LaTeX/Useful Measurement Macros

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LaTeX

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• Useful Measurement Macros
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A list of macros and their values

[edit] Units

First, we introduce the LaTeX measurement units. You can choose from a variety of units.

[edit] Length 'macros'

Some length commands are;

\baselineskip 

The normal vertical distance between lines in a paragraph

\baselinestretch 

Multiplies \baselineskip

\columnsep 

The distance between columns

\columnwidth 

The width of the column

\evensidemargin 

The margin for 'even' pages (think of a printed booklet)

\linewidth 

The width of a line in the local environment

\oddsidemargin 

The margin for 'odd' pages (think of a printed booklet)

\paperwidth 

The width of the page

\paperheight 

The height of the page

\parindent 

The normal paragraph indentation

\parskip 

The extra vertical space between paragraphs

\tabcolsep 

The default separation between columns in a tabular environment

\textheight 

The height of text on the page

\textwidth 

The width of the text on the page

\topmargin 

The size of the top margin

\unitlength 

Units of length in Picture Environment

[edit] Length manipulation macros

You can change the values of the variables defining the page layout with two commands. With this one you can set a new value:

\setlength{parameter}{length}

with this other one, you can add a value to the existing one:

\addtolength{parameter}{length}

You can create your own length with the command:

\newlength{parameter}

You may also set a length from the size of a text with one of these commands:

\settowidth{parameter}{some text}
\settoheight{parameter}{some text}

When using these commands, you may to duplicate the text that you want to use as reference if you plan to also display it. But LaTeX also provides a set of commands to avoid this duplication:

\newsavebox{boxname}
\savebox{boxname}{some text}
\usebox{boxname}

You may wish to look at the example below to see how you can use these. The command \newsavebox creates a placeholder for storing a text; the command \savebox stores the specified text in this placeholder, and does not display anything in the document; and \usebox recalls the content of the placeholder into the document.

See LaTeX/Page_Layout for samples using these.

[edit] Samples

Resize an image to take exactly half the text width :

\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{mygraphic}

Make distance between items larger (inside an itemize environment) :

\addtolength{\itemsep}{0.5\baselineskip}

Use of savebox to resize an image to the height of the text:

% Create the holders we will need for our work
\newlength{\mytitleheight}
\newsavebox{\mytitletext}
% Create the reference text for measures
\savebox{\mytitletext}{%
  \Large\bfseries This is our title%
}
\settoheight{\mytitleheight}{\usebox{\mytitletext}}
% Now creates the actual object in our document
\framebox[\textwidth][l]{%
  \includegraphics[height=\mytitleheight]{my_image}%
  \hspace{2mm}%
  \usebox{\mytitletext}%
}