margin, on odd-numbered pages when the
document class option twoside
is chosen and on all pages when
oneside
is in effect. When twoside
is in effect, on
even-numbered pages the extra distance on the left is
evensidemargin
.
LaTeX’s default is that \oddsidemargin
is 40% of the
difference between \paperwidth
and \textwidth
, and
\evensidemargin
is the remainder.
\paperheight
The height of the paper, as distinct from the height of the print area.
It is normally set with a document class option, as in
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
(see Document class options).
\paperwidth
The width of the paper, as distinct from the width of the print area.
It is normally set with a document class option, as in
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
(see Document class options).
\textheight
The normal vertical height of the page body. If the document is set at
a nominal type size of 10pt then for an article
or report
the default is ‘43\baselineskip’, while for a book
it is
‘41\baselineskip’. At a type size of 11pt the default is
‘38\baselineskip’ for all document classes. At 12pt it is
‘36\baselineskip’ for all classes.
\textwidth
The full horizontal width of the entire page body. For an
article
or report
document, the default is ‘345pt’
when the chosen type size is 10pt, the default is ‘360pt’ at 11pt,
and it is ‘390pt’ at 12pt. For a book
document, the default
is ‘4.5in’ at a type size of 10pt, and ‘5in’ at 11pt or 12pt.
In multi-column output, \textwidth
remains the width of the
entire page body, while \columnwidth
is the width of one column
(see \twocolumn).
In lists (see list), \textwidth
remains the width of the
entire page body (and \columnwidth
the width of the entire
column), while \linewidth
may decrease for nested lists.
Inside a minipage (see minipage) or \parbox
(see \parbox), all the width-related parameters are set to the
specified width, and revert to their normal values at the end of the
minipage
or \parbox
.
This entry is included for completeness: \hsize
is the TeX
primitive parameter used when text is broken into lines. It should not
be used in normal LaTeX documents.
\topmargin
Space between the top of the TeX page (one inch from the top of the
paper, by default) and the top of the header. The value is computed
based on many other parameters: \paperheight - 2in -
\headheight - \headsep - \textheight - \footskip
,
and then divided by two.
\topskip
Minimum distance between the top of the page body and the baseline of the first line of text. For the standard classes, the default is the same as the font size, e.g., ‘10pt’ at a type size of 10pt.
Previous: Page layout parameters, Up: Layout [Contents][Index]
Some typographic elements, such as figures and tables, cannot be broken across pages. They must be typeset outside of the normal flow of text, for instance floating to the top of a later page.
LaTeX can have a number of different classes of floating material.
The default is the two classes, figure
(see figure) and
table
(see table), but you can create a new class with the
package float.
Within any one float class LaTeX always respects the order, so that the first figure in a document source must be typeset before the second figure. However, LaTeX may mix the classes, so it can happen that while the first table appears in the source before the first figure, it appears in the output after it.
The placement of floats is subject to parameters, given below, that limit the number of floats that can appear at the top of a page, and the bottom, etc. If so many floats are queued that the limits prevent them all from fitting on a page then LaTeX places what it can and defers the rest to the next page. In this way, floats may end up being typeset far from their place in the source. In particular, a float that is big may migrate to the end of the document. In which event, because all floats in a class must appear in sequential order, every following float in that class also appears at the end.
In addition to changing the parameters, for each float you can tweak
where the float placement algorithm tries to place it by using its
placement argument. The possible values are a sequence of the
letters below. The default for both figure
and table
, in
both article
and book
classes, is tbp
.
t
(Top)—at the top of a text page.
b
(Bottom)—at the bottom of a text page. (However, b
is not
allowed for full-width floats (figure*
) with double-column
output. To ameliorate this, use the stfloats or
dblfloatfix package, but see the discussion at caveats in the
FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=2colfloat.
h
(Here)—at the position in the text where the figure
environment
appears. However, h
is not allowed by itself; t
is
automatically added.
To absolutely force a float to appear “here”, you can
\usepackage{float}
and use the H
specifier which it
defines. For further discussion, see the FAQ entry at
http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=figurehere.
p
(Page of floats)—on a separate float page, which is a page containing no text, only floats.
!
Used in addition to one of the above; for this float only, LaTeX
ignores the restrictions on both the number of floats that can appear
and the relative amounts of float and non-float text on the page.
The !
specifier does not mean “put the float here”;
see above.
Note: the order in which letters appear in the placement argument
does not change the order in which LaTeX tries to place the float;
for instance, btp
has the same effect as tbp
. All that
placement does is that if a letter is not present then the
algorithm does not try that location. Thus, LaTeX’s default of
tbp
is to try every location except placing the float where it
occurs in the source.
To prevent LaTeX from moving floats to the end of the document or a
chapter you can use a \clearpage
command to start a new page and
insert all pending floats. If a pagebreak is undesirable then you can
use the afterpage package and issue
\afterpage{\clearpage}
. This will wait until the current page
is finished and then flush all outstanding floats.
LaTeX can typeset a float before where it appears in the source
(although on the same output page) if there is a t
specifier in
the placement parameter. If this is not desired, and deleting
the t
is not acceptable as it keeps the float from being placed
at the top of the next page, then you can prevent it by either using
the flafter package or using the command
\suppressfloats[t]
, which causes floats for the top position on
this page to moved to the next page.
Parameters relating to fractions of pages occupied by float and
non-float text (change them with
\renewcommand{parameter}{decimal between 0 and 1}
):
\bottomfraction
The maximum fraction of the page allowed to be occupied by floats at the bottom; default ‘.3’.
\floatpagefraction
The minimum fraction of a float page that must be occupied by floats; default ‘.5’.
\textfraction
Minimum fraction of a page that must be text; if floats take up too much space to preserve this much text, floats will be moved to a different page. The default is ‘.2’.
\topfraction
Maximum fraction at the top of a page that may be occupied before floats; default ‘.7’.
Parameters relating to vertical space around floats (change them with
\setlength{parameter}{length expression}
):
\floatsep
Space between floats at the top or bottom of a page; default ‘12pt plus2pt minus2pt’.
\intextsep
Space above and below a float in the middle of the main text; default ‘12pt plus2pt minus2pt’ for 10 point and 11 point documents, and ‘14pt plus4pt minus4pt’ for 12 point documents.
\textfloatsep
Space between the last (first) float at the top (bottom) of a page; default ‘20pt plus2pt minus4pt’.
Counters relating to the number of floats on a page (change them with
\setcounter{ctrname}{natural number}
):
bottomnumber
Maximum number of floats that can appear at the bottom of a text page; default 1.
dbltopnumber
Maximum number of full-sized floats that can appear at the top of a two-column page; default 2.
topnumber
Maximum number of floats that can appear at the top of a text page; default 2.
totalnumber
Maximum number of floats that can appear on a text page; default 3.
The principal TeX FAQ entry relating to floats http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=floats contains suggestions for relaxing LaTeX’s default parameters to reduce the problem of floats being pushed to the end. A full explanation of the float placement algorithm is in Frank Mittelbach’s article “How to influence the position of float environments like figure and table in LaTeX?” (http://latex-project.org/papers/tb111mitt-float.pdf).
Next: Cross references, Previous: Layout, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
Sectioning commands provide the means to structure your text into units:
\part
\chapter
(report
and book
class only)
\section
\subsection
\subsubsection
\paragraph
\subparagraph
All sectioning commands take the same general form, e.g.,
\chapter[toctitle]{title}
In addition to providing the heading title in the main text, the section title can appear in two other places:
You may not want the same text in these places as in the main text. To handle this, the sectioning commands have an optional argument toctitle that, when given, specifies the text for these other places.
Also, all sectioning commands have *
-forms that print
title as usual, but do not include a number and do not make an
entry in the table of contents. For instance:
\section*{Preamble}
The \appendix
command changes the way following sectional units
are numbered. The \appendix
command itself generates no text
and does not affect the numbering of parts. The normal use of this
command is something like
\chapter{A Chapter} … \appendix \chapter{The First Appendix}
The secnumdepth
counter controls printing of section numbers.
The setting
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{level}
suppresses heading numbers at any depth > level, where
chapter
is level zero. The default secnumdepth
is 3 in
LaTeX’s article class and 2 in the book and
report classes. (See \setcounter.)
• \@startsection: | Redefine layout of start of sections, subsections, etc. |
Up: Sectioning [Contents][Index]
\@startsection
Synopsis:
\@startsection{name}{level}{indent}{beforeskip}{afterskip}{style}
Used to help redefine the behavior of commands that start sectioning
divisions such as \section
or \subsection
.
Note that the titlesec package makes manipulation of sectioning
easier. Further, while most requirements for sectioning commands can be
satisfied with \@startsection
, some cannot. For instance, in
the standard LaTeX book
and report
classes the commands
\chapter
and \report
are not constructed in this way. To
make such a command you may want to use the \secdef
command.
Technically, \@startsection
has the form
\@startsection{name}{level}{indent}{beforeskip}{afterskip}{style}*[toctitle]{title}
(the star *
is optional), so that issuing
\renewcommand{\section}{\@startsection{name}{level}{indent}{beforeskip}{afterskip}{style}}
redefines \section
to have the form
\section*[toctitle]{title}
(here too, the
star *
is optional). See Sectioning. This implies that
when you write a command like \renewcommand{section}{...}
,
the \@startsection{...}
must come last in the definition. See
the examples below.
Name of the counter used to number the
sectioning header. This counter must be defined separately. Most
commonly this is either section
, subsection
, or
paragraph
. Although in those three cases the counter name is the
same as the sectioning command itself, using the same name is not
required.
Then \the
name displays the title number and
\
namemark
is for the page headers. See the third
example below.
An integer giving the depth of the
sectioning command: 0 for chapter
(only applies to the standard
book
and report
classes), 1 for section
, 2 for
subsection
, 3 for subsubsection
, 4 for paragraph
,
and 5 for subparagraph
. In the book
and report
classes part
has level -1, while in the article
class
part
has level 0.
If level is less than or equal to the value of secnumdepth
then the titles for this sectioning command will be numbered. For
instance, in an article
, if secnumdepth
is 1 then a
\section{Introduction}
command will produce output like “1
Introduction” while \subsection{Discussion}
will produce
output like “Discussion”, without the number prefix.
See Sectioning/secnumdepth.
If level is less than or equal to the value of tocdepth then
the table of contents will have an entry for this sectioning unit.
For instance, in an article
, if tocdepth is 1 then the table of
contents will list sections but not subsections.
A length giving the indentation of all
of the title lines with respect to the left margin. To have the title
flush with the margin use 0pt
. A negative indentation such as
-\parindent
will move the title into the left margin.
The absolute value of this length is
the amount of vertical space that is inserted before this sectioning
unit’s title. This space will be discarded if the sectioning unit
happens to start at the top of a fresh page. If this number is negative
then the first paragraph following the header is not indented, if it is
non-negative then the first paragraph is indented. (Note that the
negative of 1pt plus 2pt minus 3pt
is -1pt plus -2pt minus
-3pt
.)
For example, if beforeskip is -3.5ex plus -1ex minus -0.2ex
then to start the new sectioning unit, LaTeX will add about 3.5 times
the height of a letter x in vertical space, and the first paragraph in
the section will not be indented. Using a rubber length, with
plus
and minus
, is good practice here since it gives
LaTeX more flexibility in making up the page (see Lengths).
The full accounting of the vertical space between the baseline of the
line prior to this sectioning unit’s header and the baseline of the
header is that it is the sum of the \parskip
of the text font,
the \baselineskip
of the title font, and the absolute value of
the beforeskip. This space is typically rubber so it may stretch
or shrink. (If the sectioning unit starts on a fresh page so that the
vertical space is discarded then the baseline of the header text will be
where LaTeX would put the baseline of the first text line on that
page.)
This is a length. If afterskip
is non-negative then this is the vertical space inserted after the
sectioning unit’s title header. If it is negative then the title header
becomes a run-in header, so that it becomes part of the next paragraph.
In this case the absolute value of the length gives the horizontal space
between the end of the title and the beginning of the following
paragraph. (Note that the negative of 1pt plus 2pt minus 3pt
is
-1pt plus -2pt minus -3pt
.)
As with beforeskip, using a rubber length, with plus
and
minus
components, is good practice here since it gives LaTeX
more flexibility in putting together the page.
If afterskip
is non-negative then the full accounting of the
vertical space between the baseline of the sectioning unit’s header and
the baseline of the first line of the following paragraph is that it is
the sum of the \parskip
of the title font, the
\baselineskip
of the text font, and the value of after.
That space is typically rubber so it may stretch or shrink. (Note that
because the sign of afterskip
changes the sectioning unit
header’s from standalone to run-in, you cannot use a negative
afterskip
to cancel part of the \parskip
.)
Controls the styling of the title. See
the examples below. Typical commands to use here are \centering
,
\raggedright
, \normalfont
, \hrule
, or
\newpage
. The last command in style may be one such as
\MakeUppercase
or \fbox
that takes one argument. The
section title will be supplied as the argument to this command. For
instance, setting style to \bfseries\MakeUppercase
would
produce titles that are bold and upper case.
These are LaTeX’s defaults for the first three sectioning units that
are defined with \@startsection
, for the article,
book, and report classes.
section | subsection | subsubsection | |
---|---|---|---|
name | section | subsection | subsubsection |
level | 1 | 2 | 3 |
indent | 0pt | 0pt | 0pt |
beforeskip | -3.5ex plus -1ex minus -0.2ex | -3.25ex plus -1ex minus -0.2ex | -3.25ex plus -1ex minus -0.2ex |
afterskip | 2.3ex plus 0.2ex | 1.5ex plus 0.2ex | 1.5ex plus 0.2ex |
style | \normalfont\Large\bfseries | \normalfont\large\bfseries | \normalfont\normalsize\bfseries |
Here are examples. They go either in a package or class file or in the
preamble of a LaTeX document. If you put them in the preamble they
must go between a \makeatletter
command and a
\makeatother
. (Probably the error message You can't use
`\spacefactor' in vertical mode.
means that you forgot this.)
See \makeatletter and \makeatother.
This will put section titles in large boldface type, centered. It says
\renewcommand
because LaTeX’s standard classes have already
defined a \section
. For the same reason it does not define a
section
counter, or the commands \thesection
and
\l@section
.
\renewcommand\section{% \@startsection{section}% name {1}% level {0pt}% indent {-3.5ex plus -1ex minus -.2ex}% beforeskip {2.3ex plus.2ex}% afterskip {\centering\normalfont\Large\bfseries}% style }
This will put subsection
titles in small caps type, inline with the paragraph.
\renewcommand\subsection{% \@startsection{subsection}% name {2}% level {0em}% indent {-1ex plus 0.1ex minus -0.05ex}% beforeskip {-1em plus 0.2em}% afterskip {\scshape}% style }
The prior examples redefined existing sectional unit title commands. This defines a new one, illustrating the needed counter and macros to display that counter.
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{6}% show counters this far down \newcounter{subsubparagraph}[subparagraph]% counter for numbering \renewcommand{\thesubsubparagraph}% how to display {\thesubparagraph.\@arabic\c@subsubparagraph}% numbering \newcommand{\subsubparagraph}{\@startsection {subsubparagraph}% {6}% {0em}% {\baselineskip}% {0.5\baselineskip}% {\normalfont\normalsize}} \newcommand*\l@subsubparagraph{\@dottedtocline{6}{10em}{5em}}% for toc \newcommand{\subsubparagraphmark}[1]{}% for page headers
Next: Environments, Previous: Sectioning, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
One reason for numbering things such as figures and equations is to refer the reader to them, as in “See Figure~3 for more details.”
Including the figure number in the source is poor practice since if that
number changes as the document evolves then you must remember to update
this reference by hand. Instead, LaTeX has you write a label
like \label{eq:GreensThm}
and refer to it with See
equation~\ref{eq:GreensThm}
.
LaTeX writes the information from the labels to a file with the same
name as the file containing the \label{...}
but with an
.aux extension. (The information has the format
\newlabel{label}{{currentlabel}{pagenumber}}
where currentlabel is the current value of the macro
\@currentlabel
that is usually updated whenever you call
\refstepcounter{counter}
.)
The most common side effect of the prior paragraph happens when your
document has a forward reference, a \ref{key}
that
appears earlier than the associated \label{key}
; see the
example in the \pageref{...}
description. LaTeX gets the
information for references from the .aux file. If this is the
first time you are compiling the document then you will get a message
LaTeX Warning: Label(s) may have changed. Rerun to get
cross references right.
and in the output the reference will appear as
two question marks ‘??’, in boldface. Or, if you change some
things so the references change then you get the same warning and the
output contains the old reference information. The solution in either
case is just to compile the document a second time.
• \label: | Assign a symbolic name to a piece of text. | |
• \pageref: | Refer to a page number. | |
• \ref: | Refer to a section, figure or similar. |
Next: \pageref, Up: Cross references [Contents][Index]
\label
Synopsis:
\label{key}
Assign a reference number to key. In ordinary text
\label{key}
assigns to key the number of the
current sectional unit. Inside an environment with numbering, such as a
table
or theorem
environment, \label{key}
assigns to key the number of that environment. Retrieve the
assigned number with the \ref{key}
command
(see \ref).
A key name can consist of any sequence of letters, digits, or common punctuation characters. Upper and lowercase letters are distinguished, as usual.
A common convention is to use labels consisting of a prefix and a suffix separated by a colon or period. This helps to avoid accidentally creating two labels with the same name, and makes your source more readable. Some commonly-used prefixes:
ch
for chapters
sec
for lower-level sectioning commands
fig
for figures
tab
for tables
eq
for equations
Thus, \label{fig:Euler}
is a label for a figure with a portrait
of the great man.
In this example below the key sec:test
will get the number of the
current section and the key fig:test
will get the number of the
figure. (Incidentally, put labels after captions in figures and
tables.)
\section{section name} \label{sec:test} This is Section~\ref{sec:test}. \begin{figure} ... \caption{caption text} \label{fig:test} \end{figure} See Figure~\ref{fig:test}.
Next: \ref, Previous: \label, Up: Cross references [Contents][Index]
\pageref{key}
Synopsis:
\pageref{key}
Produce the page number of the place in the text where the corresponding
\label
{key} command appears.
In this example the \label{eq:main}
is used both for the
formula number and for the page number. (Note that the two references
are forward references, so this document would need to be compiled twice
to resolve those.)
The main result is formula~\ref{eq:main} on page~\pageref{eq:main}. ... \begin{equation} \label{eq:main} \mathbf{P}=\mathbf{NP} \end{equation}
Previous: \pageref, Up: Cross references [Contents][Index]
\ref{key}
Synopsis:
\ref{key}
Produces the number of the sectional unit,
equation, footnote, figure, …, of the corresponding
\label
command (see \label). It does not produce any text,
such as the word ‘Section’ or ‘Figure’, just the bare number itself.
In this example, the \ref{popular}
produces ‘2’. Note
that it is a forward reference since it comes before
\label{popular}
.
The most widely-used format is item number~\ref{popular}. \begin{enumerate} \item Plain \TeX \item \label{popular} \LaTeX \item Con\TeX t \end{enumerate}
Next: Line breaking, Previous: Cross references, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
LaTeX provides many environments for delimiting certain behavior.
An environment begins with \begin
and ends with \end
,
like this:
\begin{environment-name} ... \end{environment-name}
The environment-name at the beginning must exactly match that at
the end. For instance, the input
\begin{table*}...\end{table}
will cause an error like:
‘! LaTeX Error: \begin{table*} on input line 5 ended by
\end{table}.’
Environments are executed within a group.
• abstract: | Produce an abstract. | |
• array: | Math arrays. | |
• center: | Centered lines. | |
• description: | Labelled lists. | |
• displaymath: | Formulas that appear on their own line. | |
• document: | Enclose the whole document. | |
• enumerate: | Numbered lists. | |
• eqnarray: | Sequences of aligned equations. | |
• equation: | Displayed equation. | |
• figure: | Floating figures. | |
• filecontents: | Writing multiple files from the source. | |
• flushleft: | Flushed left lines. | |
• flushright: | Flushed right lines. | |
• itemize: | Bulleted lists. | |
• letter: | Letters. | |
• list: | Generic list environment. | |
• math: | In-line math. | |
• minipage: | Miniature page. | |
• picture: | Picture with text, arrows, lines and circles. | |
• quotation and quote: | Include a quotation. | |
• tabbing: | Align text arbitrarily. | |
• table: | Floating tables. | |
• tabular: | Align text in columns. | |
• thebibliography: | Bibliography or reference list. | |
• theorem: | Theorems, lemmas, etc. | |
• titlepage: | For hand crafted title pages. | |
• verbatim: | Simulating typed input. | |
• verse: | For poetry and other things. |
Next: array, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
abstract
Synopsis:
\begin{abstract} ... \end{abstract}
Produce an abstract, possibly of multiple paragraphs. This environment
is only defined in the article
and report
document classes
(see Document classes).
Using the example below in the article
class produces a displayed
paragraph. Document class option titlepage
causes the abstract
to be on a separate page (see Document class options); this is the
default only in the report
class.
\begin{abstract} We compare all known accounts of the proposal made by Porter Alexander to Robert E Lee at the Appomattox Court House that the army continue in a guerrilla war, which Lee refused. \end{abstract}
The next example produces a one column abstract in a two column document (for a more flexible solution, use the package abstract).
\documentclass[twocolumn]{article} ... \begin{document} \title{Babe Ruth as Cultural Progenitor: a Atavistic Approach} \author{Smith \\ Jones \\ Robinson\thanks{Railroad tracking grant.}} \twocolumn[ \begin{@twocolumnfalse} \maketitle \begin{abstract} Ruth was not just the Sultan of Swat, he was the entire swat team. \end{abstract} \end{@twocolumnfalse} ] { % by-hand insert a footnote at page bottom \renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\fnsymbol{footnote}} \footnotetext[1]{Thanks for all the fish.} }
Next: center, Previous: abstract, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
array
Synopsis:
\begin{array}{cols} column 1 entry &column 2 entry ... &column n entry \\ ... \end{array}
or
\begin{array}[pos]{cols} column 1 entry &column 2 entry ... &column n entry \\ ... \end{array}
Produce a mathematical array. This environment can only be used in math
mode, and normally appears within a displayed mathematics environment
such as equation
(see equation). Column entries are
separated by an ampersand (&
). Rows are terminated with
double-backslashes (see \\).
The required argument cols describes the number of columns, their alignment, and the formatting of the intercolumn regions. See tabular for the complete description of cols, and of the other common features of the two environments, including the optional pos argument.
There are two ways that array
diverges from tabular
. The
first is that array
entries are typeset in math mode, in
textstyle (except if the cols definition specifies the column with
p{...}
, which causes the entry to be typeset in text mode).
The second is that, instead of tabular
’s parameter
\tabcolsep
, LaTeX’s intercolumn space in an array
is governed
by
\arraycolsep
, which gives half the width between columns. The
default for this is ‘5pt’.
To obtain arrays with braces the standard is to use the amsmath
package. It comes with environments pmatrix
for an array
surrounded by parentheses (...)
, bmatrix
for an array
surrounded by square brackets [...]
, Bmatrix
for an
array surrounded by curly braces {...}
, vmatrix
for
an array surrounded by vertical bars |...|
, and
Vmatrix
for an array surrounded by double vertical
bars ||...||
, along with a number of other array constructs.
Here is an example of an array:
\begin{equation} \begin{array}{cr} \sqrt{y} &12.3 \\ x^2 &3.4 \end{array} \end{equation}
The next example works if \usepackage{amsmath}
is in the
preamble:
\begin{equation} \begin{vmatrix}{cc} a &b \\ c &d \end{vmatrix}=ad-bc \end{equation}
Next: description, Previous: array, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
center
Synopsis:
\begin{center} ... text ... \end{center}
Create a new paragraph consisting of a sequence of lines that are centered within the left and right margins on the current page. Use double-backslash to get a line break at a particular spot (see \\). If some text environment body is too long to fit on a line, LaTeX will insert line breaks that avoid hyphenation and avoid stretching or shrinking any interword space.
This environment inserts space above and below the text body. See
\centering to avoid such space, for example inside a figure
environment.
This example produces three centered lines. There is extra vertical space between the last two lines.
\begin{center} A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fufillment \\ of the Requirements of \\[0.5ex] the School of Environmental Engineering \end{center}
In this example, depending on the page’s line width, LaTeX may choose a line break for the part before the double backslash. If so, it will center each of the two lines and if not it will center the single line. Then LaTeX will break at the double backslash, and will center the ending.
\begin{center} My father considered that anyone who went to chapel and didn't drink alcohol was not to be tolerated.\\ I grew up in that belief. --Richard Burton \end{center}
A double backslash after the final line is optional.
• \centering: | Declaration form of the center environment.
|
\centering
A declaration that causes material in its scope to be centered. It is
most often used inside an environment such as figure
, or in a
parbox
.
Unlike the center
environment, the \centering
command does
not add vertical space above and below the text.
It also does not start a new paragraph; it simply changes how LaTeX
formats paragraph units. If ww {\centering xx \\ yy} zz
is
surrounded by blank lines then LaTeX will create a paragraph whose
first line ‘ww xx’ is centered and whose second line, not centered,
contains ‘yy zz’. Usually what is desired is for the scope of the
declaration to contain a blank line or the \end
command of an
environment such as figure
or table
that ends the
paragraph unit. Thus, if {\centering xx \\ yy\par} zz
is
surrounded by blank lines then it makes a new paragraph with two
centered lines ‘xx’ and ‘yy’, followed by a new paragraph with
‘zz’ that is formatted as usual. See also the following example.
This example’s \centering
causes the graphic to be horizontally
centered.
\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics[width=0.6\textwidth]{ctan_lion.png} \caption{CTAN Lion} \label{fig:CTANLion} \end{figure}
The scope of the \centering
ends with the \end{figure}
.
Next: displaymath, Previous: center, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
description
Synopsis:
\begin{description} \item[label of first item] text of first item \item[label of second item] text of second item ... \end{description}
Environment to make a labeled list of items. Each item’s label is typeset in bold, and is flush left so that long labels continue into the first line of the item text. There must be at least one item; having none causes the LaTeX error ‘Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item’.
This example shows the environment used for a sequence of definitions. The labels ‘lama’ and ‘llama’ come out in boldface with their left edges aligned on the left margin.
\begin{definition} \item[lama] A priest. \item[llama] A beast. \end{definition}
Start list items with the \item
command (see \item). Use the
optional labels, as in \item[Main point]
, because there is
no sensible default. Following the \item
is optional text, which
may contain multiple paragraphs.
Since the labels are in bold style, if the label text calls for a font
change given in argument style (see Font styles) then it will come
out bold. For instance, if the label text calls for typewriter with
\item[\texttt{label text}]
then it will appear in bold
typewriter, if that is available. The simplest way to get non-bold
typewriter is to use declarative style: \item[{\tt label
text}]
. Similarly, get the standard roman font with \item[{\rm
label text}]
.
For other major LaTeX labelled list environments, see itemize
and enumerate. Unlike those environments, nesting
description
environments does not change the default label; it is
boldface and flush left at all levels.
For information about list layout parameters, including the default values, and for information about customizing list layout, see list. The package enumitem is useful for customizing lists.
This example changes the description labels to small caps.
\renewcommand{\descriptionlabel}[1]{% {\hspace{\labelsep}\textsc{#1}}}
Next: document, Previous: description, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
displaymath
Synopsis:
\begin{displaymath} math text \end{displaymath}
Environment to typeset the math text on its own line, in display style
and centered. To make the text be flush-left use the global option
fleqn
; see Document class options.
In the displaymath
environment no equation number is added to the
math text. One way to get an equation number is to use the
equation
environment (see equation).
LaTeX will not break the math text across lines.
Note that the amsmath package has significantly more extensive displayed equation facilities. For example, there are a number of ways in that package for having math text broken across lines.
The construct \[math text\]
is essentially a synonym for
\begin{displaymath}math text\end{displaymath}
but the
latter is easier to work with in the source file; for instance,
searching for a square bracket may get false positives but the word
displaymath
will likely be unique. (The construct
$$math text$$
from Plain TeX is sometimes
mistakenly used as a synonym for displaymath
. It is not a
synonym, because the displaymath
environment checks that it isn’t
started in math mode and that it ends in math mode begun by the matching
environment start, because the displaymath
environment has
different vertical spacing, and because the displaymath
environment honors the fleqn
option.)
The output from this example is centered and alone on its line.
\begin{displaymath} \int_1^2 x^2\,dx=7/3 \end{displaymath}
Also, the integral sign is larger than the inline version
\( \int_1^2 x^2\,dx=7/3 \)
produces.
Next: enumerate, Previous: displaymath, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
document
The document
environment encloses the entire body of a document.
It is required in every LaTeX document. See Starting and ending.
• \AtBeginDocument: | Hook for commands at the start of the document. | |
• \AtEndDocument: | Hook for commands at the end of the document. |
Next: \AtEndDocument, Up: document [Contents][Index]
\AtBeginDocument
Synopsis:
\AtBeginDocument{code}
Save code and execute it when \begin{document}
is
executed, at the very end of the preamble. The code is executed after
the font selection tables have been set up, so the normal font for the
document is the current font. However, the code is executed as part of
the preamble so you cannot do any typesetting with it.
You can issue this command more than once; the successive code lines will be executed in the order that you gave them.
Previous: \AtBeginDocument, Up: document [Contents][Index]
\AtEndDocument
Synopsis:
\AtEndDocument{code}
Save code and execute it near the end of the document.
Specifically, it is executed when \end{document}
is executed,
before the final page is finished and before any leftover floating
environments are processed. If you want some of the code to be executed
after these two processes then include a \clearpage
at the
appropriate point in code.
You can issue this command more than once; the successive code lines will be executed in the order that you gave them.
Next: eqnarray, Previous: document, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
enumerate
Synopsis:
\begin{enumerate} \item[optional label of first item] text of first item \item[optional label of second item] text of second item ... \end{enumerate}
Environment to produce a numbered list of items. The format of the
label numbering depends on the nesting level of this environment; see
below. The default top-level numbering is ‘1.’, ‘2.’,
etc. Each enumerate
list environment must have at least one item;
having none causes the LaTeX error ‘Something's wrong--perhaps a
missing \item’.
