1

I saw this to add a dotted line below some text. But I'm wondering how to shift it down a little bit and play with its positioning, I don't see how to adjust the layout of it from the example.

I would also like to know how to simply add a "blank line", basically like this in the text:

Hello this is some text with a ___________ blank line.

I tried doing this but it doesn't seem right and doesn't work:

Hello this is some text with a \thedot{          } blank line.

\newcommand{\thedot}[1]{%
  \tikz[baseline=(todotted.base)]{
    \node[inner sep=1pt,outer sep=0pt] (todotted) {#1};
    \draw[dotted, thick] (todotted.south west) -- (todotted.south east);
  }%
}%

I get this with the current answers:

enter image description here

When I do \node[inner sep=1pt,outer sep=0pt,xshift=-2mm] or \tikz[baseline=2mm]. Still not right.

Lance
  • 1,799
  • 2
    Did you try using \phantom{some text} to get some blank space? – nidhin Dec 05 '18 at 19:57
  • As @nidhin says, replace thedot{ } with \thedot{\hphantom{some text}}, where some text represents the amount of space you want. Multiple spaces are ignored in text, so what you have is the equivalent of \thedot{ } (ie, a single space). The other alternative is to modify thedot macro to have a parameter which specifies the actual width of the dotted line you want to have: \thedot[2cm]{} for example. – Peter Grill Dec 05 '18 at 20:18

2 Answers2

3

With tikz, just use the baseline key, see page 124 of manual 3.0.1a. I colored the lines to make the code easier to read.

To respond to your last comment:

baseline is defined on page 124 as follows:

/tikz/baseline=< dimension or coordinate or default >

Thus, natively we can do with either a coordinate or a dimension, but not both at the same time. To apply both at the same time, a transform canvas={yshift=-2pt} can be applied in this way:

\tikz[baseline=(todotted.base)]\path[red, dash dot dot,transform canvas={yshift=-2pt}] node  (todotted) {} edge ([xshift=2cm]todotted){};

Code and result:

  \documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
Hello this is some text with a \tikz[baseline]\draw[dashed](0,0)--+(1,0); blank line.

Hello this is some text with a \tikz[baseline=-2mm]\draw[red,thick,densely dotted](0,0)--+(1,0); blank line.

Hello this is some text with a \tikz[baseline=1mm]\draw[blue,thick,dotted](0,0)--+(1,0); blank line.

Hello this is some text with a \tikz[baseline=(todotted.base)]\path[cyan, loosely dash dot ] node  (todotted) {} edge ([xshift=2cm]todotted){}; blank line.

Hello this is some text with a \tikz[baseline=(todotted.base)]\path[red, dash dot dot,transform canvas={yshift=-2pt}] node  (todotted) {} edge ([xshift=2cm]todotted){}; blank line.

\end{document}

enter image description here

AndréC
  • 24,137
2

Solid line: The command is \rule[lift]{width}{thickness}.

Hello this is some text with a \rule[0pt]{1cm}{.4pt} blank line.

Hello this is some text with a \rule[2pt]{1cm}{.4pt} blank line.

Hello this is some text with a \rule[-2pt]{1cm}{.4pt} blank line.

enter image description here

Dotted line: Using a box, we define a new command with width as argument.

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{report}

\newcommand{\dottedline}[1]{\makebox[#1]{\dotfill}}
\begin{document}
Hello this is some text with a \dottedline{2cm}  blank line.

Hello this is some text with a \dottedline{3cm}  blank line.
\end{document}

![enter image description here

Edit:

enter image description here

You can change the 5mm value (distance between dots) and {\Large .} (the symbol to be used to fill.

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{report}

\makeatletter
\def\mydotsfill{\leavevmode \cleaders \hb@xt@ 5mm{\hss {\Large .}\hss }\hfill \kern \z@}
\newcommand{\dottedline}[1]{\makebox[#1]{\mydotsfill}}
\makeatother


\begin{document}
Hello this is some text with a \dottedline{2cm}  blank line.

Hello this is some text with a \dottedline{3cm}  blank line.

\end{document}

Edit 2: Another version, where you can give an optional argument with the text to be inserted above the dots, centered.

enter image description here

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{report}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\makeatletter
\def\mydotsfill{\leavevmode \cleaders \hb@xt@ 3mm{\hss {\Large .}\hss }\hfill \kern \z@}
\newcommand{\dottedline}[2][]{\makebox[#2]{\mydotsfill\makebox[0pt]{\raisebox{.75ex}{#1}}\mydotsfill}}
\makeatother


\begin{document}
Hello this is some text with a \dottedline[December]{5cm}  blank line.

Hello this is some text with a \dottedline{3cm}  blank line.

\end{document}
Sigur
  • 37,330