spread across a line (minus indent)

Question

I have a sentence I wanted to spread across a line like the following:

\makebox[\linewidth][s]{XXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XX XXX XXX XX XXXXX XXXXX}\par

What really happens is because it's a new paragraph with indent, it goes over the margin like the following

So the question is how do I spread the XXX across a line subtracting the indent space? Note that I still want the indent at the beginning.

@Schrödinger'scat, I still want the indent, it's a new paragraph — user1935724, May 11 '20 at 05:53
Well, \linewidth+\parindent>\linewidth if \parindent>0. Do you want \makebox[\dimexpr\linewidth-\parindent]...? — , May 11 '20 at 05:55
Well, it worked, do you think it would make sense to make an answer? or I can update the question. Thanks a lot! — user1935724, May 11 '20 at 05:58
This is completely up to you. If you think that it is worthwhile to have an official answer, I will be happy to write one. — , May 11 '20 at 06:00

score 3 · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-11T06:22:05.733

3

If you want to keep the \parindent before the box, you need to subtract it from the \linewidth to have a box that fits on the page. Subtracting the width is as simple as saying

\dimexpr\linewidth-\parindent

as in

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{geometry}
\begin{document}
XXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XX XXX XXX XX XXXXX XXXXX
XXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XX XXX XXX XX XXXXX XXXXX\par

\makebox[\dimexpr\linewidth-\parindent][s]{XXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XX XXX XXX XX XXXXX XXXXX}\par

\end{document}

The \dimexpr "command" (it is a so-called primitive) is nicely explained in this thread, as are most of its cousins. AFAIK their creator is also co-responsible for the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound.

edited May 11 '20 at 06:22

answered May 11 '20 at 06:09

actually, can I ask what is exactly \dimexpr – user1935724 May 11 '20 at 06:11
2

@user1935724 \dimexpr allows us to do simple arithmetics with lengths without introducing an new length. One can build linear combinations of lengths with this. If you want to print the result, use \the\dimexpr...., e.g. \the\dimexpr\linewidth-\parindent will print 415.00462pt in the above document. Likewise, \numexpr allows us to do simple arithmetics with integers. See this post for more details. – May 11 '20 at 06:15

Donald Arseneau · Answer 2 · 2020-05-11T08:16:24.630

This seems to be the first line of a paragraph, rather than a stand-alone line. On that assumption, I'd say: Don't set the width at all! just put \linebreak at the end of the first-line content. But my assumption is probably not correct, and the answer should NOT be to end the text with \linebreak\par!

Also, the original \noindent suggestion by the hard-to-pin-down feline is fine. Using it means you don't need to calculate width. Just put the indent inside the box

 \noindent\makebox[\linewidth][s]{\indent XXX XXXXX XXXXX ... XXXXX}\par

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered May 11 '20 at 08:33

It seems you want a paragraph with the line stretched full width, you can specify that directly by setting \parfillskip (the space added to the last line) to 0pt. There is no need for calculations or explicit boxing.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{geometry}
\begin{document}
XXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XX XXX XXX XX XXXXX XXXXX
XXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XX XXX XXX XX XXXXX XXXXX

{\parfillskip=0pt
XXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XX XXX XXX XX XXXXX XXXXX

}

\end{document}

spread across a line (minus indent)

3 Answers3