This example gives the first two finishers in the 1908 Olympic marathon. As a top-level list the labels would come out as ‘1.’ and ‘2.’.
\begin{enumerate} \item Johnny Hayes (USA) \item Charles Hefferon (RSA) \end{enumerate}
Start list items with the \item
command (see \item). If you
give \item
an optional argument by following it with square
brackets, as in \item[Interstitial label]
, then the next item
will continue the interrupted sequence (see \item). That is, you
will get labels like ‘1.’, then ‘Interstitial label’, then
‘2.’. Following the \item
is optional text, which may
contain multiple paragraphs.
Enumerations may be nested within other enumerate
environments,
or within any paragraph-making environment such as itemize
(see itemize), up to four levels deep. This gives LaTeX’s
default for the format at each nesting level, where 1 is the top level,
the outermost level.
The enumerate
environment uses the counters \enumi
through
\enumiv
(see Counters).
For other major LaTeX labeled list environments, see description and itemize. For information about list layout parameters, including the default values, and for information about customizing list layout, see list. The package enumitem is useful for customizing lists.
To change the format of the label use \renewcommand
(see \newcommand & \renewcommand) on the commands \labelenumi
through \labelenumiv
. For instance, this first level list will be
labelled with uppercase letters, in boldface, and without a trailing
period.
\renewcommand{\labelenumi}{\textbf{\Alph{enumi}}} \begin{enumerate} \item Shows as boldface A \item Shows as boldface B \end{enumerate}
For a list of counter-labeling commands see \alph \Alph \arabic \roman \Roman \fnsymbol.
Next: equation, Previous: enumerate, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
eqnarray
First, a caveat: the eqnarray
environment is depreciated. It has
infelicities that cannot be overcome, including spacing that is
inconsistent with other mathematics elements (see the article “Avoid
eqnarray!” by Lars Madsen
http://tug.org/TUGboat/tb33-1/tb103madsen.pdf). New documents
should include the amsmath package and use the displayed
mathematics environments provided there, such as the align
environment.
Nevertheless, for completeness and for a reference when working with old documents, a synopsis:
\begin{eqnarray} first formula left &first formula middle &first formula right \\ ... \end{eqnarray}
or
\begin{eqnarray*} first formula left &first formula middle &first formula right \\ ... \end{eqnarray*}
Display a sequence of equations or inequalities. The left and right sides are typeset in display mode, while the middle is typeset in text mode.
It is similar to a three-column array
environment, with items
within a row separated by an ampersand (&
), and with rows
separated by double backslash \\
).
The starred form of line break (\\*
) can also be used to separate
equations, and will disallow a page break there (see \\).
The unstarred form eqnarray
places an equation number on every
line (using the equation
counter), unless that line contains a
\nonumber
command. The starred form eqnarray*
omits
equation numbering, while otherwise being the same.
The command \lefteqn
is used for splitting long formulas across
lines. It typesets its argument in display style flush left in a box of
zero width.
This example shows three lines. The first two lines make an inequality, while the third line has not entry on the left side.
\begin{eqnarray*} \lefteqn{x_1+x_2+\cdots+x_n} \\ &\leq &y_1+y_2+\cdots+y_n \\ &= &z+y_3+\cdots+y_n \end{eqnarray*}
Next: figure, Previous: eqnarray, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
equation
Synopsis:
\begin{equation} math text \end{equation}
Make a displaymath
environment (see displaymath) with an
equation number in the right margin.
The equation number is generated using the equation
counter.
You should have no blank lines between \begin{equation}
and
\begin{equation}
, or LaTeX will tell you that there is a
missing dollar sign, $$
.
Note that the amsmath package has extensive displayed equation facilities. Those facilities are the best approach for such output in new documents.
Next: filecontents, Previous: equation, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
figure
Synopsis:
\begin{figure}[placement] figure body \caption[loftitle]{title} \label{label} \end{figure}
or
\begin{figure*}[placement] figure body \caption[loftitle]{title} \label{label} \end{figure*}
A class of floats (see Floats). Because they cannot be split across pages, they are not typeset in sequence with the normal text but instead are “floated” to a convenient place, such as the top of a following page.
For the possible values of placement and their effect on the float placement algorithm, see Floats.
The starred form figure*
is used when a document is in
double-column mode (see \twocolumn). It produces a figure that
spans both columns, at the top of the page. To add the possibility of
placing at a page bottom see the discussion of placement b
in Floats.
The figure body is typeset in a parbox
of width \textwidth
and so it can contain text, commands, etc.
The label is optional; it is used for cross references (see Cross references).
The optional \caption
command specifies caption text for the
figure. By default it is numbered. If loftitle is present, it is
used in the list of figures instead of title (see Tables of contents).
This example makes a figure out of a graphic. It requires one of the packages graphics or graphicx. The graphic, with its caption, will be placed at the top of a page or, if it is pushed to the end of the document, on a page of floats.
\begin{figure}[t] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{CTANlion.png} \caption{The CTAN lion, by Duane Bibby} \end{figure}
Next: flushleft, Previous: figure, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
filecontents
: Write an external fileSynopsis:
\begin{filecontents}{filename} text \end{filecontents}
or
\begin{filecontents*}{filename} text \end{filecontents*}
Create a file named filename and fill it with text. The
unstarred version of the environment filecontents
prefixes the
content of the created file with a header; see the example below. The
starred version filecontents*
does not include the header.
This environment can be used anywhere in the preamble, although it often
appears before the \documentclass
command. It is typically used
when a source file requires a nonstandard style or class file. The
environment will write that file to the directory containing the source
and thus make the source file self-contained. Another use is to include
bib
references in the file, again to make it self-contained.
The environment checks whether a file of that name already exists and if
so, does not do anything. There is a filecontents package that
redefines the filecontents
environment so that instead of doing
nothing in that case, it will overwrite the existing file.
For example, this document
\documentclass{article} \begin{filecontents}{JH.sty} \newcommand{\myname}{Jim Hef{}feron} \end{filecontents} \usepackage{JH} \begin{document} Article by \myname. \end{document}
produces this file JH.sty.
%% LaTeX2e file `JH.sty' %% generated by the `filecontents' environment %% from source `test' on 2015/10/12. %% \newcommand{\myname}{Jim Hef{}feron}
Next: flushright, Previous: filecontents, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
flushleft
\begin{flushleft} line1 \\ line2 \\ ... \end{flushleft}
The flushleft
environment allows you to create a paragraph
consisting of lines that are flush to the left-hand margin and ragged
right. Each line must be terminated with the string \\
.
• \raggedright: | Declaration form of the flushleft environment.
|
\raggedright
The \raggedright
declaration corresponds to the
flushleft
environment. This declaration can be used inside an
environment such as quote
or in a parbox
.
Unlike the flushleft
environment, the \raggedright
command does not start a new paragraph; it only changes how LaTeX
formats paragraph units. To affect a paragraph unit’s format, the
scope of the declaration must contain the blank line or \end
command that ends the paragraph unit.
Next: itemize, Previous: flushleft, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
flushright
\begin{flushright} line1 \\ line2 \\ ... \end{flushright}
The flushright
environment allows you to create a paragraph
consisting of lines that are flush to the right-hand margin and ragged
left. Each line must be terminated with the control sequence \\
.
• \raggedleft: | Declaration form of the flushright environment.
|
Up: flushright [Contents][Index]
\raggedleft
The \raggedleft
declaration corresponds to the
flushright
environment. This declaration can be used inside an
environment such as quote
or in a parbox
.
Unlike the flushright
environment, the \raggedleft
command does not start a new paragraph; it only changes how LaTeX
formats paragraph units. To affect a paragraph unit’s format, the
scope of the declaration must contain the blank line or \end
command that ends the paragraph unit.
Next: letter, Previous: flushright, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
itemize
Synopsis:
\begin{itemize} \item[optional label of first item] text of first item \item[optional label of second item] text of second item ... \end{itemize}
The itemize
environment produces an “unordered”, “bulleted”
list. The format of the label numbering depends on the nesting level of
this environment; see below. Each itemize
list environment must
have at least one item; having none causes the LaTeX error
‘Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item’.
This example gives a two-item list. As a top-level list each label would come out as a bullet, •.
\begin{itemize} \item Pencil and watercolor sketch by Cassandra \item Rice portrait \end{itemize}
Start list items with the \item
command (see \item). If you
give \item
an optional argument by following it with square
brackets, as in \item[Optional label]
, then by default it will
appear in bold and be flush right, so it could extend into the left
margin. For labels that are flush left see the description
environment. Following the \item
is optional text, which may
contain multiple paragraphs.
Itemized lists can be nested within one another, up to four levels deep.
They can also be nested within other paragraph-making environments, such
as enumerate
(see enumerate). The itemize
environment
uses the commands \labelitemi
through \labelitemiv
to
produce the default label (this also uses the convention of lower case
roman numerals at the end of the command names that signify the nesting
level). These are the default marks at each level.
\textbullet
)
\normalfont\bfseries\textendash
)
\textasteriskcentered
)
\textperiodcentered
)
Change the labels with \renewcommand
. For instance, this makes
the first level use diamonds.
\renewcommand{\labelitemi}{$\diamond$}
The distance between the left margin of the enclosing environment and
the left margin of the itemize
list is determined by the
parameters \leftmargini
through \leftmarginvi
. (Note the
convention of using lower case roman numerals a the end of the command
name to denote the nesting level.) The defaults are: 2.5em
in
level 1 (2em
in two-column mode), 2.2em
in level 2,
1.87em
in level 3, and 1.7em
in level 4, with smaller
values for more deeply nested levels.
For other major LaTeX labeled list environments, see description and enumerate. For information about list layout parameters, including the default values, and for information about customizing list layout, see list. The package enumitem is useful for customizing lists.
This example greatly reduces the margin space for outermost itemized lists.
\setlength{\leftmargini}{1.25em} % default 2.5em
Especially for lists with short items, it may be desirable to elide
space between items. Here is an example defining an itemize*
environment with no extra spacing between items, or between paragraphs
within a single item (\parskip
is not list-specific,
see \parskip):
\newenvironment{itemize*}% {\begin{itemize}% \setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}% \setlength{\parsep}{0pt}}% \setlength{\parskip}{0pt}}% {\end{itemize}}
Next: list, Previous: itemize, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
letter
environment: writing lettersThis environment is used for creating letters. See Letters.
Next: math, Previous: letter, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
list
Synopsis:
\begin{list}{labeling}{spacing} \item[optional label of first item] text of first item \item[optional label of second item] text of second item ... \end{list}
The list
environment is a generic environment for constructing
more specialized lists. It is most often used to create lists via the
description
, enumerate
, and itemize
environments
(see description, enumerate, and itemize).
Also, many standard LaTeX environments that are not visually lists
are constructed using list
, including quotation
,
quote
, center
, verbatim
, and plenty more
(see quotation and quote, see center, see flushright).
The third-party package enumitem
is useful for customizing lists.
Here, we describe the list
environment by defining a new custom
environment.
\newcounter{namedlistcounter} % number the items \newenvironment{named} {\begin{list} {Item~\Roman{namedlistcounter}.} % labeling argument {\usecounter{namedlistcounter} % spacing argument \setlength{\leftmargin}{3.5em}} % still spacing arg } {\end{list}} \begin{named} \item Shows as ``Item~I.'' \item[Special label.] Shows as ``Special label.'' \item Shows as ``Item~II.'' \end{named}
The list
environment’s mandatory first argument,
labeling, specifies the default labeling of list items. It can
contain text and LaTeX commands, as above where it contains both
‘Item’ and ‘\Roman{...}’. LaTeX forms the label by
putting the labeling argument in a box of width
\labelwidth
. If the label is wider than that, the additional
material extends to the right. When making an instance of a list you
can override the default labeling by giving \item
an optional
argument by including square braces and the text, as in the above
\item[Special label.]
; see \item.
The label box is constructed by the command \makelabel
. By
default it positions the contents flush right. It takes one argument,
the label. It typesets the contents in LR mode. An example of changing
its definition is that to the above example before the definition of the
named
environment add
\newcommand{\namedmakelabel}[1]{\textsc{#1}}
, and between
the \setlength
command and the parenthesis that closes the
spacing argument also add \let\makelabel\namedmakelabel
.
Then the items will be typeset in small caps. Similarly, changing the
second code line to \let\makelabel\fbox
puts the labels inside a
framed box. Another example is at the bottom of this entry.
The mandatory second argument spacing can have a list of
commands to redefine the spacing parameters for the list, such as
\setlength{\labelwidth}{2em}
. If this argument is empty,
i.e., {}
, then the list will have the default spacing given
below. To number the items using a counter, put
\usecounter{countername}
in this argument
(see \usecounter).
Below are the spacing parameters for list formatting. See also the
figure below. Each is a length (see Lengths). The vertical
spaces are normally rubber lengths, with plus
and minus
components, to give TeX flexibility in setting the page. Change
each with a command such as \setlength{itemsep}{2pt plus1pt
minus1pt}
. For some effects these lengths should be zero or
negative. Default values for derived environments such as
itemize
can be changed from the values shown here for the basic
list
.
\itemindent
Extra horizontal space indentation, beyond leftmargin
, of the
first line each item. Its default value is 0pt
.
\itemsep
Vertical space between items, beyond the \parsep
. The defaults
for the first three levels in LaTeX’s ‘article’, ‘book’,
and ‘report’ classes at 10 point size are: 4pt plus2pt
minus1pt
, \parsep
(that is, 2pt plus1pt minus1pt
), and
\topsep
(that is, 2pt plus1pt minus1pt
). The defaults at
11 point are: 4.5pt plus2pt minus1pt
, \parsep
(that is,
2pt plus1pt minus1pt
), and topsep
(that is, 2pt
plus1pt minus1pt
). The defaults at 12 point are: 5pt plus2.5pt
minus1pt
, \parsep
(that is, 2.5pt plus1pt minus1pt
), and
\topsep
(that is, 2.5pt plus1pt minus1pt
).
\labelsep
Horizontal space between the label and text of an item.
The default for LaTeX’s ‘article’, ‘book’,
and ‘report’ classes is 0.5em
.
\labelwidth
Horizontal width. The box containing the label is nominally this wide.
If \makelabel
returns text that is wider than this then the first
line of the item will be indented to make room for this extra material.
If \makelabel
returns text of width less than or equal to
\labelwidth
then LaTeX’s default is that the label is typeset
flush right in a box of this width.
The left edge of the label box is
\leftmargin
+\itemindent
-\labelsep
-\labelwidth
from the left margin of the enclosing environment.
The default for LaTeX’s ‘article’, ‘book’, and
‘report’ classes at the top level is
\leftmargini
-\labelsep
, (which is 2em
in one column
mode and 1.5em
in two column mode). At the second level it is
\leftmarginii
-\labelsep
, and at the third level it is
\leftmarginiii
-\labelsep
. These definitions make the
label’s left edge coincide with the left margin of the enclosing
environment.
\leftmargin
Horizontal space between the left margin of the enclosing environment (or the left margin of the page if this is a top-level list), and the left margin of this list. It must be non-negative.
In the standard LaTeX document classes, a top-level list has this set
to the value of \leftmargini
, while a list that is nested inside
a top-level list has this margin set to \leftmarginii
. More
deeply nested lists get the values of \leftmarginiii
through
\leftmarginvi
. (Nesting greater than level five generates the
error message ‘Too deeply nested’.)
The defaults for the first three levels in LaTeX’s ‘article’,
‘book’, and ‘report’ classes are: \leftmargini
is
2.5em
(in two column mode, 2em
), \leftmarginii
is
2.2em
, and \leftmarginiii
is 1.87em
.
\listparindent
Horizontal space of additional line indentation, beyond
\leftmargin
, for second and subsequent paragraphs within a list
item. A negative value makes this an “outdent”. Its default value
is 0pt
.
\parsep
Vertical space between paragraphs within an item. In the ‘book’
and ‘article’ classes The defaults for the first three levels in
LaTeX’s ‘article’, ‘book’, and ‘report’ classes at 10
point size are: 4pt plus2pt minus1pt
, 2pt plus1pt
minus1pt
, and 0pt
. The defaults at 11 point size are:
4.5pt plus2pt minus1pt
, 2pt plus1pt minus1pt
, and
0pt
. The defaults at 12 point size are: 5pt plus2.5pt
minus1pt
, 2.5pt plus1pt minus1pt
, and 0pt
.
\partopsep
Vertical space added, beyond \topsep
+\parskip
, to the top
and bottom of the entire environment if the list instance is preceded by
a blank line. (A blank line in the LaTeX source before the list
changes spacing at both the top and bottom of the list; whether the line
following the list is blank does not matter.)
The defaults for the first three levels in LaTeX’s ‘article’,
‘book’, and ‘report’ classes at 10 point size are: 2pt
plus1 minus1pt
, 2pt plus1pt minus1pt
, and 1pt plus0pt
minus1pt
. The defaults at 11 point are: 3pt plus1pt minus1pt
,
3pt plus1pt minus1pt
, and 1pt plus0pt minus1pt
). The
defaults at 12 point are: 3pt plus2pt minus3pt
, 3pt plus2pt
minus2pt
, and 1pt plus0pt minus1pt
.
\rightmargin
Horizontal space between the right margin of the list and the right
margin of the enclosing environment. Its default value is 0pt
.
It must be non-negative.
\topsep
Vertical space added to both the top and bottom of the list, in addition
to \parskip
(see \parskip). The defaults for the first three
levels in LaTeX’s ‘article’, ‘book’, and ‘report’
classes at 10 point size are: 8pt plus2pt minus4pt
, 4pt
plus2pt minus1pt
, and 2pt plus1pt minus1pt
. The defaults at 11
point are: 9pt plus3pt minus5pt
, 4.5pt plus2pt minus1pt
,
and 2pt plus1pt minus1pt
. The defaults at 12 point are:
10pt plus4pt minus6pt
, 5pt plus2.5pt minus1pt
, and
2.5pt plus1pt minus1pt
.
This shows the horizontal and vertical distances.
The lengths shown are listed below. The key relationship is that the right edge of the bracket for h1 equals the right edge of the bracket for h4, so that the left edge of the label box is at h3+h4-(h0+h1).
\topsep
+ \parskip
if
the list environment does not start a new paragraph, and
\topsep
+\parskip
+\partopsep
if it does
\parsep
\itemsep
+\parsep
Same as v0. (This space is affected by whether a blank line appears in the source above the environment; whether a blank line appears in the source below the environment does not matter.)
\labelsep
\listparindent
\leftmargin
\itemindent
\rightmargin
The list’s left and right margins, shown above as h3 and h5,
are with respect to the ones provided by the surrounding environment, or
with respect to the page margins for a top-level list. The line width
used for typesetting the list items is \linewidth
(see Page layout parameters). For instance, set the list’s left margin to be one
quarter of the distance between the left and right margins of the
enclosing environment with
\setlength{\leftmargin}{0.25\linewidth}
.
Page breaking in a list structure is controlled by the three
parameters below. For each, the LaTeX default is
-\@lowpenalty
, that is, -51
. Because it is negative,
it somewhat encourages a page break at each spot. Change it with,
e.g., \@beginparpenalty=9999
; a value of 10000 prohibits a
page break.
\@beginparpenalty
The page breaking penalty for breaking before the list (default -51
).
\@itempenalty
The page breaking penalty for breaking before a list item (default -51
).
\@endparpenalty
The page breaking penalty for breaking after a list (default -51
).
This example has the labels in red. They are numbered, and the left edge of the label lines up with the left edge of the item text.
\usepackage{color} \newcounter{cnt} \newcommand{\makeredlabel}[1]{\textcolor{red}{#1.}} \newenvironment{redlabel} {\begin{list} {\arabic{cnt}} {\usecounter{cnt} \setlength{\labelwidth}{0em} \setlength{\labelsep}{0.5em} \setlength{\leftmargin}{1.5em} \setlength{\itemindent}{0.5em} % equals \labelwidth+\labelsep \let\makelabel=\makeredlabel } } {\end{list} }
• \item: | An entry in a list. | |
• trivlist: | A restricted form of list .
|
\item
: An entry in a listSynopsis:
\item text of item
or
\item[optional-label] text of item
An entry in a list. The entries are prefixed by a label, whose default depends on the list type.
Because the optional label is surrounded by square brackets
‘[...]’, if you have an item whose text starts with ‘[’, you
have to to hide the bracket inside curly braces, as in: \item
{[} is an open square bracket
; otherwise, LaTeX will think it
marks the start of an optional label.
Similarly, if the item does have the optional label and you need a
close square bracket inside that label, you must hide it in the same
way: \item[Close square bracket, {]}]
. See LaTeX command syntax.
In this example the enumerate list has two items that use the default label and one that uses the optional label.
\begin{enumerate} \item Moe \item[sometimes] Shemp \item Larry \end{enumerate}
The first item is labelled ‘1.’, the second item is labelled ‘sometimes’, and the third item is labelled ‘2.’. Because of the optional label in the second item, the third item is not labelled ‘3.’.
trivlist
: A restricted form of list
Synopsis:
\begin{trivlist} ... \end{trivlist}
A restricted version of the list environment, in which margins are not
indented and an \item
without an optional argument produces no
text. It is most often used in macros, to define an environment where
the \item
command as part of the environment’s definition. For
instance, the center
environment is defined essentially like
this:
\newenvironment{center} {\begin{trivlist}\centering\item\relax} {\end{trivlist}}
Using trivlist
in this way allows the macro to inherit some
common code: combining vertical space of two adjacent environments;
detecting whether the text following the environment should be
considered a new paragraph or a continuation of the previous one;
adjusting the left and right margins for possible nested list
environments.
Specifically, trivlist
uses the current values of the list
parameters (see list), except that \parsep
is set to the
value of \parskip
, and \leftmargin
, \labelwidth
,
and \itemindent
are set to zero.
This example outputs the items as two paragraphs, except that (by default) they have no paragraph indent and are vertically separated.
\begin{trivlist} \item The \textit{Surprise} is not old; no one would call her old. \item She has a bluff bow, lovely lines. \end{trivlist}
Next: minipage, Previous: list, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
math
Synopsis:
\begin{math} math \end{math}
The math
environment inserts given math material within
the running text. \(...\)
and $...$
are synonyms.
See Math formulas.
Next: picture, Previous: math, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
minipage
\begin{minipage}[position][height][inner-pos]{width} text \end{minipage}
The minipage
environment typesets its body text in a
block that will not be broken across pages. This is similar to the
\parbox
command (see \parbox), but unlike \parbox
,
other paragraph-making environments can be used inside a minipage.
The arguments are the same as for \parbox
(see \parbox).
By default, paragraphs are not indented in the minipage
environment. You can restore indentation with a command such as
\setlength{\parindent}{1pc}
command.
Footnotes in a minipage
environment are handled in a way that is
particularly useful for putting footnotes in figures or tables. A
\footnote
or \footnotetext
command puts the footnote at
the bottom of the minipage instead of at the bottom of the page, and it
uses the \mpfootnote
counter instead of the ordinary
footnote
counter (see Counters).
However, don’t put one minipage inside another if you are using footnotes; they may wind up at the bottom of the wrong minipage.
Next: quotation and quote, Previous: minipage, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
picture
\begin{picture}(width,height)(xoffset,yoffset) … picture commands … \end{picture}
The picture
environment allows you to create just about any
kind of picture you want containing text, lines, arrows and circles.
You tell LaTeX where to put things in the picture by specifying
their coordinates. A coordinate is a number that may have a decimal
point and a minus sign—a number like 5
, 0.3
or
-3.1416
. A coordinate specifies a length in multiples of the
unit length \unitlength
, so if \unitlength
has been set
to 1cm
, then the coordinate 2.54 specifies a length of 2.54
centimeters.
You should only change the value of \unitlength
, using the
\setlength
command, outside of a picture
environment.
The default value is 1pt
.
The picture
package redefine the picture
environment so
that everywhere a number is used in a picture commands to specify
a coordinate, one can use alternatively a length. Be aware however that
this will prevent scaling those lengths by changing \unitlength
.
A position is a pair of coordinates, such as (2.4,-5)
, specifying
the point with x-coordinate 2.4
and y-coordinate -5
.
Coordinates are specified in the usual way with respect to an origin,
which is normally at the lower-left corner of the picture. Note that
when a position appears as an argument, it is not enclosed in braces;
the parentheses serve to delimit the argument.
The picture
environment has one mandatory argument which is a
position (width,height), which specifies the size of the
picture. The environment produces a rectangular box with these
width and height.
The picture
environment also has an optional position argument
(xoffset,yoffset), following the size argument, that can
change the origin. (Unlike ordinary optional arguments, this argument
is not contained in square brackets.) The optional argument gives the
coordinates of the point at the lower-left corner of the picture
(thereby determining the origin). For example, if \unitlength
has been set to 1mm
, the command
\begin{picture}(100,200)(10,20)
produces a picture of width 100 millimeters and height 200 millimeters, whose lower-left corner is the point (10,20) and whose upper-right corner is therefore the point (110,220). When you first draw a picture, you typically omit the optional argument, leaving the origin at the lower-left corner. If you then want to modify your picture by shifting everything, you can just add the appropriate optional argument.
The environment’s mandatory argument determines the nominal size of the picture. This need bear no relation to how large the picture really is; LaTeX will happily allow you to put things outside the picture, or even off the page. The picture’s nominal size is used by LaTeX in determining how much room to leave for it.
Everything that appears in a picture is drawn by the \put
command. The command
\put (11.3,-.3){...}
puts the object specified by ...
in the
picture, with its reference point at coordinates (11.3,-.3).
The reference points for various objects will be described below.
The \put
command creates an LR box. You can put anything
that can go in an \mbox
(see \mbox) in the text argument of
the \put
command. When you do this, the reference point will
be the lower left corner of the box.
The picture
commands are described in the following sections.
• \circle: | Draw a circle. | |
• \makebox (picture): | Draw a box of the specified size. | |
• \framebox (picture): | Draw a box with a frame around it. | |
• \dashbox: | Draw a dashed box. | |
• \frame: | Draw a frame around an object. | |
• \line: | Draw a straight line. | |
• \linethickness: | Set the line thickness. | |
• \thicklines: | A heavier line thickness. | |
• \thinlines: | The default line thickness. | |
• \multiput: | Draw multiple instances of an object. | |
• \oval: | Draw an ellipse. | |
• \put: | Place an object at a specified place. | |
• \shortstack: | Make a pile of objects. | |
• \vector: | Draw a line with an arrow. |
Next: \makebox (picture), Up: picture [Contents][Index]
\circle
Synopsis:
\circle[*]{diameter}
The \circle
command produces a circle with a diameter as close
to the specified one as possible. The *
-form of the command
draws a solid circle.
Circles up to 40pt can be drawn.
Next: \framebox (picture), Previous: \circle, Up: picture [Contents][Index]
\makebox
Synopsis:
\makebox(width,height)[position]{text}
The \makebox
command for the picture environment is similar to
the normal \makebox
command except that you must specify a
width and height in multiples of \unitlength
.
The optional argument, [position]
, specifies the quadrant that
your text appears in. You may select up to two of the following:
t
Moves the item to the top of the rectangle.
b
Moves the item to the bottom.
l
Moves the item to the left.
r
Moves the item to the right.
See \makebox.
Next: \dashbox, Previous: \makebox (picture), Up: picture [Contents][Index]
\framebox
Synopsis:
\framebox(width,height)[pos]{...}
The \framebox
command is like \makebox
(see previous
section), except that it puts a frame around the outside of the box
that it creates.
The \framebox
command produces a rule of thickness
\fboxrule
, and leaves a space \fboxsep
between the rule
and the contents of the box.
Next: \frame, Previous: \framebox (picture), Up: picture [Contents][Index]
\dashbox
Draws a box with a dashed line. Synopsis:
\dashbox{dlen}(rwidth,rheight)[pos]{text}
\dashbox
creates a dashed rectangle around text in a
picture
environment. Dashes are dlen units long, and the
rectangle has overall width rwidth and height rheight.
The text is positioned at optional pos.
A dashed box looks best when the rwidth and rheight are multiples of the dlen.
\frame
Synopsis:
\frame{text}
The \frame
command puts a rectangular frame around text.
The reference point is the bottom left corner of the frame. No extra
space is put between the frame and the object.
Next: \linethickness, Previous: \frame, Up: picture [Contents][Index]
\line
Synopsis:
\line(xslope,yslope){length}
The \line
command draws a line with the given length and
slope xslope/yslope.
Standard LaTeX can only draw lines with slope = x/y,
where x and y have integer values from -6
through 6. For lines of any slope, and plenty of other shapes,
see pict2e
and many other packages on CTAN.
Next: \thicklines, Previous: \line, Up: picture [Contents][Index]
\linethickness
The \linethickness{dim}
command declares the thickness
of horizontal and vertical lines in a picture environment to be
dim, which must be a positive length.
\linethickness
does not affect the thickness of slanted lines,
circles, or the quarter circles drawn by \oval
.
Next: \thinlines, Previous: \linethickness, Up: picture [Contents][Index]
\thicklines
The \thicklines
command is an alternate line thickness for
horizontal and vertical lines in a picture environment;
cf. \linethickness and \thinlines.
Next: \multiput, Previous: \thicklines, Up: picture [Contents][Index]
\thinlines
The \thinlines
command is the default line thickness for
horizontal and vertical lines in a picture environment;
cf. \linethickness and \thicklines.
Next: \oval, Previous: \thinlines, Up: picture [Contents][Index]
\multiput
Synopsis:
\multiput(x,y)(delta_x,delta_y){n}{obj}
The \multiput
command copies the object obj in a regular
pattern across a picture. obj is first placed at position
(x,y), then at (x+\delta x,y+\delta y), and so on,
n times.
\oval
Synopsis:
\oval(width,height)[portion]
The \oval
command produces a rectangle with rounded corners. The
optional argument portion allows you to produce only half of the
oval via the following:
t
selects the top half;
b
selects the bottom half;
r
selects the right half;
l
selects the left half.
It is also possible to produce only one quarter of the oval by setting
portion to tr
, br
, bl
, or tl
.
