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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label struttab</title>
</head><body>
<h3>Spacing lines in tables</h3>
<p/>(La)TeX mechanisms for maintaining the space between lines (the
&#8220;<em>leading</em>&#8221;) rely on TeX&#8217;s paragraph builder, which compares
the shape of consecutive lines and adjusts the space between them.
<p/>These mechanisms can&#8217;t work in exactly the same way when (La)TeX is
building a table, because the paragraph builder doesn&#8217;t get to see the
lines themselves.  As a result, tables sometimes typeset with lines
uncomfortably close together (or occasionally ridiculously far apart).
<p/>Traditional (moving metal type) typographers would adjust the spacing
between lines of a table by use of a &#8220;<em>strut</em>&#8221; (a metal
spacer).  A TeX user can do exactly the same thing: most macro
packages define a <code>\</code><code>strut</code> command, that defines a space appropriate
to the current size of the text; placing a <code>\</code><code>strut</code> command at the
end of a troublesome row is the simplest solution to the problem &#8212;
if it works.  Other solutions below are LaTeX-specific, but some
may be simply translated to Plain TeX commands.
<p/>If your table exhibits a systematic problem (i.e., every row is wrong
by the same amount) use <code>\</code><code>extrarowheight</code>, which is defined by the
<i>array</i> package:
<blockquote>
<pre>
\usepackage{array}% in the preamble
...
\setlength{\extrarowheight}{length}
\begin{tabular}{....}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
<p/>To correct a single row whose maladjustment isn&#8217;t corrected by a
<code>\</code><code>strut</code> command, you can define your own, using
<code>\</code><code>rule{0pt}{length}</code> &#8212; which is a near approximation to the
command that goes inside a <code>\</code><code>strut</code>.  The <i>bigstrut</i> package
defines a strut command that you can use for this purpose:
<code>\</code><code>bigstrut</code> on its own opens up both above and below the current
line; <code>\</code><code>bigstrut[t]</code> opens up above the line,
<code>\</code><code>bigstrut[b]</code> opens up below the line.
<p/>General solutions are available, however.  The <i>tabls</i> package
automatically generates an appropriately-sized strut at the end of
each row.  Its disadvantages are that it&#8217;s really rather slow in
operation (since it gets in the way of everything within tables) and
its (lack of) compatibility with other packages.
<p/>The <i>cellspace</i> package does a (possibly inferior) job by
defining a new table/array column type &#8220;S&#8221;, which you apply to each
column specification.  So, for example,
<blockquote>
<pre>
\cmdinvoke{begin}{tabular}{l l l p{3cm}}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
would become
<blockquote>
<pre>
\cmdinvoke{begin}{tabular}{Sl Sl Sl Sp{3cm}}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
and so on.  This technique shows
promise of not interfering so much with other packages, but this
author has heard of no reports from the field.
<p/>The <i>booktabs</i> package comes with a thought-provoking essay
about how tables should be designed.  Since table row-spacing problems
most often appear in collisions with rules, the author&#8217;s thesis,
that LaTeX users tend too often to rule their tables, is
interesting.  The package provides rule commands to support the
author&#8217;s scheme, but deals with inter-row spacing too.  The most
recent release of <i>booktabs</i> sports compatibility with
packages such as <i>longtable</i>.
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>array.sty</i></tt><dd>Distributed as part of <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/required/tools.zip">macros/latex/required/tools</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/required/tools/">browse the directory</a>); <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/entries/array.html">catalogue entry</a>
<dt><tt><i>bigstrut.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/multirow.zip">macros/latex/contrib/multirow</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/multirow/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>booktabs.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/booktabs.zip">macros/latex/contrib/booktabs</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/booktabs/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>cellspace.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/cellspace.zip">macros/latex/contrib/cellspace</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/cellspace/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>tabls.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/tabls.zip">macros/latex/contrib/tabls</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/tabls/">browse the directory</a>)
</dl>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=struttab">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=struttab</a>
</body>