5

I would like to show the footnote rule with the same indentation as the footnote. I have tried with something like

\renewcommand\footnoterule{%
  \kern-3\p@
  \rule{.4\columnwidth}{0.4pt}
  \kern2.6\p@}

But it produces inconsistent results. In some cases the rule is indented, in other cases it appears in the same line as the last line of text in the page.

Werner
  • 603,163
Guido
  • 30,740

1 Answers1

5

You have to avoid going in horizontal mode, which \rule does.

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\makeatletter

\newlength{\@fnruleindent}
\AtBeginDocument{
  \settowidth{\@fnruleindent}{\textsuperscript{1}}
  \addtolength{\@fnruleindent}{-\parindent}
  \setlength{\@fnruleindent}{-\@fnruleindent}
}
\def\footnoterule{%
  \kern -3\p@
  \moveright\@fnruleindent\vbox to.4\p@{\hrule \@width .4\columnwidth}
  \kern 2.6\p@
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
abc\footnote{abc}
\end{document}

This works for footnote numbers up to 9. If you have more footnotes use

\settowidth{\@fnruleindent}{\textsuperscript{11}}

However I don't think it's a good idea.

According to Tschichold, the footnote rule should be the whole line width or absent. Other typographers disagree.

egreg
  • 1,121,712