The “corners” of the oval are made with quarter circles with a maximum radius of 20pt, so large “ovals” will look more like boxes with rounded corners.
Next: \shortstack, Previous: \oval, Up: picture [Contents][Index]
\put
Synopsis:
\put(xcoord,ycoord){ ... }
The \put
command places the material specified by the
(mandatory) argument in braces at the given coordinate,
(xcoord,ycoord).
\shortstack
Synopsis:
\shortstack[position]{...\\...\\...}
The \shortstack
command produces a stack of objects. The valid
positions are:
r
Move the objects to the right of the stack.
l
Move the objects to the left of the stack
c
Move the objects to the centre of the stack (default)
Objects are separated with \\
.
Previous: \shortstack, Up: picture [Contents][Index]
\vector
Synopsis:
\vector(xslope,yslope){length}
The \vector
command draws a line with an arrow of the specified
length and slope. The xslope and yslope
values must lie between -4 and +4, inclusive.
Next: tabbing, Previous: picture, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
quotation
and quote
Synopsis:
\begin{quotation} text \end{quotation}
or
\begin{quote} text \end{quote}
Include a quotation.
In both environments, margins are indented on both sides by
\leftmargin
and the text is justified at both. As with the main
text, leaving a blank line produces a new paragraph.
To compare the two: in the quotation
environment, paragraphs are
indented by 1.5em and the space between paragraphs is small,
0pt plus 1pt
. In the quote
environment, paragraphs are
not indented and there is vertical space between paragraphs (it is the
rubber length \parsep
). Thus, the quotation
environment
may be more suitable for documents where new paragraphs are marked by an
indent rather than by a vertical separation. In addition, quote
may be more suitable for a short quotation or a sequence of short
quotations.
\begin{quotation} \it Four score and seven years ago ... shall not perish from the earth. \hspace{1em plus 1fill}---Abraham Lincoln \end{quotation}
Next: table, Previous: quotation and quote, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
tabbing
Synopsis:
\begin{tabbing} row1col1 \= row1col2 ... \\ row2col1 \> row2col2 ... \\ ... \end{tabbing}
The tabbing
environment aligns text in columns. It works by
setting tab stops and tabbing to them much as was done on a typewriter.
It is best suited for cases where the width of each column is constant
and known in advance.
This example has a first line where the tab stops are set to explicit
widths, ended by a \kill
command (which is described below):
\begin{tabbing} \hspace{0.75in} \= \hspace{0.40in} \= \hspace{0.40in} \kill Ship \> Guns \> Year \\ \textit{Sophie} \> 14 \> 1800 \\ \textit{Polychrest} \> 24 \> 1803 \\ \textit{Lively} \> 38 \> 1804 \\ \textit{Surprise} \> 28 \> 1805 \\ \end{tabbing}
Both the tabbing
environment and the more widely-used
tabular
environment put text in columns. The most important
distinction is that in tabular
the width of columns is
determined automatically by LaTeX, while in tabbing
the user
sets the tab stops. Another distinction is that tabular
generates a box, but tabbing
can be broken across pages.
Finally, while tabular
can be used in any mode, tabbing
can be used only in paragraph mode and it starts a new paragraph.
A tabbing
environment always starts a new paragraph, without
indentation. Moreover, as shown in the example above, there is no need
to use the starred form of the \hspace
command at the beginning
of a tabbed row. The right margin of the tabbing
environment is
the end of line, so that the width of the environment is
\linewidth
.
The tabbing
environment contains a sequence of tabbed
rows. The first tabbed row begins immediately after
\begin{tabbing}
and each row ends with \\
or
\kill
. The last row may omit the \\
and end with just
\end{tabbing}
.
At any point the tabbing
environment has a current tab stop
pattern, a sequence of n > 0 tab stops, numbered 0, 1,
etc. These create n corresponding columns. Tab stop 0 is
always the left margin, defined by the enclosing environment. Tab
stop number i is set if it is assigned a horizontal
position on the page. Tab stop number i can only be set if
all the stops 0, …, i-1 have already been set; normally
later stops are to the right of earlier ones.
By default any text typeset in a tabbing
environment is typeset
ragged right and left-aligned on the current tab stop. Typesetting is
done in LR mode (see Modes).
The following commands can be used inside a tabbing
environment.
They are all fragile (see \protect).
\\ (tabbing)
End a tabbed line and typeset it.
\= (tabbing)
Sets a tab stop at the current position.
\> (tabbing)
Advances to the next tab stop.
\<
Put following text to the left of the local margin (without changing the margin). Can only be used at the start of the line.
\+
Moves the left margin of the next and all the following commands one tab stop to the right, beginning tabbed line if necessary.
\-
Moves the left margin of the next and all the following commands one tab stop to the left, beginning tabbed line if necessary.
\' (tabbing)
Moves everything that you have typed so far in the current column, i.e.,
everything from the most recent \>
, \<
, \'
,
\\
, or \kill
command, to the previous column and aligned
to the right, flush against the current column’s tab stop.
\` (tabbing)
Allows you to put text flush right against any tab stop, including tab
stop 0. However, it can’t move text to the right of the last
column because there’s no tab stop there. The \`
command moves
all the text that follows it, up to the \\
or
\end{tabbing}
command that ends the line, to the right margin
of the tabbing
environment. There must be no \>
or
\'
command between the \`
and the \\
or
\end{tabbing}
command that ends the line.
\a (tabbing)
In a tabbing
environment, the commands \=
, \'
and
\`
do not produce accents as usual (see Accents). Instead,
use the commands \a=
, \a'
and \a`
.
\kill
Sets tab stops without producing text. Works just like \\
except
that it throws away the current line instead of producing output for it.
Any \=
, \+
or \-
commands in that line remain in
effect.
\poptabs
Restores the tab stop positions saved by the last \pushtabs
.
\pushtabs
Saves all current tab stop positions. Useful for temporarily changing
tab stop positions in the middle of a tabbing
environment.
\tabbingsep
Distance of the text moved by \'
to left of current tab stop.
This example typesets a Pascal function:
\begin{tabbing} function \= fact(n : integer) : integer;\\ \> begin \= \+ \\ \> if \= n > 1 then \+ \\ fact := n * fact(n-1) \- \\ else \+ \\ fact := 1; \-\- \\ end;\\ \end{tabbing}
The output looks like this:
function fact(n : integer) : integer; begin if n > 1 then fact := n * fact(n-1); else fact := 1; end;
(The above example is just for illustration of the environment. To
actually typeset computer code in typewriter like this, a verbatim
environment (see verbatim) would normally suffice. For
pretty-printed code, there are quite a few packages, including
algorithm2e
, fancyvrb
, listings
, and
minted
.)
Next: tabular, Previous: tabbing, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
table
Synopsis:
\begin{table}[placement] table body \caption[loftitle]{title} \label{label} \end{table}
A class of floats (see Floats). Because they cannot be split across pages, they are not typeset in sequence with the normal text but instead are “floated” to a convenient place, such as the top of a following page.
For the possible values of placement and their effect on the float placement algorithm, see Floats.
The table body is typeset in a parbox
of width \textwidth
and so it can contain text, commands, etc.
The label is optional; it is used for cross references (see Cross references).
The optional \caption
command specifies caption text for the
table. By default it is numbered. If lottitle is present, it is
used in the list of tables instead of title (see Tables of contents).
In this example the table and caption will float to the bottom of a page, unless it is pushed to a float page at the end.
\begin{table}[b] \centering \begin{tabular}{r|p{2in}} \hline One &The loneliest number \\ Two &Can be as sad as one. It's the loneliest number since the number one. \end{tabular} \caption{Cardinal virtues} \label{tab:CardinalVirtues} \end{table}
Next: thebibliography, Previous: table, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
tabular
Synopsis:
\begin{tabular}[pos]{cols} column 1 entry &column 2 entry ... &column n entry \\ ... \end{tabular}
or
\begin{tabular*}{width}[pos]{cols} column 1 entry &column 2 entry ... &column n entry \\ ... \end{tabular*}
These environments produce a table, a box consisting of a sequence of horizontal rows. Each row consists of items that are aligned vertically in columns. This illustrates many of the features.
\begin{tabular}{l|l} \textit{Player name} &\textit{Career home runs} \\ \hline Hank Aaron &755 \\ Babe Ruth &714 \end{tabular}
The vertical format of two left-aligned columns, with a vertical bar
between them, is specified in tabular
’s argument {l|l}
.
Columns are separated with an ampersand &
. A horizontal rule
between two rows is created with \hline
.
The end of each row is marked with a double backslash \\
.
This \\
is optional after the last row unless an \hline
command follows, to put a rule below the table.
The required and optional arguments to tabular
consist of:
Required for tabular*
, not allowed for tabular
. Specifies
the width of the tabular*
environment. The space between columns
should be rubber, as with @{\extracolsep{\fill}}
, to allow
the table to stretch or shrink to make the specified width, or else you
are likely to get the Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in alignment
...
warning.
Optional. Specifies the table’s vertical position. The default is to
align the table so its vertical center matches the baseline of the
surrounding text. There are two other possible alignments: t
aligns the table so its top row matches the baseline of the surrounding
text, and b
aligns on the bottom row.
This only has an effect if there is other text. In the common case of a
tabular
alone in a center
environment this option makes
no difference.
Required. Specifies the formatting of columns. It consists of a sequence of the following specifiers, corresponding to the types of column and intercolumn material.
l
A column of left-aligned items.
r
A column of right-aligned items.
c
A column of centered items.
|
A vertical line the full height and depth of the environment.
@{text or space}
This inserts text or space at this location in every row. The text or space material is typeset in LR mode. This text is fragile (see \protect).
This specifier is optional: with no @-expression, LaTeX’s
book
, article
, and report
classes will put on
either side of each column a space of length \tabcolsep
, which
by default is ‘6pt’. That is, by default adjacent columns are
separated by 12pt (so \tabcolsep
is misleadingly-named since it
is not the separation between tabular columns). By implication, a
space of 6pt also comes before the first column and after the final
column, unless you put a @{...}
or |
there.
If you override the default and use an @-expression then you must
insert any desired space yourself, as in @{\hspace{1em}}
.
An empty expression @{}
will eliminate the space, including
the space at the start or end, as in the example below where the tabular
lines need to lie on the left margin.
\begin{flushleft} \begin{tabular}{@{}l} ... \end{tabular} \end{flushleft}
This example shows text, a decimal point, between the columns, arranged so the numbers in the table are aligned on that decimal point.
\begin{tabular}{r@{$.$}l} $3$ &$14$ \\ $9$ &$80665$ \end{tabular}
An \extracolsep{wd}
command in an @-expression causes an
extra space of width wd to appear to the left of all subsequent
columns, until countermanded by another \extracolsep
command.
Unlike ordinary intercolumn space, this extra space is not suppressed by
an @-expression. An \extracolsep
command can be used only in an
@-expression in the cols
argument. Below, LaTeX inserts the
right amount of intercolumn space to make the entire table 4 inches
wide.
\begin{center} \begin{tabular*}{4in}{l@{\ \ldots\extracolsep{\fill}}l} Seven times down, eight times up &such is life! \end{tabular*} \end{center}
To insert commands that are automatically executed before a given
column, load the array
package and use the >{...}
specifier.
p{wd}
Each item in the column is typeset in a parbox of width wd.
Note that a line break double backslash \\
may not appear in the
item, except inside an environment like minipage
, array
,
or tabular
, or inside an explicit \parbox
, or in the scope
of a \centering
, \raggedright
, or \raggedleft
declaration (when used in a p
-column element these declarations
must appear inside braces, as with {\centering .. \\
..}
). Otherwise LaTeX will misinterpret the double backslash as
ending the row.
*{num}{cols}
Equivalent to num copies of cols, where num is a
positive integer and cols is a list of specifiers. Thus
\begin{tabular}{|*{3}{l|r}|}
is equivalent to
\begin{tabular}{|l|rl|rl|r|}
. Note that cols may
contain another *
-expression.
Parameters that control formatting:
\arrayrulewidth
A length that is the thickness of the rule created by |
,
\hline
, and \vline
in the tabular
and array
environments. The default is ‘.4pt’. Change it as in
\setlength{\arrayrulewidth}{0.8pt}
.
\arraystretch
A factor by which the spacing between rows in the tabular
and
array
environments is multiplied. The default is ‘1’, for
no scaling. Change it as \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2}
.
\doublerulesep
A length that is the distance between the vertical rules produced by the
||
specifier. The default is ‘2pt’.
\tabcolsep
A length that is half of the space between columns. The default is
‘6pt’. Change it with \setlength
.
The following commands can be used inside the body of a tabular
environment, the first two inside an entry and the second two between
lines:
• \multicolumn: | Make an item spanning several columns. | |
• \vline: | Draw a vertical line. | |
• \cline: | Draw a horizontal line spanning some columns. | |
• \hline: | Draw a horizontal line spanning all columns. |
\multicolumn
Synopsis:
\multicolumn{numcols}{cols}{text}
Make an array
or tabular
entry that spans several columns.
The first argument numcols gives the number of columns to span.
The second argument cols specifies the formatting of the entry,
with c
for centered, l
for flush left, or r
for
flush right. The third argument text gives the contents of that
entry.
In this example, in the first row, the second and third columns are spanned by the single heading ‘Name’.
\begin{tabular}{lccl} \textit{ID} &\multicolumn{2}{c}{\textit{Name}} &\textit{Age} \\ \hline % row one 978-0-393-03701-2 &O'Brian &Patrick &55 \\ % row two ... \end{tabular}
What counts as a column is: the column format specifier for the
array
or tabular
environment is broken into parts, where
each part (except the first) begins with l
, c
, r
,
or p
. So from \begin{tabular}{|r|ccp{1.5in}|}
the parts are |r|
, c
, c
,
and p{1.5in}|
.
The cols argument overrides the array
or tabular
environment’s intercolumn area default adjoining this multicolumn
entry. To affect that area, this argument can contain vertical bars
|
indicating the placement of vertical rules, and @{...}
expressions. Thus if cols is ‘|c|’ then this multicolumn
entry will be centered and a vertical rule will come in the intercolumn
area before it and after it. This table details the exact behavior.
\begin{tabular}{|cc|c|c|} \multicolumn{1}{r}{w} % entry one &\multicolumn{1}{|r|}{x} % entry two &\multicolumn{1}{|r}{y} % entry three &z % entry four \end{tabular}
Before the first entry the output will not have a vertical rule because
the \multicolumn
has the cols specifier ‘r’ with no
initial vertical bar. Between entry one and entry two there will be a
vertical rule; although the first cols does not have an ending
vertical bar, the second cols does have a starting one. Between
entry two and entry three there is a single vertical rule; despite that
the cols in both of the surrounding multicolumn
’s call for
a vertical rule, you only get one rule. Between entry three and entry
four there is no vertical rule; the default calls for one but the
cols in the entry three \multicolumn
leaves it out, and
that takes precedence. Finally, following entry four there is a
vertical rule because of the default.
The number of spanned columns numcols can be 1. Besides giving
the ability to change the horizontal alignment, this also is useful to
override for one row the tabular
definition’s default intercolumn
area specification, including the placement of vertical rules.
In the example below, in the tabular
definition the first column
is specified to default to left justified but in the first row the entry
is centered with \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textsc{Period}}
.
Also in the first row, the second and third columns are spanned by a
single entry with \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textsc{Span}}
,
overriding the specification to center those two columns on the page
range en-dash.
\begin{tabular}{l|r@{--}l} \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textsc{Period}} &multicolumn{2}{c}{\textsc{Span}} \\ \hline Baroque &1600 &1760 \\ Classical &1730 &1820 \\ Romantic &1780 &1910 \\ Impressionistic &1875 &1925 \end{tabular}
Note that although the tabular
specification by default puts a
vertical rule between the first and second columns, because there is no
vertical bar in the cols of either of the first row’s
\multicolumn
commands, no rule appears in the first row.
Next: \cline, Previous: \multicolumn, Up: tabular [Contents][Index]
\vline
Draw a vertical line in a tabular
or array
environment
extending the full height and depth of an entry’s row. Can also be
used in an @-expression, although its synonym vertical
bar |
is more common. This command is rarely used in the
body of a table; typically a table’s vertical lines are specified in
tabular
’s cols argument and overridden as needed with
\multicolumn
.
This example illustrates some pitfalls. In the first line’s second
entry the \hfill
moves the \vline
to the left edge of the
cell. But that is different than putting it halfway between the two
columns, so in that row between the first and second columns there are
two vertical rules, with the one from the {c|cc}
specifier
coming before the one produced by the \vline\hfill
. In contrast,
the first line’s third entry shows the usual way to put a vertical bar
between two columns. In the second line, the ghi
is the widest
entry in its column so in the \vline\hfill
the \hfill
has
no effect and the vertical line in that entry appears immediately next
to the g
, with no whitespace.
\begin{tabular}{c|cc} x &\vline\hfill y &\multicolumn{1}{|r}{z} \\ abc &def &\vline\hfill ghi \end{tabular}
\cline
Synopsis:
\cline{i-j}
Draw a horizontal rule in an array
or tabular
environment
beginning in column i and ending in column j. The
dash -
must appear in the mandatory argument. To span a
single column use the number twice.
This example puts two horizontal lines between the first and second rows, one line in the first column only, and the other spanning the third and fourth columns. The two lines are side-by-side, at the same height.
\begin{tabular}{llrr} a &b &c &d \\ \cline{1-1} \cline{3-4} e &f &g &h \end{tabular}
\hline
Draws a horizontal line the width of the enclosing tabular
or
array
environment. It’s most commonly used to draw a line at the
top, bottom, and between the rows of a table.
In this example the top of the table has two horizontal rules, one above
the other, that span both columns. The bottom of the table has a single
rule spanning both columns. Because of the \hline
, the
tabular
second row’s line ending double backslash \\
is required.
\begin{tabular}{ll} \hline\hline Baseball &Red Sox \\ Basketball &Celtics \\ \hline \end{tabular}
Next: theorem, Previous: tabular, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
thebibliography
Synopsis:
\begin{thebibliography}{widest-label} \bibitem[label]{cite_key} ... \end{thebibliography}
The thebibliography
environment produces a bibliography or
reference list.
In the article
class, this reference list is labelled
‘References’ and the label is stored in macro \refname
; in
the report
class, it is labelled ‘Bibliography’ and the
label is stored in macro \bibname
.
You can change the label by redefining the command \refname
or
\bibname
, whichever is applicable depending on the class:
\chapter
(such as book and report), the label is in the macro
\bibname
;
\section
(such as article), the label is in macro \refname
.
Typically it is neither necessary nor desirable to directly redefine
\refname
or \bibname
; language support packages like
babel do this.
The mandatory widest-label argument is text that, when typeset,
is as wide as the widest item label produced by the \bibitem
commands. It is typically given as 9
for bibliographies with
less than 10 references, 99
for ones with less than 100, etc.
• \bibitem: | Specify a bibliography item. | |
• \cite: | Refer to a bibliography item. | |
• \nocite: | Include an item in the bibliography. | |
• Using BibTeX: | Automatic generation of bibliographies. |
Next: \cite, Up: thebibliography [Contents][Index]
\bibitem
Synopsis:
\bibitem[label]{cite_key}
The \bibitem
command generates an entry labelled by label.
If the label argument is missing, a number is automatically
generated using the enumi
counter. The cite_key is a
citation key consisting in any sequence of
letters, numbers, and punctuation symbols not containing a comma.
This command writes an entry to the .aux file containing the
item’s cite_key and label. When the .aux file is
read by the \begin{document}
command, the item’s label is
associated with cite_key
, causing references to cite_key
with a \cite
command (see \cite) to produce the associated
label.
Next: \nocite, Previous: \bibitem, Up: thebibliography [Contents][Index]
\cite
Synopsis:
\cite[subcite]{keys}
The keys argument is a list of one or more citation keys (see \bibitem), separated by commas. This command generates an in-text citation to the references associated with keys by entries in the .aux file.
The text of the optional subcite argument appears after the
citation. For example, \cite[p.~314]{knuth}
might produce
‘[Knuth, p. 314]’.
Next: Using BibTeX, Previous: \cite, Up: thebibliography [Contents][Index]
\nocite
Synopsis:
\nocite{keys}
The \nocite
command produces no text, but writes keys,
which is a list of one or more citation keys, to the .aux file.
Previous: \nocite, Up: thebibliography [Contents][Index]
If you use the BibTeX program by Oren Patashnik (highly
recommended if you need a bibliography of more than a couple of
titles) to maintain your bibliography, you don’t use the
thebibliography
environment (see thebibliography). Instead,
you include the lines
\bibliographystyle{bibstyle} \bibliography{bibfile1,bibfile2}
The \bibliographystyle
command does not produce any output of
its own. Rather, it defines the style in which the bibliography will
be produced: bibstyle refers to a file
bibstyle.bst, which defines how your citations will look.
The standard bibstyle names distributed with BibTeX are:
alpha
Sorted alphabetically. Labels are formed from name of author and year of publication.
plain
Sorted alphabetically. Labels are numeric.
unsrt
Like plain
, but entries are in order of citation.
abbrv
Like plain
, but more compact labels.
In addition, numerous other BibTeX style files exist tailored to the demands of various publications. See http://mirror.ctan.org/biblio/bibtex/contrib.
The \bibliography
command is what actually produces the
bibliography. The argument to \bibliography
refers to files
named bibfile1.bib, bibfile2.bib, …,
which should contain your database in
BibTeX format. Only the entries referred to via \cite
and
\nocite
will be listed in the bibliography.
Next: titlepage, Previous: thebibliography, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
theorem
Synopsis:
\begin{theorem} theorem-text \end{theorem}
The theorem
environment produces “Theorem n” in
boldface followed by theorem-text, where the numbering
possibilities for n are described under \newtheorem
(see \newtheorem).
Next: verbatim, Previous: theorem, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
titlepage
Synopsis:
\begin{titlepage} ... text and spacing ... \end{titlepage}
Create a title page, a page with no printed page number or heading. The following page will be numbered page one.
To instead produce a standard title page without a titlepage
environment you can use \maketitle
(see \maketitle).
Notice in this example that all formatting, including vertical spacing, is left to the author.
\begin{titlepage} \vspace*{\stretch{1}} \begin{center} {\huge\bfseries Thesis \\[1ex] title} \\[6.5ex] {\large\bfseries Author name} \\ \vspace{4ex} Thesis submitted to \\[5pt] \textit{University name} \\[2cm] in partial fulfilment for the award of the degree of \\[2cm] \textsc{\Large Doctor of Philosophy} \\[2ex] \textsc{\large Mathematics} \\[12ex] \vfill Department of Mathematics \\ Address \\ \vfill \today \end{center} \vspace{\stretch{2}} \end{titlepage}
Next: verse, Previous: titlepage, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
verbatim
Synopsis:
\begin{verbatim} literal-text \end{verbatim}
The verbatim
environment is a paragraph-making environment in
which LaTeX produces exactly what you type in; for instance the
\
character produces a printed ‘\’. It turns LaTeX
into a typewriter with carriage returns and blanks having the same
effect that they would on a typewriter.
The verbatim
environment uses a monospaced typewriter-like font
(\tt
).
• \verb: | The macro form of the verbatim environment.
|
\verb
Synopsis:
\verbcharliteral-textchar \verb*charliteral-textchar
The \verb
command typesets literal-text as it is input,
including special characters and spaces, using the typewriter
(\tt
) font. No spaces are allowed between \verb
or
\verb*
and the delimiter char, which begins and ends the
verbatim text. The delimiter must not appear in literal-text.
The *
-form differs only in that spaces are printed with a
“visible space” character.
Previous: verbatim, Up: Environments [Contents][Index]
verse
Synopsis:
\begin{verse} line1 \\ line2 \\ ... \end{verse}
The verse
environment is designed for poetry, though you may find
other uses for it.
The margins are indented on the left and the right, paragraphs are not
indented, and the text is not justified. Separate the lines of each
stanza with \\
, and use one or more blank lines to separate the
stanzas.
Next: Page breaking, Previous: Environments, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
The first thing LaTeX does when processing ordinary text is to translate your input file into a sequence of glyphs and spaces. To produce a printed document, this sequence must be broken into lines (and these lines must be broken into pages).
LaTeX usually does the line (and page) breaking in the text body for you but in some environments you manually force line breaks.
• \\: | Start a new line. | |
• \obeycr & \restorecr: | Make each input line start a new output line. | |
• \newline: | Break the line | |
• \- (hyphenation): | Insert explicit hyphenation. | |
• \discretionary: | Insert explicit hyphenation with control of hyphen character. | |
• \fussy: | Be fussy about line breaking. | |
• \sloppy: | Be sloppy about line breaking. | |
• \hyphenation: | Tell LaTeX how to hyphenate a word. | |
• \linebreak & \nolinebreak: | Forcing & avoiding line breaks. |
Next: \obeycr & \restorecr, Up: Line breaking [Contents][Index]
\\
Synopsis:
\\[morespace]
or
\\*[morespace]
Start a new line. The optional argument morespace specifies extra vertical space to be insert before the next line. This can be a negative length. The text before the break is set at its normal length, that is, it is not stretched to fill out the line width.
Explicit line breaks in the text body are unusual in LaTeX. In
particular, to start a new paragraph instead leave a blank line. This
command is mostly used outside of the main flow of text such as in
a tabular
or array
environment.
Under ordinary circumstances (e.g., outside of a p{...}
column
in a tabular
environment) the \newline
command is a synonym for
\\
(see \newline).
In addition to starting a new line, the starred form \\*
tells
LaTeX not to start a new page between the two lines, by issuing a
\nobreak
.
\title{My story: \\[0.25in] a tale of woe}
Next: \newline, Previous: \\, Up: Line breaking [Contents][Index]
\obeycr
& \restorecr
The \obeycr
command makes a return in the input file
(‘^^M’, internally) the same as \\
(followed by
\relax
). So each new line in the input will also be a new line
in the output.
\restorecr
restores normal line-breaking behavior.
Next: \- (hyphenation), Previous: \obeycr & \restorecr, Up: Line breaking [Contents][Index]
\newline
In ordinary text this is equivalent to double-backslash (see \\); it breaks a line, with no stretching of the text before it.
Inside a tabular
or array
environment, in a column with a
specifier producing a paragraph box, like typically p{...}
,
\newline
will insert a line break inside of the column, that is,
it does not break the entire row. To break the entire row use \\
or its equivalent \tabularnewline
.
This will print ‘Name:’ and ‘Address:’ as two lines in a single cell of the table.
\begin{tabular}{p{1in}{\hspace{2in}}p{1in}} Name: \newline Address: &Date: \\ \hline \end{tabular}
The ‘Date:’ will be baseline-aligned with ‘Name:’.
Next: \discretionary, Previous: \newline, Up: Line breaking [Contents][Index]
\-
(discretionary hyphen)The \-
command tells LaTeX that it may hyphenate the word at
that point. LaTeX is pretty good at hyphenating, and usually finds
most of the correct hyphenation points, while almost never using an
incorrect one. The \-
command is used for the exceptional
cases.
When you insert \-
commands in a word, the word will only be
hyphenated at those points and not at any of the hyphenation points
that LaTeX might otherwise have chosen.
Next: \fussy, Previous: \- (hyphenation), Up: Line breaking [Contents][Index]
\discretionary
(generalized hyphenation point)Synopsis:
\discretionary{pre-break-text}{post-break-text}{no-break-text}
Next: \sloppy, Previous: \discretionary, Up: Line breaking [Contents][Index]
\fussy
The declaration \fussy
(which is the default) makes TeX
picky about line breaking. This usually avoids too much space between
words, at the cost of an occasional overfull box.
This command cancels the effect of a previous \sloppy
command
(see \sloppy).
Next: \hyphenation, Previous: \fussy, Up: Line breaking [Contents][Index]
\sloppy
The declaration \sloppy
makes TeX less fussy about line
breaking. This will avoid overfull boxes, at the cost of loose
interword spacing.
Lasts until a \fussy
command is issued (see \fussy).
Next: \linebreak & \nolinebreak, Previous: \sloppy, Up: Line breaking [Contents][Index]
\hyphenation
Synopsis:
\hyphenation{word-one word-two}
The \hyphenation
command declares allowed hyphenation points
with a -
character in the given words. The words are separated
by spaces. TeX will only hyphenate if the word matches exactly, no
inflections are tried. Multiple \hyphenation
commands
accumulate. Some examples (the default TeX hyphenation patterns
misses the hyphenations in these words):
\hyphenation{ap-pen-dix col-umns data-base data-bases}
Previous: \hyphenation, Up: Line breaking [Contents][Index]
\linebreak
& \nolinebreak
Synopses:
\linebreak[priority] \nolinebreak[priority]
By default, the \linebreak
(\nolinebreak
) command forces
(prevents) a line break at the current position. For
\linebreak
, the spaces in the line are stretched out so that it
extends to the right margin as usual.
With the optional argument priority, you can convert the command from a demand to a request. The priority must be a number from 0 to 4. The higher the number, the more insistent the request.
Next: Footnotes, Previous: Line breaking, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
LaTeX starts new pages asynchronously, when enough material has accumulated to fill up a page. Usually this happens automatically, but sometimes you may want to influence the breaks.
• \cleardoublepage: | Start a new right-hand page. | |
• \clearpage: | Start a new page. | |
• \newpage: | Start a new page. | |
• \enlargethispage: | Enlarge the current page a bit. | |
• \pagebreak & \nopagebreak: | Forcing & avoiding page breaks. |
Next: \clearpage, Up: Page breaking [Contents][Index]
\cleardoublepage
The \cleardoublepage
command ends the current page and causes all
the pending floating figures and tables that have so far appeared in the
input to be printed. In a two-sided printing style, it also makes the
next page a right-hand (odd-numbered) page, producing a blank page if
necessary.
Next: \newpage, Previous: \cleardoublepage, Up: Page breaking [Contents][Index]
\clearpage
The \clearpage
command ends the current page and causes all the
pending floating figures and tables that have so far appeared in the
input to be printed.
Next: \enlargethispage, Previous: \clearpage, Up: Page breaking [Contents][Index]
\newpage
The \newpage
command ends the current page, but does not clear
floats (see \clearpage).
