How to reduce fontsize for References when using biblatex-chicago

Question

My tags are follows:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[natbib,authordate,backend=biber]{biblatex-chicago}%
\begin{filecontents}{test.bib}
@book{anderson,
Address = {Mahwah, New Jersey},
Author = {J. R. Anderson},
Date-Added = {2014-02-05 15:27:59 +0100},
Date-Modified = {2014-02-05 16:10:22 +0100},
Publisher = {Lawrence {E}rlbaum {A}ssociates},
Title = {The architecture of cognition},
Year = {1983}}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{test.bib}
\makeatletter
\renewenvironment{thebibliography}[1]{%
 \chapter*{\refname}%
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{\refname}%
\small\list{}{%
  \usecounter{enumi}%
  \leftmargin 1em\itemindent -1em\parsep \z@
    \itemsep4\p@%
 }}%
{\endlist}%
\makeatother
\begin{document}
Test for reference entry \citep{anderson}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Above tags are working fine, but not able to change the turnover (hangindent) value and the fontsize of the entries. Please suggest....

Answer 1

Since biblatex does not use thebibliography, you don't need to redefine that environment and any redefinition will not not affect the biblatex-generated bibliography.

The size of the hanging indent is controlled by the length \bibhang, which is defined as

 \setlength{\bibhang}{\ifnumequal{\parindent}{0}{1em}{\parindent}}

in biblatex.def and redefined to

 \setlength{\bibhang}{2em}

in biblatex-chicago.sty.

You could try \setlength{\bibhang}{\parindent} or \setlength{\bibhang}{1em}.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[authordate,backend=biber]{biblatex-chicago}%
\setlength{\bibhang}{1em}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}
\begin{document}
Test for reference entry \autocite{sigfridsson}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

The font size can be changed with

\renewcommand*{\bibfont}{\normalfont\normalsize}

Just replace \normalsize with the size command for the size you want.

---

Some more details.

The default bibliography environment in biblatex-chicago is defined as

\defbibenvironment{bibliography}% New for 0.9a
  {\list
     {}
     {\setlength{\leftmargin}{\bibhang}%
      \setlength{\itemindent}{-\leftmargin}%
      \setlength{\itemsep}{\bibitemsep}%
      \setlength{\parsep}{\bibparsep}}}
  {\endlist}
  {\item}

If you want to add additional space to the left, you could say something like

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[authordate,backend=biber]{biblatex-chicago}%
\setlength{\bibhang}{1cm}
\newlength{\bibleftadd}
\setlength{\bibleftadd}{1cm}
\defbibenvironment{bibliography}
  {\list
     {}
     {\setlength{\leftmargin}{\bibhang}%
      \setlength{\itemindent}{-\leftmargin}%
      \addtolength{\leftmargin}{\bibleftadd}%
      \setlength{\itemsep}{\bibitemsep}%
      \setlength{\parsep}{\bibparsep}}}
  {\endlist}
  {\item}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}
\begin{document}
Test for reference entry \autocite{sigfridsson}
\printbibliography
\end{document}