How to define the height of text in cm

Question

I know the question I am going to ask is similar to others posted here. However, I still can not find the right answer. I have checked:

How to export a math formula with a beautiful, high resolution font for a tattoo?

What measure in the text is it that is the font size?

What is the local height of a capital letter?

\settoheight is slightly shorter than actual height

Down to business, I want to get a tattoo with Eulers' identity. So I want to be sure of the height of the text.

And basically that is my question, how to set the height of the text to a specific height (in this case probably fron the baseline to the ascender) in cm, say 1 cm.

Here is what I have done so far:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
 \draw[red,line width = 1mm] (0,0)--nodecolor=black,left { \adjustbox{scale=3}{
$\displaystyle e^{i \pi} + 1 = 0$
}} (0,1cm);
\draw[red] (0,0)--(-6cm,0);
\draw[red] (0,1)--++(-6cm,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Here I am getting approx. the height I want, but basically I am just working around the problem for the solution, instead of doing it right. I draw a vertical line of height 1 cm, and two other horizontal lines, on the base and upper part. Then, after tweaking around with the value of the scale in the adjust box, I get something similar to what I am looking for.

But once again, Is there any other way (direct, efficient, or simple better) to get the desire result?

Thanks in advance for your contribution!

Editing 1: I have one additional question: In either my solution as with the @pascal974 s, the plus sign is lower than the baseline. Is there a way to move up the + such that it stays above the baseline?

I tried by wrapping the + sign in scriptstyle:

$e^{i \pi}\, {\scriptstyle + } \,1 = 0$

But this command just makes the sign smaller, placing it a the same "ground".

Cheers!

There is \resizebox{!}{1cm}{...} from either the adjustbox or graphicx packages (it moves around). It can still be fooled by white space. — John Kormylo, May 30 '22 at 14:24

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 30 '22 at 13:53

2

In plain TeX, you can divide 1 cm by the height of your formula and apply the quotient (times 1000) as \magnification:

\dimen0=1cm
\setbox0=\hbox{$e^{i\pi}+1=0$}
\dimen1=\ht0 \advance\dimen1 by\dp0
\count0=\dimen0 \multiply\count0 by 1000
\count1=\dimen1 \divide\count0 by\count1
\magnification=\count0
\box0
\bye

(Rounding errors are smaller than tattooing errors.)

answered May 30 '22 at 13:53

Heiko Theißen

1,816

Theissen: Thanks for your contribution, however, I have no idea how to use/type/work with plain TeX, I use Latex in overleaf. I tried the your code inside the \begin{document} ... \end{document}. But it gives errors. – Choguerrero May 31 '22 at 14:41
You can run plain TeX in Overleaf, see https://www.overleaf.com/project/6208c7d937b30316dc2ad6d2 – Heiko Theißen May 31 '22 at 15:41

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 31 '22 at 12:34

1

With {adjustbox}{totalheight=..} 3cm in my example.

    \documentclass{article}
    \usepackage{tikz}
    \usepackage{adjustbox}
\begin{document}
\newcommand{\h}{3cm}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node [draw,inner sep =0pt] at (0,0){%
\begin{adjustbox}{totalheight=\h}
        $e^{i \pi} + 1 = 0$
\end{adjustbox}};
\end{tikzpicture}\rule{1mm}{\h}
\end{document}

answered May 31 '22 at 12:34

pascal974

4,652

Thanks for your help. I have just one additional question: In the equation, the plus-sign is lower than the baseline. Is there a way to move up the + such that it stays above the baseline? – Choguerrero May 31 '22 at 14:44
I don't really like it but by tinkering
$e^{i \pi},\raisebox{1pt}{+},1,\raisebox{1pt}{=},0$ or $e^{i \pi},\tikz\node {$+$};,1=0$
– pascal974 Jun 01 '22 at 10:38
or $e^{i \pi},\scalebox{0.8}{\tikz\node {$+$};},1=0$... – pascal974 Jun 01 '22 at 10:49
thanks for your help. much appreciated. – Choguerrero Jun 08 '22 at 03:48

How to define the height of text in cm

2 Answers2