Next: \pagebreak & \nopagebreak, Previous: \newpage, Up: Page breaking [Contents][Index]
\enlargethispage
\enlargethispage{size}
\enlargethispage*{size}
Enlarge the \textheight
for the current page by the specified
amount; e.g., \enlargethispage{\baselineskip}
will allow one
additional line.
The starred form tries to squeeze the material together on the page as
much as possible. This is normally used together with an explicit
\pagebreak
.
Previous: \enlargethispage, Up: Page breaking [Contents][Index]
\pagebreak
& \nopagebreak
Synopses:
\pagebreak[priority] \nopagebreak[priority]
By default, the \pagebreak
(\nopagebreak
) command forces
(prevents) a page break at the current position. With
\pagebreak
, the vertical space on the page is stretched out
where possible so that it extends to the normal bottom margin.
With the optional argument priority, you can convert the
\pagebreak
command from a demand to a request. The number must
be a number from 0 to 4. The higher the number, the more
insistent the request is.
Next: Definitions, Previous: Page breaking, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
Place a numbered footnote at the bottom of the current page, as here.
Noël Coward quipped that having to read a footnote is like having to go downstairs to answer the door, while in the midst of making love.\footnote{I wouldn't know, I don't read footnotes.}
You can place multiple footnotes on a page. If the text becomes too long it will flow to the next page.
You can also produce footnotes by combining the \footnotemark
and
the \footnotetext
commands, which is useful in special
circumstances.
To make bibliographic references come out as footnotes you need to include a bibliographic style with that behavior.
• \footnote: | Insert a footnote. | |
• \footnotemark: | Insert footnote mark only. | |
• \footnotetext: | Insert footnote text only. | |
• Footnotes in a table: | Table footnotes. | |
• Footnotes in section headings: | Chapter or section titles. | |
• Footnotes of footnotes: | Multiple classes of footnotes. | |
• Multiple reference to footnotes: | Referring to a footnote more than once. | |
• Footnote parameters: | Parameters for footnote formatting. |
Next: \footnotemark, Up: Footnotes [Contents][Index]
\footnote
Synopsis:
\footnote[number]{text}
Place a numbered footnote text at the bottom of the current page.
There are over a thousand footnotes in Gibbon's \textit{Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire}.\footnote{After reading an early version with endnotes David Hume complained, ``One is also plagued with his Notes, according to the present Method of printing the Book'' and suggested that they ``only to be printed at the Margin or the Bottom of the Page.''}
The optional argument number allows you to specify the footnote number. If you use this option then the footnote number counter is not incremented, and if you do not use it then the counter is incremented.
Change how LaTeX shows the footnote counter with something like
\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\fnsymbol{footnote}}
, which
uses a sequence of symbols (see \alph \Alph \arabic \roman \Roman \fnsymbol). To make this change global put that in the preamble. If
you make the change local then you may want to reset the counter with
\setcounter{footnote}{0}
. By default LaTeX uses arabic
numbers.
LaTeX’s default puts many restrictions on where you can use a
\footnote
; for instance, you cannot use it in an argument to a
sectioning command such as \chapter
(it can only be used in outer
paragraph mode). There are some workarounds; see following sections.
In a minipage
environment the \footnote
command uses the mpfootnote
counter instead of the
footnote
counter, so they are numbered independently. They are
shown at the bottom of the environment, not at the bottom of the page.
And by default they are shown alphabetically. See minipage.
Next: \footnotetext, Previous: \footnote, Up: Footnotes [Contents][Index]
\footnotemark
Synopsis, one of:
\footnotemark \footnotemark[number]
Put the current footnote number in the text. (See \footnotetext for giving the text of the footnote separately.) The version with the optional argument number uses that number to determine the mark printed. This command can be used in inner paragraph mode.
This example gives the same institutional affiliation to both the first
and third authors (\thanks
is a version of footnote
).
\title{A Treatise on the Binomial Theorem} \author{J Moriarty\thanks{University of Leeds} \and A C Doyle\thanks{Durham University} \and S Holmes\footnotemark[1]} \begin{document} \maketitle
If you use \footnotemark
without the optional argument then it
increments the footnote counter but if you use the optional number
then it does not. This produces several consecutive footnote markers
referring to the same footnote.
The first theorem\footnote{Due to Gauss.} and the second theorem\footnotemark[\value{footnote}] and the third theorem.\footnotemark[\value{footnote}]
Next: Footnotes in a table, Previous: \footnotemark, Up: Footnotes [Contents][Index]
\footnotetext
Synopsis, one of:
\footnotetext{text} \footnotetext[number]{text}
Place text at the bottom of the page as a footnote. This command
can come anywhere after the \footnotemark
command. The optional
argument number changes the displayed footnote number. The
\footnotetext
command must appear in outer paragraph mode.
Next: Footnotes in section headings, Previous: \footnotetext, Up: Footnotes [Contents][Index]
Inside a table
environment the \footnote
command does not
work. For instance, if the code below appears on its own then the
footnote simply disappears; there is a footnote mark in the table cell
but nothing is set at the bottom of the page.
\begin{center} \begin{tabular}{l|l} \textsc{Ship} &\textsc{Book} \\ \hline \textit{HMS Sophie} &Master and Commander \\ \textit{HMS Polychrest} &Post Captain \\ \textit{HMS Lively} &Post Captain \\ \textit{HMS Surprise} &A number of books\footnote{Starting with HMS Surprise.} \end{tabular} \end{center}
The solution is to surround the tabular
environment with a
minipage
environment, as here (see minipage).
\begin{center} \begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth} ... tabular material ... \end{minipage} \end{center}
The same technique will work inside a floating table
environment
(see table). To get the footnote at the bottom of the page use the
tablefootnote package, as illustrated in this example. If you
put \usepackage{tablefootnote}
in the preamble and use the code
shown then the footnote appears at the bottom and is numbered in
sequence with other footnotes.
\begin{table} \centering \begin{tabular}{l|l} \textsc{Date} &\textsc{Campaign} \\ \hline 1862 &Fort Donelson \\ 1863 &Vicksburg \\ 1865 &Army of Northern Virginia\footnote{Ending the war.} \end{tabular} \caption{Forces captured by US Grant} \end{table}
Next: Footnotes of footnotes, Previous: Footnotes in a table, Up: Footnotes [Contents][Index]
Putting a footnote in a section heading, as in:
\section{Full sets\protect\footnote{This material due to ...}}
causes the footnote to appear at the bottom of the page where the
section starts, as usual, but also at the bottom of the table of
contents, where it is not likely to be desired. To have it not appear
on the table of contents use the package footmisc with the
stable
option.
\usepackage[stable]{footmisc} ... \begin{document} ... \section{Full sets\footnote{This material due to ...}}
Note that the \protect
is gone; including it would cause the
footnote to reappear on the table of contents.
Next: Multiple reference to footnotes, Previous: Footnotes in section headings, Up: Footnotes [Contents][Index]
Particularly in the humanities, authors can have multiple classes of footnotes, including having footnotes of footnotes. The package bigfoot extends LaTeX’s default footnote mechanism in many ways, including allow these two, as in this example.
\usepackage{bigfoot} \DeclareNewFootnote{Default} \DeclareNewFootnote{from}[alph] % create class \footnotefrom{} ... \begin{document} ... The third theorem is a partial converse of the second.\footnotefrom{First noted in Wilson.\footnote{Second edition only.}} ...
Next: Footnote parameters, Previous: Footnotes of footnotes, Up: Footnotes [Contents][Index]
You can refer to a single footnote more than once. This example uses the package cleverref.
\usepackage{cleveref}[2012/02/15] % this version of package or later \crefformat{footnote}{#2\footnotemark[#1]#3} ... \begin{document} ... The theorem is from Evers.\footnote{\label{fn:TE}Tinker and Evers, 1994.} The corollary is from Chance.\footnote{Evers and Chance, 1990.} But the key lemma is from Tinker.\cref{fn:TE} ...
This solution will work with the package hyperref. See \footnotemark for a simpler solution in the common case of multiple authors with the same affiliation.
Previous: Multiple reference to footnotes, Up: Footnotes [Contents][Index]
\footnoterule
Produces the rule separating the main text on a page from the page’s
footnotes. Default dimensions: 0.4pt
thick (or wide), and
0.4\columnwidth
long in the standard document classes (except
slides
, where it does not appear).
\footnotesep
The height of the strut placed at the beginning of the footnote. By
default, this is set to the normal strut for \footnotesize
fonts (see Font sizes), therefore there is no extra space between
footnotes. This is ‘6.65pt’ for ‘10pt’, ‘7.7pt’ for
‘11pt’, and ‘8.4pt’ for ‘12pt’.
LaTeX has support for making new commands of many different kinds.
• \newcommand & \renewcommand: | (Re)define a new command. | |
• \providecommand: | Define a new command, if name not used. | |
• \newcounter: | Define a new counter. | |
• \newlength: | Define a new length. | |
• \newsavebox: | Define a new box. | |
• \newenvironment & \renewenvironment: | Define a new environment. | |
• \newtheorem: | Define a new theorem-like environment. | |
• \newfont: | Define a new font name. | |
• \protect: | Using tricky commands. | |
• \ignorespaces & \ignorespacesafterend: | Discard extra spaces. |
Next: \providecommand, Up: Definitions [Contents][Index]
\newcommand
& \renewcommand
\newcommand
and \renewcommand
define and redefine a
command, respectively. Synopses:
\newcommand{\cmd}[nargs][optargdefault]{defn} \newcommand*{\cmd}[nargs][optargdefault]{defn} \renewcommand{\cmd}[nargs][optargdefault]{defn} \renewcommand*{\cmd}[nargs][optargdefault]{defn}
The starred form of these two commands requires that the arguments not
contain multiple paragraphs of text (not \long
, in plain TeX
terms).
Required; \cmd
is the command name. For \newcommand
, it
must not be already defined and must not begin with \end
. For
\renewcommand
, it must already be defined.
Optional; an integer from 0 to 9, specifying the number of arguments that the command can take, including any optional argument. If this argument is not present, the default is for the command to have no arguments. When redefining a command, the new version can have a different number of arguments than the old version.
Optional; if this argument is present then the first argument of defined
command \cmd
is optional, with default value optargdefault
(which may be the empty string). If this argument is not present then
\cmd
does not take an optional argument.
That is, if \cmd
is used with square brackets following,
as in \cmd[myval]
, then within defn the first
positional parameter #1
expands myval. On the
other hand, if \cmd
is called without square brackets
following, then within defn the positional parameter #1
expands to the default optargdefault. In either case, any
required arguments will be referred to starting with #2
.
Omitting [myval]
in a call is different from having the
square brackets with no contents, as in []
. The former results
in #1
expanding to optargdefault; the latter results in
#1
expanding to the empty string.
The text to be substituted for every occurrence of \cmd
; the
positional parameter #n
in defn is replaced by
the text of the nth argument.
TeX ignores spaces in the source following an alphabetic control
sequence, as in ‘\cmd ’. If you actually want a space there, one
solution is to type {}
after the command (‘\cmd{} ’;
another solution is to use an explicit control space (‘\cmd\ ’).
A simple example of defining a new command:
\newcommand{\RS}{Robin Smith}
results in
\RS
being replaced by the longer text.
Redefining an existing command is similar:
\renewcommand{\qedsymbol}{{\small QED}}
.
Here’s a command definition with one required argument:
\newcommand{\defref}[1]{Definition~\ref{#1}}
Then, \defref{def:basis}
expands to
Definition~\ref{def:basis}
, which will ultimately expand to
something like ‘Definition~3.14’.
An example with two required arguments:
\newcommand{\nbym}[2]{$#1 \times #2$}
is invoked as
\nbym{2}{k}
.
An example with an optional argument:
\newcommand{\salutation}[1][Sir or Madam]{Dear #1:}
Then, \salutation
gives ‘Dear Sir or Madam:’ while
\salutation[John]
gives ‘Dear John:’. And
\salutation[]
gives ‘Dear :’.
The braces around defn do not define a group, that is, they do
not delimit the scope of the result of expanding defn. So
\newcommand{\shipname}[1]{\it #1}
is problematic; in this
sentence,
The \shipname{Monitor} met the \shipname{Merrimac}.
the words ‘met the’ would incorrectly be in italics. Another
pair of braces in the definition is needed, like this:
\newcommand{\shipname}[1]{{\it #1}}
. Those braces are
part of the definition and thus do define a group.
Next: \newcounter, Previous: \newcommand & \renewcommand, Up: Definitions [Contents][Index]
\providecommand
Defines a command, as long as no command of this name already exists. Synopses:
\providecommand{cmd}[nargs][optargdefault]{defn} \providecommand*{cmd}[nargs][optargdefault]{defn}
If no command of this name already exists then this has the same effect
as \newcommand
(see \newcommand & \renewcommand). If a
command of this name already exists then this definition does nothing.
This is particularly useful in a style file, or other file that may be
loaded more than once.
Next: \newlength, Previous: \providecommand, Up: Definitions [Contents][Index]
\newcounter
: Allocating a counterSynopsis, one of:
\newcounter{countername} \newcounter{countername}[supercounter]
Globally defines a new counter named countername and initialize the new counter to zero.
The name countername must consists of letters only, and does not begin with a backslash. This name must not already be in use by another counter.
When you use the optional argument [supercounter]
then
countername will be numbered within, or subsidiary to, the
existing counter supercounter. For example, ordinarily
subsection
is numbered within section
so that any time
supercounter is incremented with \stepcounter
(see \stepcounter) or \refstepcounter
(see \refstepcounter) then countername is reset to zero.
See Counters, for more information about counters.
Next: \newsavebox, Previous: \newcounter, Up: Definitions [Contents][Index]
\newlength
: Allocating a lengthAllocate a new length register. Synopsis:
\newlength{\arg}
This command takes one required argument, which must begin with a
backslash (‘\’). It creates a new length register named
\arg
, which is a place to hold (rubber) lengths such as
1in plus.2in minus.1in
(what plain TeX calls a skip
register). The register gets an initial value of zero. The control
sequence \arg
must not already be defined.
See Lengths, for more about lengths.
Next: \newenvironment & \renewenvironment, Previous: \newlength, Up: Definitions [Contents][Index]
\newsavebox
: Allocating a boxAllocate a “bin” for holding a box. Synopsis:
\newsavebox{\cmd}
Defines \cmd
to refer to a new bin for storing boxes.
Such a box is for holding typeset material, to use multiple times
(see Boxes) or to measure or manipulate. The name
\cmd
must start with a backslash (‘\’), and must not
be already defined.
The allocation of a box is global. This command is fragile (see \protect).
Next: \newtheorem, Previous: \newsavebox, Up: Definitions [Contents][Index]
\newenvironment
& \renewenvironment
These commands define or redefine an environment env, that is,
\begin{env} body \end{env}
. Synopses:
\newenvironment{env}[nargs][optargdefault]{begdefn}{enddefn} \newenvironment*{env}[nargs][optargdefault]{begdefn}{enddefn} \renewenvironment{env}[nargs][optargdefault]{begdefn}{enddefn} \renewenvironment*{env}[nargs][optargdefault]{begdefn}{enddefn}
The starred form of these commands requires that the arguments not contain multiple paragraphs of text. The body of these environments can still contain multiple paragraphs.
Required; the environment name. It consists only of letters or the
*
character, and thus does not begin with backslash
(\
). It must not begin with the string end
. For
\newenvironment
, the name env must not be the name of an
already existing environment, and also the command \env
must be undefined. For \renewenvironment
, env must be the
name of an existing environment.
Optional; an integer from 0 to 9 denoting the number of arguments of
that the environment will take. When the environment is used these
arguments appear after the \begin
, as in
\begin{env}{arg1}…{argn}
. If this
argument is not present then the default is for the environment to have
no arguments. When redefining an environment, the new version can have
a different number of arguments than the old version.
Optional; if this argument is present then the first argument of the defined environment is optional, with default value optargdefault (which may be the empty string). If this argument is not present then the environment does not take an optional argument.
That is, when [optargdefault]
is present in the
environment definition, if \begin{env}
is used with
square brackets following, as in
\begin{env}[myval]
, then, within begdefn,
the positional parameter #1
expands to myval. If
\begin{env}
is called without square brackets
following, then, within within begdefn, the positional parameter
#1
expands to the default optargdefault. In either case,
any required arguments will be referred to starting with #2
.
Omitting [myval]
in the call is different from having the
square brackets with no contents, as in []
. The former results
in #1
expanding to optargdefault; the latter results in
#1
expanding to the empty string.
Required; the text expanded at every occurrence of
\begin{env}
. Within begdef, the nth
positional parameter (i.e., #n
) is replaced by the text
of the nth argument.
Required; the text expanded at every occurrence of
\end{env}
. This may not contain any positional
parameters, so #n
cannot be used here (but see the final
example below).
All environments, that is to say the begdefn code, the environment
body and the enddefn code, are processed within a group. Thus, in
the first example below, the effect of the \small
is limited to
the quote and does not extend to material following the environment.
This example gives an environment like LaTeX’s quotation
except that it will be set in smaller type:
\newenvironment{smallquote}{% \small\begin{quotation} }{% \end{quotation} }
This one shows the use of arguments; it gives a quotation environment that cites the author:
\newenvironment{citequote}[1][Shakespeare]{% \begin{quotation} \noindent\textit{#1}: }{% \end{quotation} }
The author’s name is optional, and defaults to ‘Shakespeare’. In the document, use the environment like this:
\begin{citequote}[Lincoln] ... \end{citequote}
The final example shows how to save the value of an argument to use in enddefn, in this case in a box (see \sbox):
\newsavebox{\quoteauthor} \newenvironment{citequote}[1][Shakespeare]{% \sbox\quoteauthor{#1}% \begin{quotation} }{% \hspace{1em plus 1fill}---\usebox{\quoteauthor} \end{quotation} }
Next: \newfont, Previous: \newenvironment & \renewenvironment, Up: Definitions [Contents][Index]
\newtheorem
Define a new theorem-like environment. Synopses:
\newtheorem{name}{title} \newtheorem{name}{title}[numbered_within] \newtheorem{name}[numbered_like]{title}
Using the first form, \newtheorem{name}{title}
creates an environment that will be labelled with title. See the
first example below.
The second form
\newtheorem{name}{title}[numbered_within]
creates an environment whose counter is subordinate to the existing
counter numbered_within (its counter will be reset when
numbered_within is reset).
The third form
\newtheorem{name}[numbered_like]{title}
,
with optional argument between the two required arguments, will create
an environment whose counter will share the previously defined counter
numbered_like.
You can specify one of numbered_within and numbered_like, or neither, but not both.
This command creates a counter named name. In addition, unless
the optional argument numbered_like is used, inside of the
theorem-like environment the current \ref
value will be that of
\thenumbered_within
(see \ref).
This declaration is global. It is fragile (see \protect).
Arguments:
The name of the environment. It must not begin with a backslash
(‘\’). It must not be the name of an existing environment; indeed,
the command name \name
must not already be defined as anything.
The text printed at the beginning of the environment, before the number. For example, ‘Theorem’.
Optional; the name of an already defined counter, usually a sectional
unit such as chapter
or section
. When the
numbered_within counter is reset then the name environment’s
counter will also be reset.
If this optional argument is not used then the command
\thename
is set to \arabic{name}
.
Optional; the name of an already defined theorem-like environment. The new environment will be numbered in sequence with numbered_like.
Without any optional arguments the environments are numbered sequentially. The example below has a declaration in the preamble that results in ‘Definition 1’ and ‘Definition 2’ in the output.
\newtheorem{defn}{Definition} \begin{document} \section{...} \begin{defn} First def \end{defn} \section{...} \begin{defn} Second def \end{defn}
Because the next example specifies the optional argument
numbered_within to \newtheorem
as section
, the
example, with the same document body, gives ‘Definition 1.1’
and ‘Definition 2.1’.
\newtheorem{defn}{Definition}[section] \begin{document} \section{...} \begin{defn} First def \end{defn} \section{...} \begin{defn} Second def \end{defn}
In the next example there are two declarations in the preamble, the
second of which calls for the new thm
environment to use the same
counter as defn
. It gives ‘Definition 1.1’, followed
by ‘Theorem 2.1’ and ‘Definition 2.2’.
\newtheorem{defn}{Definition}[section] \newtheorem{thm}[defn]{Theorem} \begin{document} \section{...} \begin{defn} First def \end{defn} \section{...} \begin{thm} First thm \end{thm} \begin{defn} Second def \end{defn}
Next: \protect, Previous: \newtheorem, Up: Definitions [Contents][Index]
\newfont
: Define a new font (obsolete)\newfont
, now obsolete, defines a command that will switch fonts.
Synopsis:
\newfont{\cmd}{font description}
This defines a control sequence \cmd
that will change the
current font. LaTeX will look on your system for a file named
fontname.tfm. The control sequence must must not already
be defined. It must begin with a backslash (‘\’).
This command is obsolete. It is a low-level command for setting up an individual font. Today fonts are almost always defined in families (which allows you to, for example, associate a boldface with a roman) through the so-called “New Font Selection Scheme”, either by using .fd files or through the use of an engine that can access system fonts such as XeLaTeX (see TeX engines).
But since it is part of LaTeX, here is an explanation: the
font description consists of a fontname and an optional
at clause; this can have the form either at dimen
or scaled factor
, where a factor of ‘1000’
means no scaling. For LaTeX’s purposes, all this does is scale all
the character and other font dimensions relative to the font’s design
size, which is a value defined in the .tfm file.
This example defines two equivalent fonts and typesets a few characters in each:
\newfont{\testfontat}{cmb10 at 11pt} \newfont{\testfontscaled}{cmb10 scaled 1100} \testfontat abc \testfontscaled abc
Next: \ignorespaces & \ignorespacesafterend, Previous: \newfont, Up: Definitions [Contents][Index]
\protect
All LaTeX commands are either fragile or robust. A
fragile command can break when it is used in the argument to certain
other commands. Commands that contain data that LaTeX writes to an
auxiliary file and re-reads later are fragile. This includes material
that goes into a table of contents, list of figures, list of tables,
etc. Fragile commands also include line breaks, any command that has an
optional argument, and many more. To prevent such commands from
breaking, one solution is to preceded them with the command
\protect
.
For example, when LaTeX runs the \section{section
name}
command it writes the section name text to the
.aux auxiliary file, moving it there for use elsewhere in the
document such as in the table of contents. Any argument that is
internally expanded by LaTeX without typesetting it directly is
referred to as a
moving argument. A command is fragile if it can
expand during this process into invalid TeX code. Some examples of
moving arguments are those that appear in the \caption{...}
command (see figure), in the \thanks{...}
command
(see \maketitle), and in @-expressions in the tabular
and
array
environments (see tabular).
If you get strange errors from commands used in moving arguments, try
preceding it with \protect
. Every fragile commands must be
protected with their own \protect
.
Although usually a \protect
command doesn’t hurt, length
commands are robust and should not be preceded by a \protect
command. Nor can a \protect
command be used in the argument to
\addtocounter
or \setcounter
command.
In this example the \caption
command gives a mysterious error
about an extra curly brace. Fix the problem by preceding each
\raisebox
command with \protect
.
\begin{figure} ... \caption{Company headquarters of A\raisebox{1pt}{B}\raisebox{-1pt}{C}} \end{figure}
In the next example the \tableofcontents
command gives an error
because the \(..\)
in the section title expands to illegal TeX
in the .toc file. You can solve this by changing \(..\)
to \protect\(..\protect\)
.
\begin{document} \tableofcontents ... \section{Einstein's \( e=mc^2 \)} ...
Previous: \protect, Up: Definitions [Contents][Index]
\ignorespaces & \ignorespacesafterend
Synopsis:
\ignorespaces
or
\ignorespacesafterend
Both commands cause LaTeX to ignore spaces after the end of the command up until the first non-space character. The first is a command from Plain TeX, and the second is LaTeX-specific.
The ignorespaces
is often used when defining commands via
\newcommand
, or \newenvironment
, or \def
. The
example below illustrates. It allows a user to show the points values
for quiz questions in the margin but it is inconvenient because, as
shown in the enumerate
list, users must not put any space between
the command and the question text.
\newcommand{\points}[1]{\makebox[0pt]{\makebox[10em][l]{#1~pts}} \begin{enumerate} \item\points{10}no extra space output here \item\points{15} extra space output between the number and the word `extra' \end{enumerate}
The solution is to change to
\newcommand{\points}[1]{\makebox[0pt]{\makebox[10em][l]{#1~pts}}\ignorespaces}
.
A second example shows spaces being removed from the front of text. The
commands below allow a user to uniformly attach a title to names. But,
as given, if a title accidentally starts with a space then
\fullname
will reproduce that.
\makeatletter \newcommand{\honorific}[1]{\def\@honorific{#1}} % remember title \newcommand{\fullname}[1]{\@honorific~#1} % recall title; put before name \makeatother \begin{tabular}{|l|} \honorific{Mr/Ms} \fullname{Jones} \\ % no extra space here \honorific{ Mr/Ms} \fullname{Jones} % extra space before title \end{tabular}
To fix this, change to
\newcommand{\fullname}[1]{\ignorespaces\@honorific~#1}
.
The \ignorespaces
is also often used in a \newenvironment
at the end of the begin clause, that is, as part of the second
argument, as in \begin{newenvironment}{env
name}{... \ignorespaces}{...}
.
To strip spaces off the end of an environment use
\ignorespacesafterend
. An example is that this will show a much
larger vertical space between the first and second environments than
between the second and third.
\newenvironment{eq}{\begin{equation}}{\end{equation}} \begin{eq} e=mc^2 \end{eq} \begin{equation} F=ma \end{equation} \begin{equation} E=IR \end{equation}
Putting a comment character %
immediately after the
\end{eq}
will make the vertical space disappear, but that is
inconvenient. The solution is to change to
\newenvironment{eq}{\begin{equation}}{\end{equation}\ignorespacesafterend}
.
Next: Lengths, Previous: Definitions, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
Everything LaTeX numbers for you has a counter associated with
it. The name of the counter is often the same as the name of the
environment or command associated with the number, except that the
counter’s name has no backslash \
. Thus, associated with
the \chapter
command is the chapter
counter that keeps
track of the chapter number.
Below is a list of the counters used in LaTeX’s standard document classes to control numbering.
part paragraph figure enumi chapter subparagraph table enumii section page footnote enumiii subsection equation mpfootnote enumiv subsubsection
The mpfootnote
counter is used by the \footnote
command
inside of a minipage (see minipage). The counters enumi
through enumiv
are used in the enumerate
environment, for
up to four levels of nesting (see enumerate).
New counters are created with \newcounter
. See \newcounter.
• \alph \Alph \arabic \roman \Roman \fnsymbol: | Print value of a counter. | |
• \usecounter: | Use a specified counter in a list environment. | |
• \value: | Use the value of a counter in an expression. | |
• \setcounter: | Set the value of a counter. | |
• \addtocounter: | Add a quantity to a counter. | |
• \refstepcounter: | Add to a counter. | |
• \stepcounter: | Add to a counter, resetting subsidiary counters. | |
• \day \month \year: | Numeric date values. |
Next: \usecounter, Up: Counters [Contents][Index]
\alph \Alph \arabic \roman \Roman \fnsymbol
: Printing countersPrint the value of a counter, in a specified style. For instance, if
the counter counter has the value 1 then a
\alph{counter}
in your source will result in a lower case
letter a appearing in the output.
All of these commands take a single counter as an argument, for
instance, \alph{enumi}
. Note that the counter name does not
start with a backslash.
\alph{counter}
Print the value of counter in lowercase letters: ‘a’, ‘b’, ...
\Alph{counter}
Print in uppercase letters: ‘A’, ‘B’, ...
\arabic{counter}
Print in Arabic numbers: ‘1’, ‘2’, ...
\roman{counter}
Print in lowercase roman numerals: ‘i’, ‘ii’, ...
\Roman{counter}
Print in uppercase roman numerals: ‘I’, ‘II’, ...
\fnsymbol{counter}
Prints the value of counter in a specific sequence of nine symbols (conventionally used for labeling footnotes). The value of counter must be between 1 and 9, inclusive.
Here are the symbols:
Name | Command | Equivalent Unicode symbol and/or numeric code point |
---|---|---|
asterisk | \ast | * |
dagger | \dagger | † |
ddagger | \ddagger | ‡ |
section-sign | \S | § |
paragraph-sign | \P | ¶ |
double-vert | \parallel | ‖ |
double-asterisk | \ast\ast | ** |
double-dagger | \dagger\dagger | †† |
double-ddagger | \ddagger\ddagger | ‡‡ |
Next: \value, Previous: \alph \Alph \arabic \roman \Roman \fnsymbol, Up: Counters [Contents][Index]
\usecounter{counter}
Synopsis:
\usecounter{counter}
In the list
environment, when used in the second argument, this
command sets up counter to number the list items. It initializes
counter to zero, and arranges that when \item
is called
without its optional argument then counter is incremented by
\refstepcounter
, making its value be the current ref
value. This command is fragile (see \protect).
Put in the preamble, this makes a new list environment enumerated with testcounter:
\newcounter{testcounter} \newenvironment{test}{% \begin{list}{}{% \usecounter{testcounter} } }{% \end{list} }
Next: \setcounter, Previous: \usecounter, Up: Counters [Contents][Index]
\value{counter}
Synopsis:
\value{counter}
This command expands to the value of counter. It is often used
in \setcounter
or \addtocounter
, but \value
can
be used anywhere that LaTeX expects a number. It must not be
preceded by \protect
(see \protect).
The \value
command is not used for typesetting the value of the
counter. See \alph \Alph \arabic \roman \Roman \fnsymbol.
This example outputs ‘Test counter is 6. Other counter is 5.’.
\newcounter{test} \setcounter{test}{5} \newcounter{other} \setcounter{other}{\value{test}} \addtocounter{test}{1} Test counter is \arabic{test}. Other counter is \arabic{other}.
This example inserts \hspace{4\parindent}
.
