\
baselineskip
per paragraph\
baselineskip
is not (as one might hope) a property of a
line, but of a paragraph. As a result, in a 10pt
(nominal)
document (with a default \
baselineskip
of 12pt
), a
single character with a larger size, as:
{\Huge A}
will be squashed into the paragraph: TeX will make sure it doesn’t
scrape up against the line above, but won’t give it “room to
breathe”, as it does the text at standard size; that is, its size
(24.88pt
) is taken account of, but its \
baselineskip
(30pt
) isn’t. Similarly
Paragraph text ... {\footnotesize Extended interjection ... ... into the paragraph.} ... paragraph continues ...
will look silly, since the 8pt
interjection will end up set
on the 12pt
\
baselineskip
of the paragraph, rather than
its preferred 8.5pt
. Finally, something like
Paragraph text ... ... paragraph body ends. {\footnotesize Short comment on paragraph.} Next paragraph starts...
will set the body of the first paragraph on the constricted
\
baselineskip
of the \
footnotesize
comment.
\
strut
to provide the
equivalent of a metal-type strut for the size chosen. So for the
example above, we would type
Paragraph text ... {\Huge A\strut} ... paragraph continues ...
However, more extended insertions (whether of larger or smaller text) are always going to cause problems; while you can strut larger text, ensuring that you strut every line will be tiresome, and there’s no such thing as a “negative strut” that pulls the lines together for smaller text.
The only satisfactory way to deal with an extended insertion at a different size is to set it off as a separate paragraph. A satisfactory route to achieving this is thequote
environment, which sets its text modestly inset from the enclosing
paragraph:
Paragraph text ... \begin{quote} \footnotesize This is an inset account of something relevant to the enclosing paragraph... \end{quote} ... paragraph continues ...
Such quote-bracketing also deals with the problem of a trailing comment on the paragraph.
This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=baselinepar