Three Dots in Center Page

Question

For some books, authors can use three dots in the middle of a page to signify when a section ends and another begins without an explicit sextion header. This is demonstrated in the excerpt below:

Focusing on the three stars in the center of the page, I wonder how one can do something like that in LaTeX.

And to be more specific, where can I find options for different symbols? Previous questions look at certain packages. I am wondering if there is a repository of possibilities.

I have tried using a \section{} command but it does not seem to be the best option.

Thank you!

This might be helpful: Placing a decorative separator in text — barbara beeton, Jul 31 '19 at 20:47
Is it natural that 3 dots is at the center of page? It should be in between ending of the curent section and the next section, right? — Black Mild, Jul 31 '19 at 20:53

Bernard · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-01T01:08:34.380

11

I think you don't you need a machinery like TikZ for that:

\documentclass{article}%
\usepackage{lipsum} 
\newcommand{\threestars}{\begin{center}$ {\ast}\,{\ast}\,{\ast} $\end{center}}

\newcommand{\varthreestars}{\begin{center}\begin{tabular}{c}$\ast$\\[-0.8ex] $\ast\enspace \ast $\end{tabular}\end{center}}

\begin{document}

 \lipsum[1]
 \threestars
 \lipsum[2]
 \varthreestars
 \lipsum[3]

\end{document}

edited Aug 01 '19 at 01:08

answered Jul 31 '19 at 22:32

Bernard

271,350

Since \ast is a \mathbin, simply saying $\ast\ast\ast$ gives three spaced-out asterisks… ;o) – GuM Aug 01 '19 at 00:20
I know. I just thought they were a bit too much spaced (for my taste ;o)) – Bernard Aug 01 '19 at 01:08

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 31 '19 at 21:34

TikZ may help in this case.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[margin=3cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.geometric}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-1]
\vspace*{2mm}

\noindent\begin{tikzpicture}
\pgfmathsetmacro{\a}{\textwidth/2} 
\path (0,0); % move pen to (0,0) left most of the text
\path (\a pt,0) node[scale=5,blue]{$\cdots$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\vspace*{2mm}

\lipsum[1-1]
\vspace*{5mm}

\noindent\begin{tikzpicture}
\pgfmathsetmacro{\a}{\textwidth/2} 
\path (0,0); % move pen to (0,0) left most of the text
\path[every node/.style={star,draw,fill=magenta,star point ratio=2.5,scale=.5}] 
(\a pt,0) node{}--+(0:1) node{}--+(180:1) node{};
\end{tikzpicture}
\vspace*{5mm}

\lipsum[1-1]
\end{document}

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 01 '19 at 16:42

The memoir class provides for a variety of anonymous breaks (no number, no title text) in a document.

\plainbreak{<num>} % insert <num> blank lines
\fancybreak{<text>} % insert <text> 
% e.g., \fancybreak{{*}\\{* * *}\\{*}} % insert a diamond shape made of asterisks
\plainfancybreak{<space>}{<num>}{<text>} % insert <num> blank lines in the
% midle of a page or <text> if at the top or bottom

For full details see section 6.7 Fancy anonymous breaks in the manual (> texdoc memoir) which also provides a range of ideas for such breaks.

Three Dots in Center Page

3 Answers3