\setcounter{myctr}{3} \addtocounter{myctr}{1} \hspace{\value{myctr}\parindent}
Next: \addtocounter, Previous: \value, Up: Counters [Contents][Index]
\setcounter{counter}{value}
Synopsis:
\setcounter{counter}{value}
The \setcounter
command globally sets the value of counter
to the value argument. Note that the counter name does not start
with a backslash.
In this example the section value appears as ‘V’.
\setcounter{section}{5} Here it is in Roman: \Roman{section}.
Next: \refstepcounter, Previous: \setcounter, Up: Counters [Contents][Index]
\addtocounter{counter}{value}
The \addtocounter
command globally increments counter by
the amount specified by the value argument, which may be negative.
In this example the section value appears as ‘VII’.
\setcounter{section}{5} \addtocounter{section}{2} Here it is in Roman: \Roman{section}.
Next: \stepcounter, Previous: \addtocounter, Up: Counters [Contents][Index]
\refstepcounter{counter}
The \refstepcounter
command works in the same way as
\stepcounter
(see \stepcounter): it globally increments the
value of counter by one and resets the value of any counter
numbered within it. (For the definition of “counters numbered
within”, see \newcounter.)
In addition, this command also defines the current \ref
value
to be the result of \thecounter
.
While the counter value is set globally, the \ref
value is set
locally, i.e., inside the current group.
Next: \day \month \year, Previous: \refstepcounter, Up: Counters [Contents][Index]
\stepcounter{counter}
The \stepcounter
command globally adds one to counter and
resets all counters numbered within it. (For the definition of
“counters numbered within”, see \newcounter.)
Previous: \stepcounter, Up: Counters [Contents][Index]
\day \month \year
: Predefined countersLaTeX defines counters for the day of the month (\day
,
1–31), month of the year (\month
, 1–12), and year
(\year
, Common Era). When TeX starts up, they are
set to the current values on the system where TeX is running. They
are not updated as the job progresses.
The related command \today
produces a string representing the
current day (see \today).
Next: Making paragraphs, Previous: Counters, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
A length is a measure of distance. Many LaTeX commands take a length as an argument.
Lengths come in two types. A rigid length (what Plain TeX
calls a dimen) such as 10pt
cannot contain a plus
or
minus
component. A rubber length (what Plain TeX calls
a skip) can contain those, as with 1cm plus0.05cm
minus0.01cm
. These give the ability to stretch or shrink; the length
in the prior sentence could appear in the output as long as 1.05 cm
or as short as 0.99 cm, depending on what TeX’s typesetting
algorithm finds optimum.
The plus
or minus
component of a rubber length can contain
a fill component, as in 1in plus2fill
. This gives the
length infinite stretchability or shrinkability, so that the length in
the prior sentence can be set by TeX to any distance greater than or
equal to 1 inch. TeX actually provides three infinite glue
components fil
, fill
, and filll
, such that the
later ones overcome the earlier ones, but only the middle value is
ordinarily used. See \hfill, See \vfill.
Multiplying an entire rubber length by a number turns it into a rigid
length, so that after \setlength{\ylength}{1in plus 0.2in}
and \setlength{\zlength}{3\ylength}
then the value of
\zlength
is 3in
.
• Units of length: | The units that LaTeX knows. | |
• \setlength: | Set the value of a length. | |
• \addtolength: | Add a quantity to a length. | |
• \settodepth: | Set a length to the depth of something. | |
• \settoheight: | Set a length to the height of something. | |
• \settowidth: | Set a length to the width of something. | |
• Predefined lengths: | Lengths that are, like, predefined. |
Next: \setlength, Up: Lengths [Contents][Index]
TeX and LaTeX know about these units both inside and outside of math mode.
pt
Point 1/72.27 inch. The conversion to metric units, to two decimal places, is 1point = 2.85mm = 28.45cm.
pc
Pica, 12 pt
in
Inch, 72.27 pt
bp
Big point, 1/72 inch. This length is the definition of a point in PostScript and many desktop publishing systems.
cm
Centimeter
mm
Millimeter
dd
Didot point, 1.07 pt
cc
Cicero, 12 dd
sp
Scaled point, 1/65536 pt
Two other lengths that are often used are values set by the designer of
the font. The x-height of the current font ex, traditionally the
height of the lower case letter x, is often used for vertical
lengths. Similarly em, traditionally the width of the capital
letter M, is often used for horizontal lengths (there is also
\enspace
, which is 0.5em
). Use of these can help make a
definition work better across font changes. For example, a definition
of the vertical space between list items given as
\setlength{\itemsep}{1ex plus 0.05ex minus 0.01ex}
is more
likely to still be reasonable if the font is changed than a definition
given in points.
In math mode, many definitions are expressed in terms of the math unit mu given by 1 em = 18 mu, where the em is taken from the current math symbols family. See Spacing in math mode.
Next: \addtolength, Previous: Units of length, Up: Lengths [Contents][Index]
\setlength
Synopsis:
\setlength{\len}{amount}
The \setlength
sets the value of length command
\len
to the value argument which can be expressed in any
units that LaTeX understands, i.e., inches (in
), millimeters
(mm
), points (pt
), big points (bp
), etc.
Next: \settodepth, Previous: \setlength, Up: Lengths [Contents][Index]
\addtolength
Synopsis:
\addtolength{\len}{amount}
The \addtolength
command increments a length command \len
by the amount specified in the amount argument, which may be
negative.
Next: \settoheight, Previous: \addtolength, Up: Lengths [Contents][Index]
\settodepth
Synopsis:
\settodepth{\len}{text}
The \settodepth
command sets the value of a length command
\len
equal to the depth of the text argument.
Next: \settowidth, Previous: \settodepth, Up: Lengths [Contents][Index]
\settoheight
Synopsis:
\settoheight{\len}{text}
The \settoheight
command sets the value of a length command \len
equal to the height of the text
argument.
Next: Predefined lengths, Previous: \settoheight, Up: Lengths [Contents][Index]
\settowidth{\len}{text}
Synopsis:
\settowidth{\len}{text}
The \settowidth
command sets the value of the command \len
to the width of the text argument.
Previous: \settowidth, Up: Lengths [Contents][Index]
These length parameters can be used in the arguments of the box-making
commands (see Boxes). They specify the natural width, etc., of
the text in the box. \totalheight
equals \height
+
\depth
. To make a box with the text stretched to double the
natural size, e.g., say
\makebox[2\width]{Get a stretcher}
Next: Math formulas, Previous: Lengths, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
A paragraph is ended by one or more completely blank lines—lines not
containing even a %
. A blank line should not appear where a new
paragraph cannot be started, such as in math mode or in the argument of
a sectioning command.
• \indent: | Indent this paragraph. | |
• \noindent: | Do not indent this paragraph. | |
• \parskip: | Space added before paragraphs. | |
• Marginal notes: | Putting remarks in the margin. |
Next: \noindent, Up: Making paragraphs [Contents][Index]
\indent
\indent
produces a horizontal space whose width equals to the
\parindent
length, the normal paragraph indentation. It is used
to add paragraph indentation where it would otherwise be suppressed.
The default value for \parindent
is 1em
in two-column
mode, otherwise 15pt
for 10pt
documents, 17pt
for
11pt
, and 1.5em
for 12pt
.
Next: \parskip, Previous: \indent, Up: Making paragraphs [Contents][Index]
\noindent
When used at the beginning of the paragraph, this command suppresses any paragraph indentation, as in this example.
... end of the prior paragraph. \noindent This paragraph is not indented.
It has no effect when used in the middle of a paragraph.
To eliminate paragraph indentation in an entire document, put
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
in the preamble.
Next: Marginal notes, Previous: \noindent, Up: Making paragraphs [Contents][Index]
\parskip
\parskip
is a rubber length defining extra vertical space added
before each paragraph. The default is 0pt plus1pt
.
Previous: \parskip, Up: Making paragraphs [Contents][Index]
Synopsis:
\marginpar[left]{right}
The \marginpar
command creates a note in the margin. The first
line of the note will have the same baseline as the line in the text
where the \marginpar
occurs.
When you only specify the mandatory argument right, the text will be placed
oneside
, see Document class options);
twoside
, see Document class options);
twocolumn
, see Document class options).
The command \reversemarginpar
places subsequent marginal notes
in the opposite (inside) margin. \normalmarginpar
places them
in the default position.
When you specify both arguments, left is used for the left margin, and right is used for the right margin.
The first word will normally not be hyphenated; you can enable
hyphenation there by beginning the node with \hspace{0pt}
.
These parameters affect the formatting of the note:
\marginparpush
Minimum vertical space between notes; default ‘7pt’ for ‘12pt’ documents, ‘5pt’ else.
\marginparsep
Horizontal space between the main text and the note; default ‘11pt’ for ‘10pt’ documents, ‘10pt’ else.
\marginparwidth
Width of the note itself; default for a one-sided ‘10pt’ document is ‘90pt’, ‘83pt’ for ‘11pt’, and ‘68pt’ for ‘12pt’; ‘17pt’ more in each case for a two-sided document. In two column mode, the default is ‘48pt’.
The standard LaTeX routine for marginal notes does not prevent notes from falling off the bottom of the page.
Next: Modes, Previous: Making paragraphs, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
There are three environments that put LaTeX in math mode:
math
For formulas that appear right in the text.
displaymath
For formulas that appear on their own line.
equation
The same as the displaymath environment except that it adds an equation number in the right margin.
The math
environment can be used in both paragraph and LR mode,
but the displaymath
and equation
environments can be used
only in paragraph mode. The math
and displaymath
environments are used so often that they have the following short forms:
\(...\) instead of \begin{math}...\end{math} \[...\] instead of \begin{displaymath}...\end{displaymath}
In fact, the math
environment is so common that it has an even
shorter form:
$ ... $ instead of \(...\)
The \boldmath
command changes math letters and symbols to be in
a bold font. It is used outside of math mode. Conversely, the
\unboldmath
command changes math glyphs to be in a normal font;
it too is used outside of math mode.
The \displaystyle
declaration forces the size and style of the
formula to be that of displaymath
, e.g., with limits above and
below summations. For example:
$\displaystyle \sum_{n=0}^\infty x_n $
• Subscripts & superscripts: | Also known as exponent or index. | |
• Math symbols: | Various mathematical squiggles. | |
• Math functions: | Math function names like sin and exp. | |
• Math accents: | Accents in math. | |
• Spacing in math mode: | Thick, medium, thin and negative spaces. | |
• Math miscellany: | Stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else. |
Next: Math symbols, Up: Math formulas [Contents][Index]
In math mode, use the caret character ^
to make the
exp appear as a superscript: ^{exp}
.
Similarly, in math mode, underscore _{exp}
makes a
subscript out of exp.
In this example the 0
and 1
appear as subscripts while the
2
is a superscript.
\( (x_0+x_1)^2 \)
To have more than one character in exp use curly braces as in
e^{-2x}
.
LaTeX handles superscripts on superscripts, and all of that stuff, in
the natural way, so expressions such as e^{x^2}
and
x_{a_0}
will look right. It also does the right thing when
something has both a subscript and a superscript. In this example the
0
appears at the bottom of the integral sign while the 10
appears at the top.
\int_0^{10} x^2 \,dx
You can put a superscript or subscript before a symbol with a construct
such as {}_t K^2
in math mode (the initial {}
prevents
the prefixed subscript from being attached to any prior symbols in the
expression).
Outside of math mode, a construct like A
test$_\textnormal{subscript}$
will produce a subscript typeset in
text mode, not math mode. Note that there are packages specialized for
writing Chemical formulas such as mhchem.
Next: Math functions, Previous: Subscripts & superscripts, Up: Math formulas [Contents][Index]
LaTeX provides almost any mathematical symbol you’re likely to need.
For example, if you include $\pi$
in your source, you will get
the pi symbol π.
Below is a list of commonly-available symbols. It is by no means an exhaustive list. Each symbol here is described with a short phrase, and its symbol class (which determines the spacing around it) is given in parenthesis. Unless said otherwise, the commands for these symbols can be used only in math mode.
To redefine a command so that it can be used whatever the current mode, see \ensuremath.
\|
∥ Parallel (relation). Synonym: \parallel
.
\aleph
ℵ Aleph, transfinite cardinal (ordinary).
\alpha
α Lower case Greek letter alpha (ordinary).
\amalg
⨿ Disjoint union (binary)
\angle
∠ Geometric angle (ordinary). Similar: less-than
sign <
and angle bracket \langle
.
\approx
≈ Almost equal to (relation).
\ast
∗ Asterisk operator, convolution, six-pointed
(binary). Synonym: *
, which is often a superscript or
subscript, as in the Kleene star. Similar: \star
, which is
five-pointed, and is sometimes used as a general binary operation, and
sometimes reserved for cross-correlation.
\asymp
≍ Asymptotically equivalent (relation).
\backslash
\ Backslash (ordinary). Similar: set minus \setminus
, and
\textbackslash
for backslash outside of math mode.
\beta
β Lower case Greek letter beta (ordinary).
\bigcap
⋂ Variable-sized, or n-ary, intersection (operator). Similar:
binary intersection \cap
.
\bigcirc
⚪ Circle, larger (binary). Similar: function
composition \circ
.
\bigcup
⋃ Variable-sized, or n-ary, union (operator). Similar: binary
union \cup
.
\bigodot
⨀ Variable-sized, or n-ary, circled dot operator (operator).
\bigoplus
⨁ Variable-sized, or n-ary, circled plus operator (operator).
\bigotimes
⨂ Variable-sized, or n-ary, circled times operator (operator).
\bigtriangledown
▽ Variable-sized, or n-ary, open triangle pointing down (operator).
\bigtriangleup
△ Variable-sized, or n-ary, open triangle pointing up (operator).
\bigsqcup
⨆ Variable-sized, or n-ary, square union (operator).
\biguplus
⨄ Variable-sized, or n-ary, union operator with a plus (operator). (Note that the name has only one p.)
\bigvee
⋁ Variable-sized, or n-ary, logical-and (operator).
\bigwedge
⋀ Variable-sized, or n-ary, logical-or (operator).
\bot
⊥ Up tack, bottom, least element of a partially ordered
set, or a contradiction (ordinary). See also \top
.
\bowtie
⋈ Natural join of two relations (relation).
\Box
□ Modal operator for necessity; square open box (ordinary). Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package.
\bullet
• Bullet (binary). Similar: multiplication
dot \cdot
.
\cap
∩ Intersection of two sets (binary). Similar: variable-sized
operator \bigcap
.
\cdot
⋅ Multiplication (binary). Similar: Bullet
dot \bullet
.
\chi
χ Lower case Greek chi (ordinary).
\circ
∘ Function composition, ring operator (binary). Similar:
variable-sized operator \bigcirc
.
\clubsuit
♣ Club card suit (ordinary).
\complement
∁ Set complement, used as a superscript as in
$S^\complement$
(ordinary). Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package. Also
used: $S^{\mathsf{c}}$
or $\bar{S}$
.
\cong
≅ Congruent (relation).
\coprod
∐ Coproduct (operator).
\cup
∪ Union of two sets (binary). Similar: variable-sized
operator \bigcup
.
\dagger
† Dagger relation (binary).
\dashv
⊣ Dash with vertical, reversed turnstile (relation). Similar:
turnstile \vdash
.
\ddagger
‡ Double dagger relation (binary).
\Delta
Δ Greek upper case delta, used for increment (ordinary).
\delta
δ Greek lower case delta (ordinary).
\Diamond
◇ Large diamond operator (ordinary). Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package.
\diamond
⋄ Diamond operator, or diamond bullet (binary). Similar: large
diamond \Diamond
, circle bullet \bullet
.
\diamondsuit
♢ Diamond card suit (ordinary).
\div
÷ Division sign (binary).
\doteq
≐ Approaches the limit (relation). Similar: geometrically equal
to \Doteq
.
\downarrow
↓ Down arrow, converges (relation). Similar: double line down
arrow \Downarrow
.
\Downarrow
⇓ Double line down arrow (relation). Similar: single line down
arrow \downarrow
.
\ell
ℓ Lowercase cursive letter l (ordinary).
\emptyset
∅ Empty set symbol (ordinary). The variant form is
\varnothing
.
\epsilon
ϵ Lower case lunate epsilon (ordinary). Similar to
Greek text letter. More widely used in mathematics is the script small
letter epsilon \varepsilon
ε. Related:
the set membership relation \in
∈.
\equiv
≡ Equivalence (relation).
\eta
η Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\exists
∃ Existential quantifier (ordinary).
\flat
♭ Musical flat (ordinary).
\forall
∀ Universal quantifier (ordinary).
\frown
⌢ Downward curving arc (ordinary).
\Gamma
Γ Upper case Greek letter (ordinary).
\gamma
γ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\ge
≥ Greater than or equal to (relation). This is a synonym
for \geq
.
\geq
≥ Greater than or equal to (relation). This is a synonym
for \ge
.
\gets
← Is assigned the value (relation).
Synonym: \leftarrow
.
\gg
≫ Much greater than (relation). Similar: much less
than \ll
.
\hbar
ℏ Planck constant over two pi (ordinary).
\heartsuit
♡ Heart card suit (ordinary).
\hookleftarrow
↩ Hooked left arrow (relation).
\hookrightarrow
↪ Hooked right arrow (relation).
\iff
⟷ If and only if (relation). It is \Longleftrightarrow
with a \thickmuskip
on either side.
\Im
ℑ Imaginary part (ordinary). See: real part \Re
.
\in
∈ Set element (relation). See also: lower case lunate
epsilon \epsilon
ϵ and small letter script
epsilon \varepsilon
.
\infty
∞ Infinity (ordinary).
\int
∫ Integral (operator).
\iota
ι Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\Join
⨝ Condensed bowtie symbol (relation). Not available in Plain TeX.
\kappa
κ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\Lambda
Λ Upper case Greek letter (ordinary).
\lambda
λ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\land
∧ Logical and (binary). This is a synonym for \wedge
.
See also logical or \lor
.
\langle
⟨ Left angle, or sequence, bracket (opening). Similar:
less-than <
. Matches \rangle
.
\lbrace
{ Left curly brace
(opening). Synonym: \{
. Matches \rbrace
.
\lbrack
[ Left square bracket (opening).
Synonym: [
. Matches \rbrack
.
\lceil
⌈ Left ceiling bracket, like a square bracket but with the bottom
shaved off (opening). Matches \rceil
.
\le
≤ Less than or equal to (relation). This is a synonym
for \leq
.
\leadsto
⇝ Squiggly right arrow (relation). Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package.
To get this symbol outside of math mode you can put
\newcommand*{\Leadsto}{\ensuremath{\leadsto}}
in the
preamble and then use \Leadsto
instead.
\Leftarrow
⇐ Is implied by, double-line left arrow (relation). Similar:
single-line left arrow \leftarrow
.
\leftarrow
← Single-line left arrow (relation).
Synonym: \gets
. Similar: double-line left
arrow \Leftarrow
.
\leftharpoondown
↽ Single-line left harpoon, barb under bar (relation).
\leftharpoonup
↼ Single-line left harpoon, barb over bar (relation).
\Leftrightarrow
⇔ Bi-implication; double-line double-headed arrow (relation).
Similar: single-line double headed arrow \leftrightarrow
.
\leftrightarrow
↔ Single-line double-headed arrow (relation). Similar:
double-line double headed arrow \Leftrightarrow
.
\leq
≤ Less than or equal to (relation). This is a synonym
for \le
.
\lfloor
⌊ Left floor bracket (opening). Matches: \floor
.
\lhd
◁ Arrowhead, that is, triangle, pointing left (binary).
Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package. For the normal subgroup symbol you should load
amssymb and use \vartriangleleft
(which is a relation
and so gives better spacing).
\ll
≪ Much less than (relation). Similar: much greater
than \gg
.
\lnot
¬ Logical negation (ordinary). Synonym: \neg
.
\longleftarrow
⟵ Long single-line left arrow (relation). Similar: long
double-line left arrow \Longleftarrow
.
\longleftrightarrow
⟷ Long single-line double-headed arrow (relation). Similar: long
double-line double-headed arrow \Longleftrightarrow
.
\longmapsto
⟼ Long single-line left arrow starting with vertical bar
(relation). Similar: shorter version \mapsto
.
\longrightarrow
⟶ Long single-line right arrow (relation). Similar: long
double-line right arrow \Longrightarrow
.
\lor
∨ Logical or (binary). Synonym: wedge \wedge
.
\mapsto
↦ Single-line left arrow starting with vertical bar (relation).
Similar: longer version \longmapsto
.
\mho
℧ Conductance, half-circle rotated capital omega (ordinary). Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package.
\mid
∣ Single-line vertical bar (relation). A typical use of
\mid
is for a set \{\, x \mid x\geq 5 \,\}
.
Similar: \vert
and |
produce the same single-line
vertical bar symbol but without any spacing (they fall in class
ordinary) and you should not use them as relations but instead only as
ordinals, i.e., footnote symbols. For absolute value, see the entry
for \vert
and for norm see the entry for \Vert
.
\models
⊨ Entails, or satisfies; double turnstile, short double dash
(relation). Similar: long double dash \vDash
.
\mp
∓ Minus or plus (relation).
\mu
μ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\nabla
∇ Hamilton’s del, or differential, operator (ordinary).
\natural
♮ Musical natural notation (ordinary).
\ne
≠ Not equal (relation). Synonym: \neq
.
\nearrow
↗ North-east arrow (relation).
\neg
¬ Logical negation (ordinary).
Synonym: \lnot
. Sometimes instead used for
negation: \sim
.
\neq
≠ Not equal (relation). Synonym: \ne
.
\ni
∋ Reflected membership epsilon; has the member
(relation). Synonym: \owns
. Similar: is a member
of \in
.
\not
̸ Long solidus, or slash, used to overstrike a following operator (relation).
Many negated operators that don’t require \not
are available,
particularly with the amssymb package. For example, \notin
is probably typographically preferable to \not\in
.
\notin
∉ Not an element of (relation). Similar: not subset
of \nsubseteq
.
\nu
ν Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\nwarrow
↖ North-west arrow (relation).
\odot
⊙ Dot inside a circle (binary). Similar: variable-sized
operator \bigodot
.
\oint
∮ Contour integral, integral with circle in the middle (operator).
\Omega
Ω Upper case Greek letter (ordinary).
\omega
ω Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\ominus
⊖ Minus sign, or dash, inside a circle (binary).
\oplus
⊕ Plus sign inside a circle (binary). Similar: variable-sized
operator \bigoplus
.
\oslash
⊘ Solidus, or slash, inside a circle (binary).
\otimes
⊗ Times sign, or cross, inside a circle (binary). Similar:
variable-sized operator \bigotimes
.
\owns
∋ Reflected membership epsilon; has the member
(relation). Synonym: \ni
. Similar: is a member
of \in
.
\parallel
∥ Parallel (relation). Synonym: \|
.
\partial
∂ Partial differential (ordinary).
\perp
⟂ Perpendicular (relation). Similar: \bot
uses the
same glyph but the spacing is different because it is in the class
ordinary.
\phi
ϕ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary). The variant form is
\varphi
φ.
\Pi
Π Upper case Greek letter (ordinary).
\pi
π Lower case Greek letter (ordinary). The variant form is
\varpi
ϖ.
\pm
± Plus or minus (binary).
\prec
≺ Precedes (relation). Similar: less than <
.
\preceq
⪯ Precedes or equals (relation). Similar: less than or
equals \leq
.
\prime
′ Prime, or minute in a time expression (ordinary).
Typically used as a superscript: $f^\prime$
; $f^\prime$
and $f'$
produce the same result. An advantage of the second
is that $f'''$
produces the desired symbol, that is, the same
result as $f^{\prime\prime\prime}$
, but uses rather less
typing. You can only use \prime
in math mode. Using the right
single quote '
in text mode produces a different character
(apostrophe).
\prod
∏ Product (operator).
\propto
∝ Is proportional to (relation)
\Psi
Ψ Upper case Greek letter (ordinary).
\psi
ψ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\rangle
⟩ Right angle, or sequence, bracket (closing). Similar: greater
than >
. Matches:\langle
.
\rbrace
} Right curly brace
(closing). Synonym: \}
. Matches \lbrace
.
\rbrack
] Right square bracket
(closing). Synonym: ]
. Matches \lbrack
.
\rceil
⌉ Right ceiling bracket (closing). Matches \lceil
.
\Re
ℜ Real part, real numbers, cursive capital R (ordinary). Related:
double-line, or blackboard bold, R \mathbb{R}
; to access
this, load the amsfonts package.
\restriction
↾ Restriction of a function
(relation). Synonym: \upharpoonright
. Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package.
\revemptyset
⦰ Reversed empty set symbol (ordinary). Related:
\varnothing
. Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the stix package.
\rfloor
⌋ Right floor bracket, a right square bracket with the top cut
off (closing). Matches \lfloor
.
\rhd
◁ Arrowhead, that is, triangle, pointing right (binary).
Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package. For the normal subgroup symbol you should instead
load amssymb and use \vartriangleright
(which
is a relation and so gives better spacing).
\rho
ρ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary). The variant form is
\varrho
ϱ.
\Rightarrow
⇒ Implies, right-pointing double line arrow (relation). Similar:
right single-line arrow \rightarrow
.
\rightarrow
→ Right-pointing single line arrow (relation). Synonym: \to
. Similar: right double line arrow \Rightarrow
.
\rightharpoondown
⇁ Right-pointing harpoon with barb below the line (relation).
\rightharpoonup
⇀ Right-pointing harpoon with barb above the line (relation).
\rightleftharpoons
⇌ Right harpoon up above left harpoon down (relation).
\searrow
↘ Arrow pointing southeast (relation).
\setminus
⧵ Set difference, reverse solidus or slash, like \
(binary). Similar: backslash \backslash
and also
\textbackslash
outside of math mode.
\sharp
♯ Musical sharp (ordinary).
\Sigma
Σ Upper case Greek letter (ordinary).
\sigma
σ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary). The variant form is
\varsigma
ς.
\sim
∼ Similar, in a relation (relation).
\simeq
≃ Similar or equal to, in a relation (relation).
\smallint
∫ Integral sign that does not change to a larger size in a display (operator).
\smile
⌣ Upward curving arc, smile (ordinary).
\spadesuit
♠ Spade card suit (ordinary).
\sqcap
⊓ Square intersection symbol (binary). Similar:
intersection cap
.
\sqcup
⊔ Square union symbol (binary). Similar:
union cup
. Related: variable-sized
operator \bigsqcup
.
\sqsubset
⊏ Square subset symbol (relation). Similar:
subset \subset
. Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package.
\sqsubseteq
⊑ Square subset or equal symbol (binary). Similar: subset or
equal to \subseteq
.
\sqsupset
⊐ Square superset symbol (relation). Similar:
superset \supset
. Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package.
\sqsupseteq
⊒ Square superset or equal symbol (binary). Similar: superset or
equal \supseteq
.
\star
⋆ Five-pointed star, sometimes used as a general binary operation
but sometimes reserved for cross-correlation (binary). Similar: the
synonyms asterisk *
and \ast
, which are six-pointed,
and more often appear as a superscript or subscript, as with the Kleene
star.
\subset
⊂ Subset (occasionally, is implied by) (relation).
\subseteq
⊆ Subset or equal to (relation).
\succ
≻ Comes after, succeeds (relation). Similar: is less
than >
.
\succeq
⪰ Succeeds or is equal to (relation). Similar: less
than or equal to \leq
.
\sum
∑ Summation (operator). Similar: Greek capital
sigma \Sigma
.
\supset
⊃ Superset (relation).
\supseteq
⊇ Superset or equal to (relation).
\surd
√ Radical symbol (ordinary). The LaTeX command
\sqrt{...}
typesets the square root of the argument, with a bar
that extends to cover the argument.
\swarrow
↙ Southwest-pointing arrow (relation).
\tau
τ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\theta
θ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary). The variant form is
\vartheta
ϑ.
\times
× Primary school multiplication sign (binary). See
also \cdot
.
\to
→ Right-pointing single line arrow (relation).
Synonym: \rightarrow
.
\top
⊤ Top, greatest element of a partially ordered set
(ordinary). See also \bot
.
\triangle
△ Triangle (ordinary).
\triangleleft
◁ Not-filled triangle pointing left
(binary). Similar: \lhd
. For the normal subgroup symbol you
should load amssymb and use \vartriangleleft
(which
is a relation and so gives better spacing).
\triangleright
▷ Not-filled triangle pointing right
(binary). For the normal subgroup symbol you should instead load
amssymb and use \vartriangleright
(which is a
relation and so gives better spacing).
\unlhd
⊴ Left-pointing not-filled underlined arrowhead, that
is, triangle, with a line under (binary). Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package. For
the normal subgroup symbol load amssymb and
use \vartrianglelefteq
(which is a relation and so gives
better spacing).
\unrhd
⊵ Right-pointing not-filled underlined arrowhead, that
is, triangle, with a line under (binary). Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package. For
the normal subgroup symbol load amssymb and
use \vartrianglerighteq
(which is a relation and so gives
better spacing).
\Uparrow
⇑ Double-line upward-pointing arrow
(relation). Similar: single-line up-pointing
arrow \uparrow
.
\uparrow
↑ Single-line upward-pointing arrow, diverges
(relation). Similar: double-line up-pointing
arrow \Uparrow
.
\Updownarrow
⇕ Double-line upward-and-downward-pointing arrow
(relation). Similar: single-line upward-and-downward-pointing
arrow \updownarrow
.
\updownarrow
↕ Single-line upward-and-downward-pointing arrow (relation). Similar:
double-line upward-and-downward-pointing arrow \Updownarrow
.
\upharpoonright
↾ Up harpoon, with barb on right side
(relation). Synonym: \restriction
. Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package.
\uplus
⊎ Multiset union, a union symbol with a plus symbol in
the middle (binary). Similar: union \cup
. Related:
variable-sized operator \biguplus
.
\Upsilon
Υ Upper case Greek letter (ordinary).
\upsilon
υ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\varepsilon
ε Small letter script epsilon (ordinary). This is
more widely used in mathematics than the non-variant lunate epsilon form
\epsilon
ϵ. Related: set
membership \in
.
\vanothing
∅ Empty set symbol. Similar:
\emptyset
. Related: \revemptyset
. Not available in plain TeX. In LaTeX you need to load the amssymb package.
