LaTeX/Useful Measurement Macros
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< LaTeX
A list of macros and their values
Contents |
[edit] Units
First, we introduce the LaTeX measurement units. You can choose from a variety of units.
| pt | a point is 1/72.27 inch, that means about 0.0138 inch or 0.3515 mm. |
| bp | a big point is 1/72 inch, that means about 0.0139 inch or 0.3527 mm. |
| mm | a millimeter |
| cm | a centimeter |
| in | inch |
| ex | roughly the height of an 'x' in the current font |
| em | roughly the width of an 'M' (note the uppercase) of the current font |
[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)
- \pagewidth
- The width of the page
- \pageheight
- 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}
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}
