Linebreaking in a correct manner

Question

So this might be a really basic question, but I couldn't find anything about it.

In my amateur style of LaTeX typesetting, I sometimes want linebreaks in random places for various reasons. I usually end up using \\\\, which gives an underfull warning but compiles fine.

I'm getting to the point of using LaTeX often enough that it's worth wondering:

Why is this not recommended by the compiler?
What should I do instead?

Examples

This is a paragraph where I write some stuff
\\\\
This is a paragraph which I might want to clearly delimit. 
I guess I have a hard time coming up with an example, since
a quotation or a pancake recipe would probably be better
off contained in its own figure.

\begin{lemma} (Impossibility of nice typecasting lemma)
Let A be some arbitrary typecasting rule. Assume mathematician B wants to ignore it.
\\\\
Then maybe I want to separate the assumptions and the conclusion of the lemma very clearly.

This seems to be a typical "it's doable, but why would you want to?" question. In general I think indentation after an empty line almost always looks kind of weird. Maybe typography isn't the place for being a maverick, so if I'm breaking general guidelines here it would be nice to know I guess.

I'm really curious: Where did you get the idea to use \\\\? None of the manuals I know recommend that. — Martin Schröder, Oct 09 '15 at 21:58

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

3

Add the parskip package to your preamble:

\usepackage{parskip}

You can leave the //// from your example and use a white space instead

Optionally you can set the distances

% Set distance between paragraphs (absolute distance and "rubber")
\setlength{\parskip}{0.4cm plus2mm minus2mm}
% No indent,
\setlength\parindent{0pt}

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Community

1

answered Oct 09 '15 at 09:26

Joost Döbken

795

Ulysses · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-09T08:11:15.433

2

I assume by 'rowbreak' you mean 'linebreak'. If not, disregard my answer. I think perhaps \\ is what you want instead of \\\\. Unless you want two line breaks, in which case you could just skip a line like so, to get a new paragraph:

Text of a new paragraph.

\noindent Text of the rest of the paragraph, with a gap of one line between the two.

If I've misunderstood your question could you provide an example of what you're trying to achieve and how you're trying to code it up?

edited Oct 09 '15 at 08:11

answered Oct 09 '15 at 08:07

Ulysses

1,933

Yeah I meant linebreak, sorry. But your method produces indentation in the second paragraph, which is what I sometimes want to avoid. – Benjamin Lindqvist Oct 09 '15 at 08:10
Use \noindent at the start of the paragraph, and that should avoid the issue. – Ulysses Oct 09 '15 at 08:11
No worries! Glad it's working now. :) – Ulysses Oct 09 '15 at 08:32
1

@BenjaminLindqvist Why shouldn't a new paragraph be indented? – egreg Oct 09 '15 at 08:58
@egreg I can probably think of many examples, will update the question – Benjamin Lindqvist Oct 09 '15 at 09:00
1

@BenjaminLindqvist I can think to none, to be honest, particularly if you want a big break between the two paragraphs. – egreg Oct 09 '15 at 09:03

Linebreaking in a correct manner

2 Answers2