\varphi
φ Variant on the lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
The non-variant form is \phi
ϕ.
\varpi
ϖ Variant on the lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
The non-variant form is \pi
π.
\varrho
ϱ Variant on the lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
The non-variant form is \rho
ρ.
\varsigma
ς Variant on the lower case Greek letter
(ordinary). The non-variant form is
\sigma
σ.
\vartheta
ϑ Variant on the lower case Greek letter
(ordinary). The non-variant form is
\theta
θ.
\vdash
⊢ Provable; turnstile, vertical and a dash
(relation). Similar: turnstile rotated a
half-circle \dashv
.
\vee
∨ Logical or; a downwards v shape (binary). Related:
logical and \wedge
. Similar: variable-sized
operator \bigvee
.
\Vert
‖ Vertical double bar (ordinary). Similar: vertical single
bar \vert
.
For a norm symbol, you can use the mathtools package and add
\DeclarePairedDelimiter\norm{\lVert}{\rVert}
to your
preamble. This gives you three command variants for double-line
vertical bars that are correctly horizontally spaced: if in the
document body you write the starred version $\norm*{M^\perp}$
then the height of the vertical bars will match the height of the
argument, whereas with \norm{M^\perp}
the bars do not grow
with the height of the argument but instead are the default height,
and \norm[size command]{M^\perp}
also gives bars that
do not grow but are set to the size given in the size command,
e.g., \Bigg
.
\vert
| Single line vertical bar (ordinary). Similar: double-line
vertical bar \Vert
. For such that, as in the definition of a
set, use \mid
because it is a relation.
For absolute value you can use the mathtools package and add
\DeclarePairedDelimiter\abs{\lvert}{\rvert}
to your
preamble. This gives you three command variants for single-line vertical
bars that are correctly horizontally spaced: if in the document body you
write the starred version $\abs*{\frac{22}{7}}$
then the
height of the vertical bars will match the height of the argument,
whereas with \abs{\frac{22}{7}}
the bars do not grow with
the height of the argument but instead are the default height, and
\abs[size command]{\frac{22}{7}}
also gives bars
that do not grow but are set to the size given in the size
command, e.g., \Bigg
.
\wedge
∧ Logical and (binary). Synonym: \land
. See also
logical or \vee
. Similar: variable-sized
operator \bigwedge
.
\wp
℘ Weierstrass p (ordinary).
\wr
≀ Wreath product (binary).
\Xi
Ξ Upper case Greek letter (ordinary).
\xi
ξ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
\zeta
ζ Lower case Greek letter (ordinary).
Next: Math accents, Previous: Math symbols, Up: Math formulas [Contents][Index]
These commands produce roman function names in math mode with proper spacing.
\arccos
\arccos
\arcsin
\arcsin
\arctan
\arctan
\arg
\arg
\bmod
Binary modulo operator (x \bmod y)
\cos
\cos
\cosh
\cosh
\cot
\cot
\coth
\coth
\csc
\csc
\deg
\deg
\det
\det
\dim
\dim
\exp
\exp
\gcd
\gcd
\hom
\hom
\inf
\inf
\ker
\ker
\lg
\lg
\lim
\lim
\liminf
\liminf
\limsup
\limsup
\ln
\ln
\log
\log
\max
\max
\min
\min
\pmod
parenthesized modulus, as in (\pmod 2^n - 1)
\Pr
\Pr
\sec
\sec
\sin
\sin
\sinh
\sinh
\sup
\sup
\tan
\tan
\tanh
\tanh
Next: Spacing in math mode, Previous: Math functions, Up: Math formulas [Contents][Index]
LaTeX provides a variety of commands for producing accented letters in math. These are different from accents in normal text (see Accents).
\acute
Math acute accent: \acute{x}.
\bar
Math bar-over accent: \bar{x}.
\breve
Math breve accent: \breve{x}.
\check
Math háček (check) accent: \check{x}.
\ddot
Math dieresis accent: \ddot{x}.
\dot
Math dot accent: \dot{x}.
\grave
Math grave accent: \grave{x}.
\hat
Math hat (circumflex) accent: \hat{x}.
\imath
Math dotless i.
\jmath
Math dotless j.
\mathring
Math ring accent: x*.
\tilde
Math tilde accent: \tilde{x}.
\vec
Math vector symbol: \vec{x}.
\widehat
Math wide hat accent: \widehat{x+y}.
\widetilde
Math wide tilde accent: \widetilde{x+y}.
Next: Math miscellany, Previous: Math accents, Up: Math formulas [Contents][Index]
In a math
environment, LaTeX ignores the spaces that you use
in the source, and instead puts in the spacing according to the normal
rules for mathematics texts.
Many math mode spacing definitions are expressed in terms of the math unit mu given by 1 em = 18 mu, where the em is taken from the current math symbols family (see Units of length). LaTeX provides the following commands for use in math mode:
\;
Normally 5.0mu plus 5.0mu
. The longer name is
\thickspace
. Math mode only.
\:
\>
Normally 4.0mu plus 2.0mu minus 4.0mu
. The longer name is
\medspace
. Math mode only.
\,
Normally 3mu
. The longer name is \thinspace
. This can
be used in both math mode and text mode. See \thinspace.
\!
A negative thin space. Normally -3mu
. Math mode only.
\quad
This is 18mu, that is, 1em. This is often used for space
surrounding equations or expressions, for instance for the space between
two equations inside a displaymath
environment. It is available
in both text and math mode.
\qquad
A length of 2 quads, that is, 36mu = 2em. It is available in both text and math mode.
In this example a thinspace separates the function from the infinitesimal.
\int_0^1 f(x)\,dx
Previous: Spacing in math mode, Up: Math formulas [Contents][Index]
\*
A discretionary multiplication symbol, at which a line break is allowed. Without the break multiplication is implicitly indicated by a space, while in the case of a break a × symbol is printed immediately before the break. So
\documentclass{article} \begin{document} Now \(A_3 = 0\), hence the product of all terms \(A_1\) through \(A_4\), that is \(A_1\* A_2\* A_3 \* A_4\), is equal to zero. \end{document}
will make that sort of output (the ellipsis ‘[…]’ is here to show the line break at the same place as in a TeX output):
Now A_3 = 0, […] A_1 through A_4, that is A_1 A_2 \times
A_3 A_4, is equal to zero.
\cdots
A horizontal ellipsis with the dots raised to the center of the line.
\ddots
A diagonal ellipsis: \ddots.
\frac{num}{den}
Produces the fraction num divided by den.
\left delim1 ... \right delim2
The two delimiters need not match; ‘.’ acts as a null delimiter,
producing no output. The delimiters are sized according to the math
in between. Example: \left( \sum_{i=1}^{10} a_i \right]
.
\mathdollar
Dollar sign in math mode: $.
\mathellipsis
Ellipsis (spaced for text) in math mode: ….
\mathparagraph
Paragraph sign (pilcrow) in math mode: ¶.
\mathsection
Section sign in math mode.
\mathsterling
Sterling sign in math mode: £.
\mathunderscore
Underscore in math mode: _.
\overbrace{math}
Generates a brace over math.
For example, \overbrace{x+\cdots+x}^{k \;\textrm{times}}
.
\overline{text}
Generates a horizontal line over tex.
For example, \overline{x+y}
.
\sqrt[root]{arg}
Produces the representation of the square root of arg. The
optional argument root determines what root to produce. For
example, the cube root of x+y
would be typed as
\sqrt[3]{x+y}
.
\stackrel{text}{relation}
Puts text above relation. For example,
\stackrel{f}{\longrightarrow}
.
\underbrace{math}
Generates math with a brace underneath. For example, \underbrace{x+y+z}_{>\,0}
\underline{text}
Causes text, which may be either math mode or not, to be underlined. The line is always below the text, taking account of descenders.
\vdots
Produces a vertical ellipsis.
Next: Page styles, Previous: Math formulas, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
When LaTeX is processing your input text, it is always in one of three modes:
Mode changes occur only when entering or leaving an environment, or when LaTeX is processing the argument of certain text-producing commands.
Paragraph mode is the most common; it’s the one LaTeX is in when processing ordinary text. In this mode, LaTeX breaks the input text into lines and breaks the lines into pages.
LaTeX is in math mode when it’s generating a mathematical formula, either displayed math or within a line.
In LR mode, as in paragraph mode, LaTeX considers the output
that it produces to be a string of words with spaces between them.
However, unlike paragraph mode, LaTeX keeps going from left to
right; it never starts a new line in LR mode. Even if you put a
hundred words into an \mbox
, LaTeX would keep typesetting
them from left to right inside a single box (and then most likely
complain because the resulting box was too wide to fit on the line).
LaTeX is in LR mode when it starts making a box with an
\mbox
command. You can get it to enter a different mode inside
the box—for example, you can make it enter math mode to put a
formula in the box.
There are also several text-producing commands and environments for
making a box that put LaTeX into paragraph mode. The box made by
one of these commands or environments will be called a parbox
.
When LaTeX is in paragraph mode while making a box, it is said to
be in “inner paragraph mode” (no page breaks). Its normal paragraph
mode, which it starts out in, is called “outer paragraph mode”.
• \ensuremath: | Ensure that math mode is active |
\ensuremath
Synopsis:
\ensuremath{formula}
The \ensuremath
command ensures that formula is typeset in
math mode whatever the current mode in which the command is used.
For instance:
\documentclass{report} \newcommand{\ab}{\ensuremath{(\delta, \varepsilon)}} \begin{document} Now, the \ab\ pair is equal to \(\ab = (\frac{1}{\pi}, 0)\), ... \end{document}
One can redefine commands that can be used only in math mode so that
they ca be used in any mode like in the following example given for
\leadsto
:
\documentclass{report} \usepackage{amssymb} \newcommand{\originalMeaningOfLeadsTo}{} \let\originalMeaningOfLeadsTo\leadsto \renewcommand\leadsto{\ensuremath{\originalMeaningOfLeadsTo}} \begin{document} All roads \leadsto\ Rome. \end{document}
The \documentclass
command determines the size and position of
the page’s head and foot. The page style determines what goes in them.
• \maketitle: | Generate a title page. | |
• \pagenumbering: | Set the style used for page numbers. | |
• \pagestyle: | Change the headings/footings style. | |
• \thispagestyle: | Change the headings/footings style for this page. |
Next: \pagenumbering, Up: Page styles [Contents][Index]
\maketitle
The \maketitle
command generates a title on a separate title
page—except in the article
class, where the title is placed
at the top of the first page. Information used to produce the title
is obtained from the following declarations:
\author{name \and name2}
The \author
command declares the document author(s), where the
argument is a list of authors separated by \and
commands. Use
\\
to separate lines within a single author’s entry—for
example, to give the author’s institution or address.
\date{text}
The \date
command declares text to be the document’s
date. With no \date
command, the current date (see \today)
is used.
\thanks{text}
The \thanks
command produces a \footnote
to the title,
usually used for credit acknowledgements.
\title{text}
The \title
command declares text to be the title of the
document. Use \\
to force a line break, as usual.
Next: \pagestyle, Previous: \maketitle, Up: Page styles [Contents][Index]
\pagenumbering
Synopsis:
\pagenumbering{style}
Specifies the style of page numbers, according to style; also resets the page number to 1. The style argument is one of the following:
arabic
arabic numerals
roman
lowercase Roman numerals
Roman
uppercase Roman numerals
alph
lowercase letters
Alph
uppercase letters
Next: \thispagestyle, Previous: \pagenumbering, Up: Page styles [Contents][Index]
\pagestyle
Synopsis:
\pagestyle{style}
The \pagestyle
command specifies how the headers and footers
are typeset from the current page onwards. Values for style:
plain
Just a plain page number.
empty
Empty headers and footers, e.g., no page numbers.
headings
Put running headers on each page. The document style specifies what goes in the headers.
myheadings
Custom headers, specified via the \markboth
or the
\markright
commands.
Here are the descriptions of \markboth
and \markright
:
\markboth{left}{right}
Sets both the left and the right heading. A “left-hand heading”
(left) is generated by the last \markboth
command before
the end of the page, while a “right-hand heading” (right) is
generated by the first \markboth
or \markright
that
comes on the page if there is one, otherwise by the last one before
the page.
\markright{right}
Sets the right heading, leaving the left heading unchanged.
Previous: \pagestyle, Up: Page styles [Contents][Index]
\thispagestyle{style}
The \thispagestyle
command works in the same manner as the
\pagestyle
command (see previous section) except that it
changes to style for the current page only.
Next: Boxes, Previous: Page styles, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
LaTeX has many ways to produce white (or filled) space.
Horizontal space | ||
---|---|---|
• \hspace: | Fixed horizontal space. | |
• \hfill: | Stretchable horizontal space. | |
• \spacefactor: | Stretchability of following space | |
• \(SPACE) after control sequence: | Space (gobbling) after a control sequence. | |
• \thinspace: | One-sixth of an em. | |
• \/: | Insert italic correction. | |
• \hrulefill \dotfill: | Stretchable horizontal rule or dots. | |
Vertical space | ||
• \addvspace: | Add arbitrary vertical space if needed. | |
• \bigskip \medskip \smallskip: | Fixed vertical spaces. | |
• \vfill: | Infinitely stretchable vertical space. | |
• \vspace: | Add arbitrary vertical space. |
\hspace
Synopsis:
\hspace{length} \hspace*{length}
Add the horizontal space given by length. The length is a
rubber length, that is, it may contain a plus
or minus
component, in any unit that LaTeX understands (see Lengths).
This command can add both positive and negative space; adding negative space is like backspacing.
Normally when TeX breaks a paragraph into lines it discards white
space (glues and kerns) that would come at the start of a line, so you
get an inter-word space or a line break between words but not both. This
command’s starred version \hspace*{...}
puts a non-discardable
invisible item in front of the space, so the space appears in the
output.
This example make a one-line paragraph that puts ‘Name:’ an inch from the right margin.
\noindent\makebox[\linewidth]{\hspace{\fill}Name:\hspace{1in}}
Next: \spacefactor, Previous: \hspace, Up: Spaces [Contents][Index]
\hfill
Produce a rubber length which has no natural space but can stretch horizontally as far as needed (see Lengths).
The command \hfill
is equivalent to \hspace{\fill}
. For
space that does not disappear at line breaks use
\hspace*{\fill}
instead (see \hspace).
Next: \(SPACE) after control sequence, Previous: \hfill, Up: Spaces [Contents][Index]
\spacefactor
Synopsis:
\spacefactor=integer
While LaTeX is making the page, to give the lines the best appearance
it may stretch or shrink the gaps between words. The
\spacefactor
command (from Plain TeX) allows you to
change the LaTeX’s default behavior.
After LaTeX places each character, or rule or other box, it sets a parameter called the space factor. If the next thing in the input is a space then this parameter affects how much of a horizontal gap LaTeX will have it span. (This gap is not a character; it is called interword glue.) A larger space factor means that the glue gap can stretch more and shrink less.
Normally, the space factor is 1000; this value is in effect following most characters, and any non-character box or math formula. But it is 3000 after a period, exclamation mark, or question mark, it is 2000 after a colon, 1500 after a semicolon, 1250 after a comma, and 0 after a right parenthesis or bracket, or closing double quote or single quote. Finally, it is 999 after a capital letter.
If the space factor f is 1000 then the glue gap will be the font’s normal space value (for Computer Modern Roman 10 point this is 3.3333 points). Otherwise, if the space factor f is greater than 2000 then TeX adds the font’s extra space value (for Computer Modern Roman 10 point this is 1.11111 points), and then the font’s normal stretch value is multiplied by f /1000 and the normal shrink value is multiplied by 1000/f (for Computer Modern Roman 10 point these are 1.66666 and 1.11111 points). In short, compared to a normal space, such as the space following a word ending in a lowercase letter, inter-sentence spacing has a fixed extra space added and then the space can stretch 3 times as much and shrink 1/3 as much.
The rules for how TeX uses space factors are even more complex because they play two more roles. In practice, there are two consequences. First, if a period or other punctuation is followed by a close parenthesis or close double quote then its effect is still in place, that is, the following glue will have increased stretch and shrink. Second, conversely, if punctuation comes after a capital letter then its effect is not in place so you get an ordinary space. For how to adjust to this second case, for instance if an abbreviation does not end in a capital letter, see \(SPACE) and \@.
• \(SPACE) and \@: | Space after a period. | |
• \frenchspacing: | Equal interword and inter-sentence space. | |
• \normalsfcodes: | Restore space factor settings to the default. |
Next: \frenchspacing, Up: \spacefactor [Contents][Index]
\(SPACE)
and \@
Here, \(SPACE)
means a backslash followed by a space. These
commands mark a punctuation character, typically a period, as either
ending a sentence or as ending an abbreviation.
By default, in justifying a line LaTeX adjusts the space after a sentence-ending period (or a question mark, exclamation point, comma, or colon) more than the space between words. See \spacefactor. As described there, LaTeX assumes that the period ends a sentence unless it is preceded by a capital letter, in which case it takes that period for part of an abbreviation. Note that if a sentence-ending period is immediately followed by a right parenthesis or bracket, or right single or double quote, then the space effect of that period follows through that parenthesis or quote.
So: if you have a period ending an abbreviation whose last letter is not
a capital letter, and that abbreviation is not the last word in the
sentence, then follow that period with a backslash-space (\
) or
a tie (~
) or a \@
. Examples are Nat.\ Acad.\
Science
, and Mr.~Bean
, and (manure, etc.\@) for sale
(note that in the last the \@
comes before the closing parenthesis).
In the opposite situation, if you have a capital letter followed by a
period that does end the sentence, then put \@
before the
period. For example, book by the MAA\@.
will have correct
inter-sentence spacing after the period.
For another use of \(SPACE)
, see \(SPACE) after control sequence.
Next: \normalsfcodes, Previous: \(SPACE) and \@, Up: \spacefactor [Contents][Index]
\frenchspacing
This declaration (from Plain TeX) causes LaTeX to treat inter-sentence spacing in the same way as interword spacing.
In justifying the text in a line, some typographic traditions, including English, prefer to adjust the space between sentences (or after other punctuation marks) more than the space between words. Following this declaration, all spaces are instead treated equally.
Revert to the default behavior by declaring \nonfrenchspacing
.
Previous: \frenchspacing, Up: \spacefactor [Contents][Index]
\normalsfcodes
Reset the LaTeX space factor values to the default.
Next: \thinspace, Previous: \spacefactor, Up: Spaces [Contents][Index]
\
after control sequenceThe \
command is often used after control sequences to keep
them from gobbling the space that follows, as in ‘\TeX\ is nice’.
And, under normal circumstances, \
tab and
\
newline are equivalent to \
. For another use of
\
, see also \(SPACE) and \@.
Some people prefer to use {}
for the same purpose, as in
\TeX{} is nice
. This has the advantage that you can always
write it the same way, namely \TeX{}
, whether it is followed
by a space or by a punctuation mark. Compare:
\TeX\ is a nice system. \TeX, a nice system. \TeX{} is a nice system. \TeX{}, a nice system.
Some individual commands, notably those defined with the xspace
,
package do not follow the standard behavior.
Next: \/, Previous: \(SPACE) after control sequence, Up: Spaces [Contents][Index]
\thinspace
: Insert 1/6em\thinspace
produces an unbreakable and unstretchable space that
is 1/6 of an em. This is the proper space to use between nested
quotes, as in ’”.
Next: \hrulefill \dotfill, Previous: \thinspace, Up: Spaces [Contents][Index]
\/
: Insert italic correctionThe \/
command produces an italic correction. This is a
small space defined by the font designer for a given character,
to avoid the character colliding with whatever follows. The italic
f character typically has a large italic correction value.
If the following character is a period or comma, it’s not necessary to insert an italic correction, since those punctuation symbols have a very small height. However, with semicolons or colons, as well as normal letters, it can help. Compare f: f; (in the TeX output, the ‘f’s are nicely separated) with f: f;.
When changing fonts with commands such as \textit{italic
text}
or {\itshape italic text}
, LaTeX will
automatically insert an italic correction if appropriate (see Font styles).
Despite the name, roman characters can also have an italic correction. Compare pdfTeX (in the TeX output, there is a small space after the ‘f’) with pdfTeX.
There is no concept of italic correction in math mode; spacing is done in a different way.
Next: \addvspace, Previous: \/, Up: Spaces [Contents][Index]
\hrulefill \dotfill
Produce an infinite rubber length (see Lengths) filled with a horizontal rule (that is, a line) or with dots, instead of just white space.
When placed between blank lines this example creates a paragraph that is left and right justified, where the space in the middle is filled with evenly spaced dots.
\noindent Jack Aubrey\dotfill Melbury Lodge
To make the rule or dots go to the line’s end use \null
at the
start or end.
To change the rule’s thickness, copy the definition and adjust it, as
with \renewcommand{\hrulefill}{\leavevmode\leaders\hrule height
1pt\hfill\kern\z@}
, which changes the default thickness of
0.4pt to 1pt. Similarly, adjust the dot spacing as with
\renewcommand{\dotfill}{\leavevmode\cleaders\hb@xt@
1.00em{\hss .\hss }\hfill\kern\z@}
, which changes the default
length of 0.33em to 1.00em.
Next: \bigskip \medskip \smallskip, Previous: \hrulefill \dotfill, Up: Spaces [Contents][Index]
\addvspace
\addvspace{length}
Add a vertical space of height length, which is a rubber length
(see Lengths). However, if vertical space has already been added to
the same point in the output by a previous \addvspace
command
then this command will not add more space than what is needed to make
the natural length of the total vertical space equal to length.
Use this command to adjust the vertical space above or below an
environment that starts a new paragraph. For instance, a Theorem
environment is defined to begin and end with \addvspace{...}
so that two consecutive Theorem’s are separated by one vertical space,
not two.
This command is fragile (see \protect).
The error ‘Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item’ means that
you were not in vertical mode when you invoked this command; one way to
change that is to precede this command with a \par
command.
Next: \vfill, Previous: \addvspace, Up: Spaces [Contents][Index]
\bigskip \medskip \smallskip
These commands produce a given amount of space, specified by the document class.
\bigskip
The same as \vspace{\bigskipamount}
, ordinarily about one line
space, with stretch and shrink (the default for the book
and
article
classes is 12pt plus 4pt minus 4pt
).
\medskip
The same as \vspace{\medskipamount}
, ordinarily about half of
a line space, with stretch and shrink (the default for the book
and article
classes is 6pt plus 2pt minus 2pt
).
\smallskip
The same as \vspace{\smallskipamount}
, ordinarily about a
quarter of a line space, with stretch and shrink (the default for the
book
and article
classes is 3pt plus 1pt minus
1pt
).
Next: \vspace, Previous: \bigskip \medskip \smallskip, Up: Spaces [Contents][Index]
\vfill
End the current paragraph and insert a vertical rubber length (see Lengths) that is infinite, so it can stretch or shrink as far as needed.
It is often used in the same way as \vspace{\fill}
, except that
\vfill
ends the current paragraph, whereas
\vspace{\fill}
adds the infinite vertical space below its line
irrespective of the paragraph structure. In both cases that space will
disappear at a page boundary; to circumvent this see \vspace.
In this example the page is filled, so the top and bottom lines contain the text ‘Lost Dog!’ and the third ‘Lost Dog!’ is exactly halfway between them.
\begin{document} Lost Dog! \vfill Lost Dog! \vfill Lost Dog! \end{document}
\vspace{length}
Synopsis, one of these two:
\vspace{length} \vspace*{length}
Add the vertical space length. This can be negative or positive, and is a rubber length (see Lengths).
LaTeX removes the vertical space from \vspace
at a page
break, that is, at the top or bottom of a page. The starred version
\vspace*{...}
causes the space to stay.
If \vspace
is used in the middle of a paragraph (i.e., in
horizontal mode), the space is inserted after the line with
the \vspace
command. A new paragraph is not started.
In this example the two questions will be evenly spaced vertically on the page, with at least one inch of space below each.
\begin{document} 1) Who put the bomp in the bomp bah bomp bah bomp? \vspace{1in plus 1fill} 2) Who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong? \vspace{1in plus 1fill} \end{document}
All the predefined length parameters (see Predefined lengths) can be used in the arguments of the box-making commands.
• \mbox: | Horizontal boxes. | |
• \fbox and \framebox: | Put a frame around a box. | |
• lrbox: | An environment like \sbox .
| |
• \makebox: | Box, adjustable position. | |
• \parbox: | Box with text in paragraph mode. | |
• \raisebox: | Raise or lower text. | |
• \savebox: | Like \makebox , but save the text for later use.
| |
• \sbox: | Like \mbox , but save the text for later use.
| |
• \usebox: | Print saved text. |
Next: \fbox and \framebox, Up: Boxes [Contents][Index]
\mbox{text}
The \mbox
command creates a box just wide enough to hold the
text created by its argument. The text is not broken into
lines, so it can be used to prevent hyphenation.
\fbox
and \framebox
Synopses:
\fbox{text} \framebox[width][position]{text}
The \fbox
and \framebox
commands are like \mbox
,
except that they put a frame around the outside of the box being created.
In addition, the \framebox
command allows for explicit
specification of the box width with the optional width argument
(a dimension), and positioning with the optional position
argument.
Both commands produce a rule of thickness \fboxrule
(default
0.4pt
), and leave a space of \fboxsep
(default 3pt
)
between the rule and the contents of the box.
See \framebox (picture), for the \framebox
command in the
picture
environment.
Next: \makebox, Previous: \fbox and \framebox, Up: Boxes [Contents][Index]
lrbox
Synopsis:
\begin{lrbox}{\cmd} text \end{lrbox}
This is the environment form of \sbox
.
The text inside the environment is saved in the box \cmd
,
which must have been declared with \newsavebox
.
\makebox
Synopsis:
\makebox[width][position]{text}
The \makebox
command creates a box just wide enough to contain
the text specified. The width of the box can be overridden by the
optional width argument. The position of the text within the box
is determined by the optional position argument, which may take
the following values:
c
Centered (default).
l
Flush left.
r
Flush right.
s
Stretch (justify) across entire width; text must contain stretchable space for this to work.
\makebox
is also used within the picture
environment
see \makebox (picture).
\parbox
Synopsis:
\parbox[position][height][inner-pos]{width}{text}
The \parbox
command produces a box whose contents are created
in paragraph mode. It should be used to make a box small
pieces of text, with nothing fancy inside. In particular, you
shouldn’t use any paragraph-making environments inside a
\parbox
argument. For larger pieces of text, including ones
containing a paragraph-making environment, you should use a
minipage
environment (see minipage).
\parbox
has two mandatory arguments:
the width of the parbox;
the text that goes inside the parbox.
By default LaTeX will position vertically a parbox so its center lines up with the center of the surrounding text line. When the optional position argument is present and equal either to ‘t’ or ‘b’, this allows you respectively to align either the top or bottom line in the parbox with the baseline of the surrounding text. You may also specify ‘m’ for position to get the default behaviour.
The optional height argument overrides the natural height of the box.
The inner-pos argument controls the placement of the text inside the box, as follows; if it is not specified, position is used.
t
text is placed at the top of the box.
c
text is centered in the box.
b
text is placed at the bottom of the box.
s
stretch vertically; the text must contain vertically stretchable space for this to work.
\raisebox
Synopsis:
\raisebox{distance}[height][depth]{text}
The \raisebox
command raises or lowers text. The first
mandatory argument specifies how high text is to be raised (or
lowered if it is a negative amount). text itself is processed
in LR mode.
The optional arguments height and depth are dimensions. If they are specified, LaTeX treats text as extending a certain distance above the baseline (height) or below (depth), ignoring its natural height and depth.
\savebox
Synopsis:
\savebox{\boxcmd}[width][pos]{text}
This command typeset text in a box just as with \makebox
(see \makebox), except that instead of printing the resulting box,
it saves it in the box labeled \boxcmd, which must have been
declared with \newsavebox
(see \newsavebox).
\sbox{\boxcmd}{text}
Synopsis:
\sbox{\boxcmd}{text}
\sbox
types text in a box just as with \mbox
(see \mbox) except that instead of the resulting box being
included in the normal output, it is saved in the box labeled
\boxcmd. \boxcmd must have been previously declared with
\newsavebox
(see \newsavebox).
\usebox{\boxcmd}
Synopsis:
\usebox{\boxcmd}
\usebox
produces the box most recently saved in the bin
\boxcmd by a \savebox
command (see \savebox).
You can add color to text, rules, etc. You can also have color in a box or on an entire page and write text on top of it.
Color support comes as an additional package. So all the commands below
will only work if your document preamble contains
\usepackage{color}
, that brings in the standard package.
Many other packages also supplement LaTeX’s color abilities. Particularly worth mentioning is xcolor, which is widely used and significantly extends the capabilities described here, including adding ‘HTML’ and ‘Hsb’ color models.
• Color package options: | Options when you load the standard package. | |
• Color models: | How colors are represented. | |
• Commands for color: | The available commands. |
Next: Color models, Up: Color [Contents][Index]
Synopsis (must be in the document preamble):
\usepackage[comma-separated option list]{color}
When you load the color package there are two kinds of available options.
The first specifies the printer driver. LaTeX doesn’t contain information about different output systems but instead depends on information stored in a file. Normally you should not specify the driver option in the document, and instead rely on your system’s default. One advantage of this is that it makes the document portable across systems. For completeness we include a list of the drivers. The currently relevant ones are: dvipdfmx, dvips, dvisvgm, luatex, pdftex, xetex. The two xdvi and oztex are essentially aliases for dvips (and xdvi is monochrome). Ones that should not be used for new systems are: dvipdf, dvipdfm, dviwin, dvipsone, emtex, pctexps, pctexwin, pctexhp, pctex32, truetex, tcidvi, vtex (and dviwindo is an alias for dvipsone).
The second kind of options, beyond the drivers, are below.
monochrome
Disable the color commands, so that they do not generate errors but do not generate color either.
dvipsnames
Make available a list of 68 color names that are often used, particularly in legacy documents. These color names were originally provided by the dvips driver, giving the option name.
nodvipsnames
Do not load that list of color names, saving LaTeX a tiny amount of memory space.
Next: Commands for color, Previous: Color package options, Up: Color [Contents][Index]
A color model is a way of representing colors. LaTeX’s capabilities depend on the printer driver. However, the pdftex, xetex, and luatex printer drivers are today by far the most commonly used. The models below work for those drivers. All but one of these is also supported by essentially all other printer drivers used today.
Note that color combination can be additive or subtractive. Additive mixes colors of light, so that for instance combining full intensities of red, green, and blue produces white. Subtractive mixes pigments, such as with inks, so that combining full intensity of cyan, magenta, and yellow makes black.
cmyk
A comma-separated list with four real numbers between 0 and 1, inclusive. The first number is the intensity of cyan, the second is magenta, and the others are yellow and black. A number value of 0 means minimal intensity, while a 1 is for full intensity. This model is often used in color printing. It is a subtractive model.
gray
A single real number between 0 and 1, inclusive. The colors are shades of grey. The number 0 produces black while 1 gives white.
rgb
A comma-separated list with three real numbers between 0 and 1, inclusive. The first number is the intensity of the red component, the second is green, and the third the blue. A number value of 0 means that none of that component is added in, while a 1 means full intensity. This is an additive model.
RGB
(pdftex, xetex, luatex drivers) A comma-separated
list with three integers between 0 and 255, inclusive. This model is a
convenience for using rgb
since outside of LaTeX colors are
often described in a red-green-blue model using numbers in this range.
The values entered here are converted to the rgb
model by
dividing by 255.
named
Colors are accessed by name, such as ‘PrussianBlue’. The list of
names depends on the driver, but all support the names ‘black’,
‘blue’, ‘cyan’, ‘green’, ‘magenta’, ‘red’,
‘white’, and ‘yellow’ (See the dvipsnames
option in
Color package options).
Previous: Color models, Up: Color [Contents][Index]
These are the commands available with the color package.
• Define colors: | Give a color a name. | |
• Colored text: | Text or rules in color. | |
• Colored boxes: | A box of color, to write over. | |
• Colored pages: | A whole page colored. |
Next: Colored text, Up: Commands for color [Contents][Index]
Synopsis:
\definecolor{name}{model}{specification}
Give the name name to the color. For example, after
\definecolor{silver}{rgb}{0.75,0.75,0.74}
you can use that
color name with Hi ho, \textcolor{silver}{Silver}!
.
This example gives the color a more abstract name, so it could change and not be misleading.
\definecolor{logocolor}{RGB}{145,92,131} % RGB needs pdflatex \newcommand{\logo}{\textcolor{logocolor}{Bob's Big Bagels}}
Often a document’s colors are defined in the preamble, or in the class or style, rather than in the document body.
Next: Colored boxes, Previous: Define colors, Up: Commands for color [Contents][Index]
Synopses:
\textcolor{name}{...} \textcolor[color model]{color specification}{...}
or
\color{name} \color[color model]{specification}
The affected text gets the color. This line
\textcolor{magenta}{My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:} Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
causes the first half to be in magenta while the rest is in black. You
can use a color declared with \definecolor
in exactly the same
way that we just used the builtin color ‘magenta’.
\definecolor{MidlifeCrisisRed}{rgb}{1.0,0.11,0.0} I'm thinking about getting a \textcolor{MidlifeCrisisRed}{sports car}.
The two \textcolor
and \color
differ in that the first is
a command form, enclosing the text to be colored as an argument. Often
this form is more convenient, or at least more explicit. The second
form is a declaration, as in The moon is made of {\color{green}
green} cheese
, so it is in effect until the end of the current group
or environment. This is sometimes useful when writing macros or as
below where it colors everything inside the center
environment,
including the vertical and horizontal lines.
\begin{center} \color{blue} \begin{tabular}{l|r} UL &UR \\ \hline LL &LR \end{tabular} \end{center}
You can use color in equations. A document might have
\definecolor{highlightcolor}{RGB}{225,15,0}
in the
preamble, and then contain this equation.
\begin{equation} \int_a^b \textcolor{highlightcolor}{f'(x)}\,dx=f(b)-f(a) \end{equation}
Typically the colors used in a document are declared in a class or style but sometimes you want a one-off. Those are the second forms in the synopses.
Colors of \textcolor[rgb]{0.33,0.14,0.47}{Purple} and {\color[rgb]{0.72,0.60,0.37} Gold} for the team
The format of color specification depends on the color model
(see Color models). For instance, while rgb
takes three
numbers, gray
takes only one.
The selection was \textcolor[gray]{0.5}{grayed out}.
Colors inside colors do not combine. Thus
\textcolor{green}{kind of \textcolor{blue}{blue}}
has a final word that is blue, not a combination of blue and green.
Next: Colored pages, Previous: Colored text, Up: Commands for color [Contents][Index]
Synopses:
\colorbox{name}{...} \colorbox[model name]{box background color specification}{...}
or
\fcolorbox{frame color}{box background color}{...} \fcolorbox[model name]{frame color specification}{box background color specification}{...}
Make a box with the stated background color. The \fcolorbox
command puts a frame around the box. For instance this
Name:~\colorbox{cyan}{\makebox[5cm][l]{\strut}}
makes a cyan-colored box that is five centimeters long and gets its
depth and height from the \strut
(so the depth is
-.3\baselineskip
and the height is \baselineskip
). This
puts white text on a blue background.
\colorbox{blue}{\textcolor{white}{Welcome to the machine.}}
The \fcolorbox
commands use the same parameters as \fbox
(see \fbox and \framebox), \fboxrule
and \fboxsep
, to
set the thickness of the rule and the boundary between the box interior
and the surrounding rule. LaTeX’s defaults are 0.4pt
and
3pt
, respectively.
This example changes the thickness of the border to 0.8 points. Note that it is surrounded by curly braces so that the change ends at the end of the second line.
{\setlength{\fboxrule}{0.8pt} \fcolorbox{black}{red}{Under no circumstances turn this knob.}}
Previous: Colored boxes, Up: Commands for color [Contents][Index]
Synopses:
\pagecolor{name} \pagecolor[color model]{color specification} \nopagecolor
The first two set the background of the page, and all subsequent pages,
to the color. For an explanation of the specification in the second
form see Colored text. The third returns the background to normal,
which is a transparent background. (If that is not supported use
\pagecolor{white}
, although that will make a white background
rather than the default transparent background.)
... \pagecolor{cyan} ... \nopagecolor
Next: Special insertions, Previous: Color, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
You can use graphics such as PNG or PDF files in your LaTeX document. You need an additional package, which comes standard with LaTeX. This example is the short how-to.
\include{graphicx} % goes in the preamble ... \includegraphics[width=0.5\linewidth]{plot.pdf}
To use the commands described here your document preamble must contain
either \usepackage{graphicx}
or
\usepackage{graphics}
. Most of the time, graphicx is the
better choice.
Graphics come in two main types, raster and vector. LaTeX can use both. In raster graphics the file contains an entry for each location in an array, describing what color it is. An example is a photograph, in JPG format. In vector graphics, the file contains a list of instructions such as ‘draw a circle with this radius and that center’. An example is a line drawing produced by the Asymptote program, in PDF format. Generally vector graphics are more useful because you can rescale their size without pixelation or other problems, and because they often have a smaller size.
There are systems particularly well-suited to make graphics for a
LaTeX document. For example, these allow you to use the same fonts
as in your document. LaTeX comes with a picture
environment
(see picture) that has simple capabilities. Besides that, there are
other ways to include the graphic-making commands in the document. Two
such systems are the PSTricks and TikZ packages. There are also systems
external to LaTeX, that generate a graphic that you include using the
commands of this chapter. Two that use a programming language are
Asymptote and MetaPost. One that uses a graphical interface is Xfig.
Full description of these systems is outside the scope of this document;
see their documentation.
• Graphics package options: | Options when you load the package. | |
• Graphics package configuration: | Where to look for files, which file types. | |
• Commands for graphics: | The available commands. |
Next: Graphics package configuration, Up: Graphics [Contents][Index]
Synopsis (must be in the document preamble):
\usepackage[comma-separated option list]{graphics}
or
\usepackage[comma-separated option list]{graphicx}
The graphicx
package has a format for optional arguments to the
\includegraphics
command that is convenient (it is the key-value
format), so it is the better choice for new documents. When you load
the graphics or graphicx package with \usepackage
there are two kinds of available options.
The first is that LaTeX does not contain information about different output systems but instead depends on information stored in a printer driver file. Normally you should not specify the driver option in the document, and instead rely on your system’s default. One advantage of this is that it makes the document portable across systems.
For completeness here is a list of the drivers. The currently relevant ones are: dvipdfmx, dvips, dvisvgm, luatex, pdftex, xetex. The two xdvi and oztex are essentially aliases for dvips (and xdvi is monochrome). Ones that should not be used for new systems are: dvipdf, dvipdfm, dviwin, dvipsone, emtex, pctexps, pctexwin, pctexhp, pctex32, truetex, tcidvi, vtex (and dviwindo is an alias for dvipsone). These are stored in files with a .def extension, such as pdftex.def.
The second kind of options are below.
demo
Instead of an image file, LaTeX puts in a 150 pt by 100 pt
rectangle (unless another size is specified in the
\includegraphics
command).
draft
For each graphic file, it is not shown but instead the file name is printed in a box of the correct size. In order to determine the size, the file must be present.
final
(Default) Override any previous draft
option, so that the
document shows the contents of the graphic files.
hiderotate
Do not show rotated text. (This allows for the possibility that a previewer does not have the capability to rotate text.)
hidescale
Do not show scaled text. (This allows for the possibility that a previewer does not have the capability to scale.)
hiresbb
In a PS or EPS file the graphic size may be specified in two ways. The
%%BoundingBox
lines describe the graphic size using integer
multiples of a PostScript point, that is, integer multiples of 1/72
inch. A later addition to the PostScript language allows decimal
multiples, such as 1.23, in %%HiResBoundingBox
lines. This
option has LaTeX to read the size from the latter.
Next: Commands for graphics, Previous: Graphics package options, Up: Graphics [Contents][Index]
These commands configure the way LaTeX searches the file system for the graphic.
The behavior of file system search code is necessarily platform dependent. In this document we cover Linux, Macintosh, and Windows, as those systems are typically configured. For other situations consult the documentation in grfguide.pdf, or the LaTeX source, or your TeX distribution’s documentation.
• \graphicspath: | Directories to search. | |
• \DeclareGraphicsExtensions: | File types, such as JPG or EPS. | |
• \DeclareGraphicsRule: | How to handle file types. |
\graphicspath
Synopsis:
\graphicspath{list of dir names inside curly brackets}
Declare a list of directories to search for graphics files. This allows
you to later say something like \includegraphics{lion.png}
instead of having to give its path.
LaTeX always looks for graphic files first in the current directory. The declaration below tells the system to then look in the subdirectory pix, and then ../pix.
\usepackage{graphicx} % or graphics; put in preamble ... \graphicspath{ {pix/} {../pix/} }
The \graphicspath
declaration is optional. If you don’t include
it then LaTeX’s default is to search all of the places that it
usually looks for a file (it uses LaTeX’s \input@path
). In
particular, in this case one of the places it looks is the current
directory.
Enclose each directory name in curly braces; for example, above it says
‘{pix}
’. Do this even if there is only one directory.
Each directory name must end in a forward slash, /. This is true
even on Windows, where good practice is to use forward slashes for all
the directory separators since it makes the document portable to other
platforms. If you have spaces in your directory name then use double
quotes, as with {"my docs/"}
. Getting one of these rules wrong
will cause LaTeX to report Error: File `filename' not
found
.
Basically, the algorithm is that with this example, after looking in the current directory,
\graphicspath{ {pix/} {../pix/} } ... \usepackage{lion.png}
for each of the listed directories, LaTeX concatenates it with the
file name and searches for the result, checking for pix/lion.png
and then ../pix/lion.png. This algorithm means that the
\graphicspath
command does not recursively search subdirectories:
if you issue \graphicspath{{a/}}
and the graphic is in
a/b/lion.png then LaTeX will not find it. It also means that
you can use absolute paths such as
\graphicspath{{/home/jim/logos/}}
or
\graphicspath{{C:/Users/Albert/Pictures/}}
. However, using
these means that the document is not portable. (You could preserve
portability by adjusting your TeX system settings configuration file
parameter TEXINPUTS
; see the documentation of your system.)
You can use \graphicspath
in the preamble or in the document
body. You can use it more than once. For debugging, show its value
with \makeatletter\typeout{\Ginput@path}\makeatother
.
The directories are taken with respect to the base file. That is,
suppose that you are working on a document based on book/book.tex
and it contains \include{chapters/chap1}
. If in
chap1.tex you put \graphicspath{{plots/}}
then
LaTeX will not search for graphics in book/chapters/plots, but
instead in book/plots.
Next: \DeclareGraphicsRule, Previous: \graphicspath, Up: Graphics package configuration [Contents][Index]
\DeclareGraphicsExtensions
Synopses:
\DeclareGraphicsExtensions{comma-separated list of file extensions}
Declare the filename extensions to try. This allows you to specify the
order in which to choose graphic formats when you include graphic files
by giving the filename without the extension, as in
\includegraphics{functionplot}
.
In this example, LaTeX will find files in the PNG format before PDF files.
\DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.png,PNG,.pdf,.PDF} ... \includegraphics{lion} % will find lion.png before lion.pdf
Because the file name lion does not have a period, LaTeX uses the extension list. For each directory in the graphics path (see \graphicspath), LaTeX will try the extensions in the order given. If it does not find such a file after trying all the directories and extensions then it reports ‘! LaTeX Error: File `lion' not found’. Note that you must include the periods at the start of the extensions.
Because Linux and Macintosh filenames are case sensitive, the list of file extensions is case sensitive on those platforms. The Windows platform is not case sensitive.
You are not required to include \DeclareGraphicsExtensions
in
your document; the printer driver has a sensible default. For example,
the most recent pdftex.def has the extension list
‘.png,.pdf,.jpg,.mps,.jpeg,.jbig2,.jb2,.PNG,.PDF,.JPG,.JPEG,.JBIG2,.JB2
’.
You can use this command in the preamble or in the document body. You
can use it more than once. For debugging, show its value with
\makeatletter\typeout{\Gin@extensions}\makeatother
.
Previous: \DeclareGraphicsExtensions, Up: Graphics package configuration [Contents][Index]
\DeclareGraphicsRule
Synopsis:
\DeclareGraphicsRule{extension}{type}{size-file extension}{command}
Declare how to handle graphic files whose names end in extension.
This example declares that all files with names have the form filename-without-dot.mps will be treated as output from MetaPost, meaning that the printer driver will use its MetaPost-handling code to input the file.
\DeclareGraphicsRule{.mps}{mps}{.mps}{}
This
\DeclareGraphicsRule{*}{mps}{*}{}
tells LaTeX that it should handle as MetaPost output any file with an extension not covered by another rule, so it covers filename.1, filename.2, etc.
This describes the four arguments.
The file extension to which this rule applies. The extension is anything
after and including the first dot in the filename. Use the Kleene star,
*
, to denote the default behaviour for all undeclared extensions.
The type of file involved. This type is a string that must be defined
in the printer driver. For instance, files with extensions .ps,
.eps, or .ps.gz may all be classed as type eps
.
All files of the same type will be input with the same internal command
by the printer driver. For example, the file types that pdftex
recognizes are: jpg
, jbig2
, mps
, pdf
,
png
, tif
.
The extension of the file to be read to determine the size of the graphic, if there is such a file. It may be the same as extension but it may be different.
As an example, consider a PostScript graphic. To make it smaller, it
might be compressed into a .ps.gz file. Compressed files are not
easily read by LaTeX so you can put the bounding box information in a
separate file. If size-file extension is empty then you must
specify size information in the arguments of \includegraphics
.
If the driver file has a procedure for reading size files for
type
then that will be used, otherwise it will use the procedure
for reading .eps files. (Thus you may specify the size of bitmap
files in a file with a PostScript style %%BoundingBox
line if no
other format is available.)
A command that will be applied to the
file. This is very often left blank. This command must start with a
single backward quote. Thus,
\DeclareGraphicsRule{.eps.gz}{eps}{.eps.bb}{`gunzip -c
#1}
specifies that any file with the extension .eps.gz should
be treated as an eps
file, with the the BoundingBox information
stored in the file with extension .eps.bb, and that the command
gunzip -c
will run on your platform to decompresses the file.
Such a command is specific to your platform. In addition, your TeX system must allow you to run external commands; as a security measure modern systems restrict running commands unless you explicitly allow it. See the documentation for your TeX distribution.
Previous: Graphics package configuration, Up: Graphics [Contents][Index]
These are the commands available with the graphics and graphicx packages.
• \includegraphics: | Using a graphic in your document. | |
• \rotatebox: | Rotating boxes, including graphics. | |
• \scalebox: | Scaling boxes, including graphics. | |
• \resizebox: | Scaling boxes, including graphics, to a set size. |
Next: \rotatebox, Up: Commands for graphics [Contents][Index]
\includegraphics
Synopses for graphics package:
\includegraphics{filename} \includegraphics[urx,ury]{filename} \includegraphics[llx,lly][urx,ury]{filename} \includegraphics*{filename} \includegraphics*[urx,ury]{filename} \includegraphics*[llx,lly][urx,ury]{filename}
Synopses for graphicx package:
\includegraphics{filename} \includegraphics[key-value list]{filename} \includegraphics*{filename} \includegraphics*[key-value list]{filename}
Include a graphics file. The starred form \includegraphics*
will
clip the graphic to the size specified, while for the unstarred form any
part of the graphic that is outside the box of the specified size will
over-print the surrounding area.
This
\usepackage{graphicx} % in preamble ... \begin{center} \includegraphics{plot.pdf} \end{center}
will incorporate into the document the graphic in plot.pdf,
centered and at its nominal size. You can also give a path to the file,
as with \includegraphics{graphics/plot.pdf}
. To specify a list
of locations to search for the file, see \graphicspath.
If your filename includes spaces then put it in double quotes, as with
\includegraphics{"sister picture.jpg"}
.
The \includegraphics{filename}
command decides on the
type of graphic by splitting filename on the first dot. You can
use filename with no dot, as in \includegraphics{turing}
and then LaTeX tries a sequence of extensions such as .png
and
.pdf
until it finds a file with that extension
(see \DeclareGraphicsExtensions).
If your file name contains dots before the extension then you can hide
them with curly braces, as in
\includegraphics{{plot.2018.03.12.a}.pdf}
. Or, if you use
the graphicx package then you can use the options type
and
ext
; see below. This and other filename issues are also handled
with the package grffile.
This example puts a graphic in a figure environment so LaTeX can move it to the next page if fitting it on the current page is awkward (see figure).
\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics[width=3cm]{lungxray.jpg} \caption{The evidence is overwhelming: don't smoke.} \label{fig:xray} \end{figure}
This places a graphic that will not float, so it is sure to appear at this point in the document even if makes LaTeX stretch the text or resort to blank areas on the page. It will be centered and will have a caption.
\usepackage{caption} % in preamble ... \begin{center} \includegraphics{pix/nix.png} \captionof{figure}{The spirit of the night} \label{pix:nix} % if you want a caption \end{center}
This example puts a box with a graphic side by side with one having text, with the two vertically centered.
\newcommand*{\vcenteredhbox}[1]{\begingroup \setbox0=\hbox{#1}\parbox{\wd0}{\box0}\endgroup} ... \begin{center} \vcenteredhbox{\includegraphics[width=0.4\textwidth]{plot}} \hspace{1em} \vcenteredhbox{\begin{minipage}{0.4\textwidth} \begin{displaymath} f(x)=x\cdot \sin (1/x) \end{displaymath} \end{minipage}} \end{center}
If you use the graphics package then the only options involve the
size of the graphic (but see \rotatebox and \scalebox).
When one optional argument is present then it is
[urx,ury]
and it gives the coordinates of the top
right corner of the image, as a pair of TeX dimensions (see Units of length). If the units are omitted they default to bp
. In
this case, the lower left corner of the image is assumed to be at (0,0).
If two optional arguments are present then the leading one is
[llx,lly]
, specifying the coordinates of the image’s
lower left. Thus, \includegraphics[1in,0.618in]{...}
calls for
the graphic to be placed so it is 1 inch wide and 0.618 inches
tall and so its origin is at (0,0).
The graphicx package gives you many more options. Specify them in a key-value form, as here.
\begin{center} \includegraphics[width=1in,angle=90]{lion} \hspace{2em} \includegraphics[angle=90,width=1in]{lion} \end{center}
The options are read left-to-right. So the first graphic above is made one inch wide and then rotated, while the second is rotated and then made one inch wide. Thus, unless the graphic is perfectly square, the two will end with different widths and heights.
There are many options. The primary ones are listed first.
Note that a graphic is placed by LaTeX into a box, which is traditionally referred to as its bounding box (distinct from the PostScript BoundingBox described below). The graphic’s printed area may go beyond this box, or sit inside this box, but when LaTeX makes up a page it puts together boxes and this is the box allocated for the graphic.
width
The graphic will be shown so its bounding box is this width. An example
is \includegraphics[width=1in]{plot}
. You can use the standard
TeX dimensions (see Units of length) and also convenient is
\linewidth
, or in a two-column document, \columnwidth
(see Page layout parameters). An example is that by using the
calc package you can make the graphic be 1 cm narrow than
the width of the text with
\includegraphics[width=\linewidth-1.0cm]{hefferon.jpg}
.
height
The graphic will be shown so its bounding box is this height. You can
use the standard TeX dimensions (see Units of length), and also
convenient are \pageheight
and \textheight
(see Page layout parameters). For instance,
\includegraphics[height=0.25\textheight]{godel}
will make the
graphic be a quarter of the height of the text area.
totalheight
The graphic will be shown so its bounding box has this height plus depth. This differs from the height if the graphic was rotated. For instance, if it has been rotated by -90 then it will have zero height but a large depth.
keepaspectratio
If set to true
, or just specified as with
\includegraphics[...,keepaspectratio,...]{...}
and you give as
options both width
and height
(or totalheight
),
then LaTeX will make the graphic is as large as possible without
distortion. That is, LaTeX will ensure that neither is the graphic
wider than width
nor taller than height
(or
totalheight
).
scale
Factor by which to scale the graphic. Specifying
\includegraphics[scale=2.0]{...}
makes the graphic twice its
nominal size. This number may be any value; a number between 1
and 0 will shrink the graphic and a negative number will reflect
it.
angle
Rotate the picture. The angle is taken in degrees and counterclockwise.
The graphic is rotated about its origin
; see that option. For a
complete description of how rotated material is typeset,
see \rotatebox.
origin
The point of the graphic about which the rotation happens. Possible
values are any string containing one or two of: l
for left,
r
for right, b
for bottom, c
for center, t
for top, and B
for baseline. Thus,
\includegraphics[angle=180,origin=c]{moon}
will turn the
picture upside down from the center, while
\includegraphics[angle=180,origin=lB]{LeBateau}
will turn its
picture upside down about its left baseline. (The character c
gives the horizontal center in bc
or tc
, but gives the
vertical center in lc
or rc
.) The default is lB
.
To rotate about an arbitrary point, see \rotatebox.
These are lesser-used options.
viewport
Pick out a subregion of the graphic to show. Takes four arguments,
separated by spaces and given in TeX dimensions, as with
\includegraphics[.., viewport=0in 0in 1in 0.618in]{...}
. The
dimensions default to big points, bp
. They are taken
relative to the origin specified by the bounding box. See also the
trim
option.
trim
Gives parts of the graphic to not show. Takes four arguments, separated
by spaces, that are given in TeX dimensions, as with
\includegraphics[.., trim= 0in 0.1in 0.2in 0.3in, ...]{...}
.
These give the amounts of the graphic not to show, that is, LaTeX
will crop the picture by 0 inches on the left, 0.1 inches on
the bottom, 0.2 inches on the right, and 0.3 inches on the
top. See also the viewport
option.
clip
If set to true
, or just specified as with
\includegraphics[...,clip,...]{...}
, then the graphic is
cropped to the bounding box. You can get this effect by instead using
the starred form of the command, as
\includegraphics*[...]{...}
.
page
Give the page number of a multi-page PDF file. The default is
page=1
.
pagebox
Specifies which bounding box to use for PDF files from among
mediabox
, cropbox
, bleedbox
, trimbox
, or
artbox
. PDF files do not have the BoundingBox that PostScript
files have, but may specify up to four predefined rectangles. The
MediaBox gives the boundaries of the physical medium. The CropBox is the
region to which the contents of the page are to be clipped when
displayed. The BleedBox is the region to which the contents of the page
should be clipped in production. The TrimBox is the intended dimensions
of the finished page. The ArtBox is the extent of the page’s meaningful
content. The driver will set the image size based on CropBox if
present, otherwise it will not use one of the others, with a
driver-defined order of preference. MediaBox is always present.
interpolate
Enable or disable interpolation of raster images by the viewer. Can be
set with interpolate=true
or just specified as with
\includegraphics[...,interpolate,...]{...}
.
quiet
Do not write information to the log. You can set it with
quiet=true
or just specified it with
\includegraphics[...,quite,...]{...}
,
draft
If you set it with draft=true
or just specified it with
\includegraphics[...,draft,...]{...}
, then the graphic will not
appear in the document, possibly saving color printer ink. Instead,
LaTeX will put an empty box of the correct size with the filename
printed in it.
These options address the bounding box for Encapsulated PostScript
graphic files, which have a size specified with a line
%%BoundingBox
that appears in the file. It has four values,
giving the lower x coordinate, lower y coordinate, upper
x coordinate, and upper y coordinate. The units are
PostScript points, equivalent to TeX’s big points, 1/72 inch.
For example, if an .eps file has the line %%BoundingBox 10
20 40 80
then its natural size is 30/72 inch wide by
60/72 inch tall.
bb
Specify the bounding box of the displayed region. The argument is four
dimensions separated by spaces, as with \includegraphics[.., bb=
0in 0in 1in 0.618in]{...}
. Usually \includegraphics
reads the
BoundingBox numbers from the EPS file automatically, so this option is
only useful if the bounding box is missing from that file or if you want
to change it.
bbllx, bblly, bburx, bbury
Set the bounding box. These four are obsolete, but are retained for compatibility with old packages.
natwidth, natheight
An alternative for bb
. Setting
\includegraphics[...,natwidth=1in,natheight=0.618in,...]{...}
is the same as setting bb=0 0 1in 0.618in
.
hiresbb
If set to true
, or just specified as with
\includegraphics[...,hiresbb,...]{...}
, then LaTeX will look
for %%HiResBoundingBox
lines instead of %%BoundingBox
lines. (The BoundingBox
lines use only natural numbers while the
HiResBoundingBox
lines use decimals; both use units equivalent to
TeX’s big points, 1/72 inch.) To override a prior setting of
true
, you can set it to false
.
These following options allow a user to override LaTeX’s method of
choosing the graphic type based on the filename extension. An example
is that \includegraphics[type=png,ext=.xxx,read=.xxx]{lion}
will read the file lion.xxx as though it were
lion.png. For more on these, see \DeclareGraphicsRule.
type
Specify the graphics type.
ext
Specify the graphics extension.
Only use this in conjunction with the option type
.
read
Specify the file extension of the read file.
Only use this in conjunction with the option type
.
command
Specify a command to be applied to this file.
Only use this in conjunction with the option type
.
Next: \scalebox, Previous: \includegraphics, Up: Commands for graphics [Contents][Index]
\rotatebox
Synopsis for graphics package:
\rotatebox{angle}{material}
Synopses for graphicx package:
\rotatebox{angle}{material} \rotatebox[key-value list]{angle}{material}
Put material in a box and rotate it angle degrees counterclockwise.
This example rotates the table column heads forty five degrees.
\begin{tabular}{ll} \rotatebox{45}{Character} &\rotatebox{45}{NATO phonetic} \\ A &AL-FAH \\ B &BRAH-VOH \end{tabular}
The material can be anything that goes in a box, including a graphic.
\rotatebox[origin=c]{45}{\includegraphics[width=1in]{lion}}
To place the rotated material, the first step is that LaTeX sets material in a box, with a reference point on the left baseline. The second step is the rotation, by default about the reference point. The third step is that LaTeX computes a box to bound the rotated material. Fourth, LaTeX moves this box horizontally so that the left edge of this new bounding box coincides with the left edge of the box from the first step (they need not coincide vertically). This new bounding box, in its new position, is what LaTeX uses as the box when typesetting this material.
If you use the graphics package then the rotation is about the
reference point of the box. If you use the graphicx package then
then these are the options that can go in the key-value list, but
note that you can get the same effect without needing this package,
except for the x
and y
options (see \includegraphics).
origin
The point of the material’s box about which the rotation happens.
Possible values are any string containing one or two of: l
for
left, r
for right, b
for bottom, c
for center,
t
for top, and B
for baseline. Thus,
\includegraphics[angle=180,origin=c]{moon}
will turn the
picture upside down from the center, while
\includegraphics[angle=180,origin=lB]{LeBateau}
will turn its
picture upside down about its left baseline. (The character c
gives the horizontal center in bc
or tc
but gives the
vertical center in lc
or rc
.) The default is lB
.
x, y
Specify an arbitrary point of rotation with
\rotatebox[x=TeX dimension,y=TeX
dimension]{...}
(see Units of length). These give the offset
from the box’s reference point.
units
This key allows you to change the default of degrees counterclockwise.
Setting units=-360
changes the direction to degrees clockwise and
setting units=6.283185
changes to radians counterclockwise.
Next: \resizebox, Previous: \rotatebox, Up: Commands for graphics [Contents][Index]
\scalebox
Synopses:
\scalebox{horizontal factor}{material} \scalebox{horizontal factor}[vertical factor]{material} \reflectbox{material}
Scale the material.
This example halves the size, both horizontally and vertically, of the first text and doubles the size of the second.
\scalebox{0.5}{DRINK ME} and \scalebox{2.0}{Eat Me}
If you do not specify the optional vertical factor then it defaults to the same value as the horizontal factor.
You can use this command to resize a graphic, as with
\scalebox{0.5}{\includegraphics{lion}}
. If you use the
graphicx package then you can accomplish the same thing with
optional arguments to \includegraphics
(see \includegraphics).
The \reflectbox
command abbreviates
\scalebox{-1}[1]{material}
. Thus, Able was
I\reflectbox{Able was I}
will show the phrase ‘Able was I’
immediately followed by its mirror reflection.
Previous: \scalebox, Up: Commands for graphics [Contents][Index]
\resizebox
Synopses:
\resizebox{horizontal length}{vertical length}{material} \resizebox*{horizontal length}{vertical length}{material}
Given a size, such as 3cm
, transform material to make it
that size. If either horizontal length or vertical length
is an exclamation point !
then the other argument is used
to determine a scale factor for both directions.
This example makes the graphic be a half inch wide and scales it vertically by the same factor to keep it from being distorted.
\resizebox{0.5in}{!}{\includegraphics{lion}}
The unstarred form \resizebox
takes vertical length to be
the box’s height while the starred form \resizebox*
takes it to
be height+depth. For instance, make the text have a height+depth of a
quarter inch with \resizebox*{!}{0.25in}{\parbox{1in}{This
box has both height and depth.}}
.
You can use \depth
, \height
, \totalheight
, and
\width
to refer to the original size of the box. Thus, make the
text two inches wide but keep the original height with
\resizebox{2in}{\height}{Two inches}
.
Next: Splitting the input, Previous: Graphics, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
LaTeX provides commands for inserting characters that have a special meaning do not correspond to simple characters you can type.
• Reserved characters: | Inserting ‘# $ % & { } _ ~ ^ \’ | |
• Upper and lower case: | Make text upper or lower case. | |
• Symbols by font position: | Inserting font symbols by number. | |
• Text symbols: | Inserting other non-letter symbols in text. | |
• Accents: | Inserting accents. | |
• Additional Latin letters: | Inserting other non-English characters. | |
• \rule: | Inserting lines and rectangles. | |
• \today: | Inserting today’s date. |
Next: Upper and lower case, Up: Special insertions [Contents][Index]
LaTeX sets aside the following characters for special purposes (for
example, the percent sign %
is for comments) so they are
called reserved characters or special characters.
# $ % & { } _ ~ ^ \
If you want a reserved character to be printed as itself, in the text
body font, for all but the final three characters in that list simply
put a backslash \
in front of the character. Thus,
\$1.23
will produce $1.23
in your output.
As to the last three characters, to get a tilde in the text body font
use \~{}
(omitting the curly braces would result in the next
character receiving a tilde accent). Similarly, to get a get a text
body font circumflex use \^{}
. A text body font backslash
results from \textbackslash{}
.
To produce the reserved characters in a typewriter font use
\verb!!
, as below.
\begin{center} \# \$ \% \& \{ \} \_ \~{} \^{} \textbackslash \\ \verb!# $ % & { } _ ~ ^ \! \end{center}
In that example the double backslash \\
is only there to
split the lines.
Next: Symbols by font position, Previous: Reserved characters, Up: Special insertions [Contents][Index]
Synopsis:
\uppercase{text} \lowercase{text} \MakeUppercase{text} \MakeLowercase{text}
Change the case of characters. The TeX primitives commands
\uppercase
and \lowercase
only work for American
characters. The LaTeX commands \MakeUppercase
and
\MakeLowercase
commands also change characters accessed by
commands such as \ae
or \aa
. The commands
\MakeUppercase
and \MakeLowercase
are robust but they have
moving arguments (see \protect).
These commands do not change the case of letters used in the name of a
command within text. But they do change the case of every other
Latin letter inside the argument text. Thus,
\MakeUppercase{Let $y=f(x)$
} produces ‘LET Y=F(X)’. Another
example is that the name of an environment will be changed, so that
\MakeUppercase{\begin{tabular} ... \end{tabular}}
will
produce an error because the first half is changed to
\begin{TABULAR}
.
LaTeX uses the same fixed table for changing case throughout a document, The table used is designed for the font encoding T1; this works well with the standard TeX fonts for all Latin alphabets but will cause problems when using other alphabets.
To change the case of text that results from a macro inside text
you need to do expansion. Here the \Schoolname
produces
‘COLLEGE OF MATHEMATICS’.
\newcommand{\schoolname}{College of Mathematics} \newcommand{\Schoolname}{\expandafter\MakeUppercase \expandafter{\schoolname}}
The textcase package brings some of the missing feature of the
standard LaTeX commands \MakeUppercase
and
\MakeLowerCase
.
To uppercase only the first letter of words, you can use the package mfirstuc.
Next: Text symbols, Previous: Upper and lower case, Up: Special insertions [Contents][Index]
You can access any character of the current font using its number with
the \symbol
command. For example, the visible space character
used in the \verb*
command has the code decimal 32, so it can be
typed as \symbol{32}
.
You can also specify numbers in octal (base 8) by using a '
prefix, or hexadecimal (base 16) with a "
prefix, so the previous
example could also be written as \symbol{'40}
or
\symbol{"20}
.
Next: Accents, Previous: Symbols by font position, Up: Special insertions [Contents][Index]
LaTeX provides commands to generate a number of non-letter symbols
in running text. Some of these, especially the more obscure ones, are
not available in OT1; you may need to load the textcomp
package.
\copyright
\textcopyright
The copyright symbol, ©.
\dag
The dagger symbol (in text).
\ddag
The double dagger symbol (in text).
\LaTeX
The LaTeX logo.
\LaTeXe
The LaTeX2e logo.
\guillemotleft («)
\guillemotright (»)
\guilsinglleft (‹)
\guilsinglright (›)
Double and single angle quotation marks, commonly used in French: «, », ‹, ›.
\ldots
\dots
\textellipsis
An ellipsis (three dots at the baseline): ‘…’. \ldots
and \dots
also work in math mode.
\lq
Left (opening) quote: ‘.
\P
\textparagraph
Paragraph sign (pilcrow): ¶.
\pounds
\textsterling
English pounds sterling: £.
\quotedblbase („)
\quotesinglbase (‚)
Double and single quotation marks on the baseline: „ and ‚.
\rq
Right (closing) quote: ’.
\S
\TeX
The TeX logo.
\textasciicircum
ASCII circumflex: ^.
\textasciitilde
ASCII tilde: ~.
\textasteriskcentered
Centered asterisk: *.
\textbackslash
Backslash: \.
\textbar
Vertical bar: |.
\textbardbl
Double vertical bar.
\textbigcircle
Big circle symbol.
\textbraceleft
Left brace: {.
\textbraceright
Right brace: }.
\textbullet
Bullet: •.
\textcircled{letter}
letter in a circle, as in ®.
\textcompwordmark
\textcapitalcompwordmark
\textascendercompwordmark
Composite word mark (invisible). The \textcapital...
form
has the cap height of the font, while the \textascender...
form
has the ascender height.
\textdagger
Dagger: \dag.
\textdaggerdbl
Double dagger: \ddag.
\textdollar (or \$
)
Dollar sign: $.
\textemdash (or ---
)
Em-dash: — (for punctuation).
\textendash (or --
)
En-dash: – (for ranges).
\texteuro
The Euro symbol: €.
\textexclamdown (or !`
)
Upside down exclamation point: ¡.
\textgreater
Greater than: >.
\textless
Less than: <.
\textleftarrow
Left arrow.
\textordfeminine
\textordmasculine
Feminine and masculine ordinal symbols: ª, º.
\textperiodcentered
Centered period: ·.
\textquestiondown (or ?`
)
Upside down question mark: ¿.
\textquotedblleft (or ``
)
Double left quote: “.
\textquotedblright (or ''
)
Double right quote: ”.
\textquoteleft (or `
)
Single left quote: ‘.
\textquoteright (or '
)
Single right quote: ’.
\textquotesingle
Straight single quote. (From TS1 encoding.)
\textquotestraightbase
\textquotestraightdblbase
Single and double straight quotes on the baseline.
\textregistered
Registered symbol: ®.
\textrightarrow
Right arrow.
\textthreequartersemdash
“Three-quarters” em-dash, between en-dash and em-dash.
\texttrademark
Trademark symbol: ™.
\texttwelveudash
“Two-thirds” em-dash, between en-dash and em-dash.
\textunderscore
Underscore: _.
\textvisiblespace
Visible space symbol.
Next: Additional Latin letters, Previous: Text symbols, Up: Special insertions [Contents][Index]
LaTeX has wide support for many of the world’s scripts and
languages, through the babel
package and related support. This
section does not attempt to cover all that support. It merely lists
the core LaTeX commands for creating accented characters.
The \capital...
commands produce alternative forms for use with
capital letters. These are not available with OT1.
\"
\capitaldieresis
Produces an umlaut (dieresis), as in ö.
\'
\capitalacute
Produces an acute accent, as in ó. In the tabbing
environment, pushes current column to the right of the previous column
(see tabbing).
\.
Produces a dot accent over the following, as in ȯ.
\=
\capitalmacron
Produces a macron (overbar) accent over the following, as in ō.
\^
\capitalcircumflex
Produces a circumflex (hat) accent over the following, as in ô.
\`
\capitalgrave
Produces a grave accent over the following, as in ò. In the
tabbing
environment, move following text to the right margin
(see tabbing).
\~
\capitaltilde
Produces a tilde accent over the following, as in ñ.
\b
Produces a bar accent under the following, as in o_. See
also \underbar
hereinafter.
\c
\capitalcedilla
Produces a cedilla accent under the following, as in ç.
\d
\capitaldotaccent
Produces a dot accent under the following, as in ọ.
\H
\capitalhungarumlaut
Produces a long Hungarian umlaut accent over the following, as in ő.
\i
Produces a dotless i, as in ‘i’.
\j
Produces a dotless j, as in ‘j’.
\k
\capitalogonek
Produces a letter with ogonek, as in ‘ǫ’. Not available in the OT1 encoding.
\r
\capitalring
Produces a ring accent, as in ‘o*’.
\t
\capitaltie
\newtie
\capitalnewtie
Produces a tie-after accent, as in ‘oo[’. The
\newtie
form is centered in its box.
\u
\capitalbreve
Produces a breve accent, as in ‘ŏ’.
\underbar
Not exactly an accent, this produces a bar under the argument text.
The argument is always processed in horizontal mode. The bar is
always a fixed position under the baseline, thus crossing through
descenders. See also \underline
in Math miscellany.
See also \b
above.
\v
\capitalcaron
Produces a háček (check, caron) accent, as in ‘ǒ’.
Next: \rule, Previous: Accents, Up: Special insertions [Contents][Index]
Here are the basic LaTeX commands for inserting letters (beyond A–Z) extending the Latin alphabet, used primarily in languages other than English.
\aa
\AA
å and Å.
\ae
\AE
æ and Æ.
\dh
\DH
Icelandic letter eth: ð and Ð. Not available with OT1 encoding, you need the fontenc package to select an alternate font encoding, such as T1.
\dj
\DJ
Crossed d and D, a.k.a. capital and small letter d with stroke. Not available with OT1 encoding, you need the fontenc package to select an alternate font encoding, such as T1.
\ij
\IJ
ij and IJ (except somewhat closer together than appears here).
\l
\L
ł and Ł.
\ng
\NG
Lappish letter eng, also used in phonetics.
\o
\O
ø and Ø.
\oe
\OE
œ and Œ.
\ss
\SS
ß and SS.
\th
\TH
Icelandic letter thorn: þ and Þ. Not available with OT1 encoding, you need the fontenc package to select an alternate font encoding, such as T1.
Next: \today, Previous: Additional Latin letters, Up: Special insertions [Contents][Index]
\rule
Synopsis:
\rule[raise]{width}{thickness}
The \rule
command produces rules, that is, lines or
rectangles. The arguments are:
How high to raise the rule (optional).
The length of the rule (mandatory).
The thickness of the rule (mandatory).
Previous: \rule, Up: Special insertions [Contents][Index]
\today
The \today
command produces today’s date, in the format
‘month dd, yyyy’; for example, ‘July 4, 1976’.
It uses the predefined counters \day
, \month
, and
\year
(see \day \month \year) to do this. It is not
updated as the program runs.
Multilingual packages like babel or classes like lettre,
among others, will localize \today
. For example, the following
will output ‘4 juillet 1976’:
\year=1976 \month=7 \day=4 \documentclass{minimal} \usepackage[french]{babel} \begin{document} \today \end{document}
The datetime
package, among others, can produce a wide variety
of other date formats.
Next: Front/back matter, Previous: Special insertions, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
A large document requires a lot of input. Rather than putting the whole input in a single large file, it’s more efficient to split it into several smaller ones. Regardless of how many separate files you use, there is one that is the root file; it is the one whose name you type when you run LaTeX.
See filecontents, for an environment that allows bundling an external file to be created with the main document.
• \include: | Conditionally include a file. | |
• \includeonly: | Determine which files are included. | |
• \input: | Unconditionally include a file. |
Next: \includeonly, Up: Splitting the input [Contents][Index]
\include
Synopsis:
\include{file}
If no \includeonly
command is present, the \include
command executes \clearpage
to start a new page
(see \clearpage), then reads file, then does another
\clearpage
.
Given an \includeonly
command, the \include
actions are
only run if file is listed as an argument to
\includeonly
. See \includeonly.
The \include
command may not appear in the preamble or in a file
read by another \include
command.
Next: \input, Previous: \include, Up: Splitting the input [Contents][Index]
\includeonly
Synopsis:
\includeonly{file1,file2,...}
The \includeonly
command controls which files will be read by
subsequent \include
commands. The list of filenames is
comma-separated. Each element file1, file2, … must
exactly match a filename specified in a \include
command for the
selection to be effective.
This command can only appear in the preamble.
Previous: \includeonly, Up: Splitting the input [Contents][Index]
\input
Synopsis:
\input{file}
The \input
command causes the specified file to be read
and processed, as if its contents had been inserted in the current
file at that point.
If file does not end in ‘.tex’ (e.g., ‘foo’ or ‘foo.bar’), it is first tried with that extension (‘foo.tex’ or ‘foo.bar.tex’). If that is not found, the original file is tried (‘foo’ or ‘foo.bar’).
Next: Letters, Previous: Splitting the input, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
• Tables of contents: | ||
• Glossaries: | ||
• Indexes: |
Next: Glossaries, Up: Front/back matter [Contents][Index]
A table of contents is produced with the \tableofcontents
command. You put the command right where you want the table of
contents to go; LaTeX does the rest for you. A previous run must
have generated a .toc file.
The \tableofcontents
command produces a heading, but it does
not automatically start a new page. If you want a new page after the
table of contents, write a \newpage
command after the
\tableofcontents
command.
The analogous commands \listoffigures
and \listoftables
produce a list of figures and a list of tables (from .lof and
.lot files), respectively. Everything works exactly the same
as for the table of contents.
The command \nofiles
overrides these commands, and
prevents any of these lists from being generated.
• \addcontentsline: | Add an entry to table of contents, etc. | |
• \addtocontents: | Add text directly to table of contents file, etc. |
Next: \addtocontents, Up: Tables of contents [Contents][Index]
\addcontentsline
Synopsis:
\addcontentsline{ext}{unit}{text}
The \addcontentsline
command adds an entry to the specified list
or table where:
The filename extension of the file on which information is to be written,
typically one of: toc
(table of contents), lof
(list of
figures), or lot
(list of tables).
The name of the sectional unit being added, typically one of the following, matching the value of the ext argument:
toc
The name of the sectional unit: part
, chapter
,
section
, subsection
, subsubsection
.
lof
For the list of figures: figure
.
lot
For the list of tables: table
.
The text of the entry.
What is written to the .ext file is the command
\contentsline{unit}{text}{num}
, where
num
is the current value of counter unit
.
Previous: \addcontentsline, Up: Tables of contents [Contents][Index]
\addtocontents
The \addtocontents
{ext}{text} command adds text
(or formatting commands) directly to the .ext file that
generates the table of contents or lists of figures or tables.
The extension of the file on which information is to be written, typically one of: toc (table of contents), lof (list of figures), or lot (list of tables).
The text to be written.
Next: Indexes, Previous: Tables of contents, Up: Front/back matter [Contents][Index]
The command \makeglossary
enables creating glossaries.
The command \glossary{text}
writes a glossary entry for
text to an auxiliary file with the .glo extension.
Specifically, what gets written is the command
\glossaryentry{text}{pageno}
, where
pageno is the current \thepage
value.
The glossary
package on CTAN provides support for fancier
glossaries.
Previous: Glossaries, Up: Front/back matter [Contents][Index]
The command \makeindex
enables creating indexes. Put this in
the preamble.
The command \index{text}
writes an index entry for
text to an auxiliary file named with the .idx extension.
Specifically, what gets written is the command
\indexentry{text}{pageno}
, where pageno
is the current \thepage
value.
To generate a index entry for ‘bar’ that says ‘See foo’, use a
vertical bar: \index{bar|see{foo}}
. Use seealso
instead of see
to make a ‘See also’ entry.
The text ‘See’ is defined by the macro \seename
, and ‘See also’
by the macro \alsoname
. These can be redefined for other
languages.
The generated .idx file is then sorted with an external
command, usually either makeindex
(http://mirror.ctan.org/indexing/makeindex) or (the
multi-lingual) xindy
(http://xindy.sourceforge.net).
This results in a .ind file, which can then be read to typeset
the index.
The index is usually generated with the \printindex
command.
This is defined in the makeidx
package, so
\usepackage{makeidx}
needs to be in the preamble.
The rubber length \indexspace
is inserted before each new
letter in the printed index; its default value is ‘10pt plus5pt
minus3pt’.
The showidx
package causes each index entries to be shown in
the margin on the page where the entry appears. This can help in
preparing the index.
The multind
package supports multiple indexes. See also the
TeX FAQ entry on this topic,
http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=multind.
Next: Terminal input/output, Previous: Front/back matter, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
Synopsis:
\documentclass{letter} \address{sender address} \signature{sender name} \begin{document} \begin{letter}{recipient address} \opening{salutation} letter body \closing{closing text} \end{letter} ... more letters ... \end{document}
Produce one or more letters.
Each letter is in a separate letter
environment, whose argument
recipient address often contains multiple lines separated with a
double backslash (\\
). For example, you might have:
\begin{letter}{Mr. Joe Smith \\ 2345 Princess St. \\ Edinburgh, EH1 1AA} ... \end{letter}
The start of the letter
environment resets the page number to 1,
and the footnote number to 1 also.
The sender address and sender name are common to all of the
letters, whether there is one or more, so these are best put in the
preamble. As with the recipient address, often sender address
contains multiple lines separated by a double
backslash (\\
). LaTeX will put the sender name
under the closing, after a vertical space for the traditional
hand-written signature; it also can contain multiple lines.
Each letter
environment body begins with a required \opening
command
such as \opening{Dear Madam or Sir:}
. The letter body
text is ordinary LaTeX so it can contain everything from
enumerated lists to displayed math, except that commands such as
\chapter
that make no sense in a letter are turned off. Each
letter
environment body typically ends with a \closing
command such as \closing{Yours,}
.
Additional material may come after the \closing
. You can say who
is receiving a copy of the letter with a command like \cc{the
Boss \\ the Boss's Boss}
. There’s a similar \encl
command for
a list of enclosures. And, you can add a postscript with \ps
.
LaTeX’s default is to indent the signature and the \closing
above it by a length of \longindentation
. By default this is
0.5\textwidth
. To make them flush left, put
\setlength{\longindentation}{0em}
in your preamble.
To set a fixed date use something like
\renewcommand{\today}{2015-Oct-12}
. If put in your preamble
then it will apply to all the letters.
This example shows only one letter
environment. The three lines
marked as optional are typically omitted.
\documentclass{letter} \address{Sender's street \\ Sender's town} \signature{Sender's name \\ Sender's title} % optional: \location{Mailbox 13} % optional: \telephone{(102) 555-0101} \begin{document} \begin{letter}{Recipient's name \\ Recipient's address} \opening{Sir:} % optional: \thispagestyle{firstpage} I am not interested in entering a business arrangement with you. \closing{Your most humble, etc.,} \end{letter} \end{document}
These commands are used with the letter
class.
• \address: | Sender’s return address. | |
• \cc: | Carbon copy list. | |
• \closing: | Saying goodbye. | |
• \encl: | List of enclosed material. | |
• \location: | Sender’s organizational location. | |
• \makelabels: | Make address labels. | |
• \name: | Sender’s name, for the return address. | |
• \opening: | Saying hello. | |
• \ps: | Adding a postscript. | |
• \signature: | Sender’s signature. | |
• \telephone: | Sender’s phone number. |
\address
Synopsis:
\address{senders address}
Specifies the return address as it appears on the letter and on the
envelope. Separate multiple lines in senders address with a
double backslash \\
.
Because it can apply to multiple letters this declaration is often put
in the preamble. However, it can go anywhere, including inside an
individual letter
environment.
This command is optional: without the \address
declaration the
letter is formatted with some blank space on top, for copying onto
pre-printed letterhead paper. (See Overview, for details on your
local implementation.) With the \address
declaration, it is
formatted as a personal letter.
Here is an example.
\address{Stephen Maturin \\ The Grapes of the Savoy}
\cc
Synopsis:
\cc{first name \\ ... }
Produce a list of names to which copies of the letter were sent. This
command is optional. If it appears then typically it comes after
\closing
. Separate multiple lines with a double
backslash \\
, as in:
\cc{President \\ Vice President}
\closing
Synopsis:
\closing{text}
Usually at the end of a letter, above the handwritten signature, there
is a \closing
(although this command is optional). For example,
\closing{Regards,}
\encl
Synopsis:
\encl{first enclosed object \\ ... }
Produce a list of things included with the letter. This command is
optional; when it is used, it typically is put after \closing
.
Separate multiple lines with a double backslash \\
.
\encl{License \\ Passport }
Next: \makelabels, Previous: \encl, Up: Letters [Contents][Index]
\location
Synopsis:
\location{text}
The text appears centered at the bottom of the each page. It only
appears if the page style is firstpage
.
\makelabels
Synopsis:
\makelabels
Create a sheet of address labels from the recipient addresses, one for each letter. This sheet will be output before the letters, with the idea that you can copy it to a sheet of peel-off labels. This command goes in the preamble.
Customize the labels by redefining the commands \startlabels
,
\mlabel
, and \returnaddress
in the preamble. The command
\startlabels
sets the width, height, number of columns, etc., of
the page onto which the labels are printed. The command
\mlabel{sender address}{recipient address}
produces the two labels (or one, if you choose to ignore the sender
address). The sender address is the value returned by the macro
\returnaddress
while recipient address is the value passed
in the argument to the letter
environment. By default
\mlabel
ignores the first argument, the sender address.
Next: \opening, Previous: \makelabels, Up: Letters [Contents][Index]
\name
Synopsis:
\name{name}
Sender’s name, used for printing on the envelope together with the return address.
\opening
Synopsis:
\opening{text}
This command is required. It starts a letter, following the
\begin{letter}{...}
. The mandatory argument text is the
text that starts your letter. For instance:
\opening{Dear John:}
Next: \signature, Previous: \opening, Up: Letters [Contents][Index]
\ps
Synopsis:
\ps{text}
Add a postscript. This command is optional and usually is used after
\closing
.
\ps{P.S. After you have read this letter, burn it. Or eat it.}
Next: \telephone, Previous: \ps, Up: Letters [Contents][Index]
\signature
Synopsis:
\signature{first line \\ ... }
The sender’s name. This command is optional, although its inclusion is usual.
The argument text appears at the end of the letter, after the closing
and after a vertical space for the traditional hand-written
signature. Separate multiple lines with a double
backslash \\
. For example:
\signature{J Fred Muggs \\ White House}
LaTeX’s default for the vertical space from the \closing
text
down to the \signature
text is 6\medskipamount
, which is
six times 0.7em.
This command is usually in the preamble, to apply to all the letters in
the document. To have it apply to one letter only, put it inside a
letter
environment and before the \closing
.
You can include a graphic in the signature, for instance with
\signature{\vspace{-6\medskipamount}\includegraphics{sig.png}\\
My name}
(this requires writing \usepackage{graphicx}
in the
preamble).
Previous: \signature, Up: Letters [Contents][Index]
\telephone
Synopsis:
\telephone{number}
The sender’s telephone number. This is typically in the preamble, where
it applies to all letters. This only appears if the firstpage
pagestyle is selected. If so, it appears on the lower right of the
page.
Next: Command line, Previous: Letters, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
• \typein: | Read text from the terminal. | |
• \typeout: | Write text to the terminal. |
Next: \typeout, Up: Terminal input/output [Contents][Index]
\typein[cmd]{msg}
Synopsis:
\typein[\cmd]{msg}
\typein
prints msg on the terminal and causes LaTeX to
stop and wait for you to type a line of input, ending with return. If
the optional \cmd
argument is omitted, the typed input is
processed as if it had been included in the input file in place of the
\typein
command. If the \cmd
argument is present, it
must be a command name. This command name is then defined or
redefined to be the typed input.
Previous: \typein, Up: Terminal input/output [Contents][Index]
\typeout{msg}
Synopsis:
\typeout{msg}
Prints msg
on the terminal and in the log
file.
Commands in msg
that are defined with \newcommand
or
\renewcommand
(among others) are replaced by their definitions
before being printed.
LaTeX’s usual rules for treating multiple spaces as a single space
and ignoring spaces after a command name apply to msg
. A
\space
command in msg
causes a single space to be
printed, independent of surrounding spaces. A ^^J
in
msg
prints a newline.
Next: Document templates, Previous: Terminal input/output, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
The input file specification indicates the file to be formatted; TeX uses .tex as a default file extension. If you omit the input file entirely, TeX accepts input from the terminal. You can also specify arbitrary LaTeX input by starting with a backslash. For example, this processes foo.tex without pausing after every error:
latex '\nonstopmode\input foo.tex'
With many, but not all, implementations, command-line options can also be specified in the usual Unix way, starting with ‘-’ or ‘--’. For a list of those options, try ‘latex --help’.
If LaTeX stops in the middle of the document and gives you a
‘*’ prompt, it is waiting for input. You can type \stop
(and return) and it will prematurely end the document.
See TeX engines, for other system commands invoking LaTeX.
Next: Concept Index, Previous: Command line, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
Although not reference material, perhaps these document templates will be useful. Additional template resources are listed at http://tug.org/interest.html#latextemplates.
• beamer template: | ||
• book template: | ||
• tugboat template: |
Next: book template, Up: Document templates [Contents][Index]
beamer
templateThe beamer
class creates presentation slides. It has a vast
array of features, but here is a basic template:
\documentclass{beamer} \title{Beamer Class template} \author{Alex Author} \date{July 31, 2007} \begin{document} \maketitle % without [fragile], any {verbatim} code gets mysterious errors. \begin{frame}[fragile] \frametitle{First Slide} \begin{verbatim} This is \verbatim! \end{verbatim} \end{frame} \end{document}
One web resource for this: http://robjhyndman.com/hyndsight/beamer/.
Next: tugboat template, Previous: beamer template, Up: Document templates [Contents][Index]
book
template\documentclass{book} \title{Book Class Template} \author{Alex Author} \begin{document} \maketitle \chapter{First} Some text. \chapter{Second} Some other text. \section{A subtopic} The end. \end{document}
Previous: book template, Up: Document templates [Contents][Index]
tugboat
templateTUGboat is the journal of the TeX Users Group, http://tug.org/TUGboat.
\documentclass{ltugboat} \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{ifpdf} \ifpdf \usepackage[breaklinks,hidelinks]{hyperref} \else \usepackage{url} \fi %%% Start of metadata %%% \title{Example \TUB\ article} % repeat info for each author. \author{First Last} \address{Street Address \\ Town, Postal \\ Country} \netaddress{user (at) example dot org} \personalURL{http://example.org/~user/} %%% End of metadata %%% \begin{document} \maketitle \begin{abstract} This is an example article for \TUB{}. Please write an abstract. \end{abstract} \section{Introduction} This is an example article for \TUB, linked from \url{http://tug.org/TUGboat/location.html}. We recommend the \texttt{graphicx} package for image inclusions, and the \texttt{hyperref} package if active urls are desired (in the \acro{PDF} output). Nowadays \TUB\ is produced using \acro{PDF} files exclusively. The \texttt{ltugboat} class provides these abbreviations (and many more): % verbatim blocks are often better in \small \begin{verbatim}[\small] \AllTeX \AMS \AmS \AmSLaTeX \AmSTeX \aw \AW \BibTeX \CTAN \DTD \HTML \ISBN \ISSN \LaTeXe \mf \MFB \plain \POBox \PS \SGML \TANGLE \TB \TP \TUB \TUG \tug \UNIX \XeT \WEB \WEAVE \, \bull \Dash \dash \hyph \acro{FRED} -> {\small[er] fred} % please use! \cs{fred} -> \fred \meta{fred} -> <fred> \nth{n} -> 1st, 2nd, ... \sfrac{3/4} -> 3/4 \booktitle{Book of Fred} \end{verbatim} For references to other \TUB\ issue, please use the format \textsl{volno:issno}, e.g., ``\TUB\ 32:1'' for our \nth{100} issue. This file is just a template. The \TUB\ style documentation is the \texttt{ltubguid} document at \url{http://ctan.org/pkg/tugboat}. (For \CTAN\ references, where sensible we recommend that form of url, using \texttt{/pkg/}; or, if you need to refer to a specific file location, \texttt{http://mirror.ctan.org/\textsl{path}}.) Email \verb|tugboat@tug.org| if problems or questions. \bibliographystyle{plain} % we recommend the plain bibliography style \nocite{book-minimal} % just making the bibliography non-empty \bibliography{xampl} % xampl.bib comes with BibTeX \makesignature \end{document}
Next: Command Index, Previous: Document templates, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
Jump to: | *
.
`
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X |
---|
Jump to: | *
.
`
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X |
---|
Previous: Concept Index, Up: Top [Contents][Index]
Jump to: | $
&
-
.
1
[
\
^
_
{
A B C D E F H I L M N O P Q R S T U V X |
---|
Jump to: | $
&
-
.
1
[
\
^
_
{
A B C D E F H I L M N O P Q R S T U V X |
---|