Too much space in \begin{bfseries} as compared to {\bfseries ...}

Question

When the following is compiled with pdflatex, there is more space between the part in bold in the first sentence than in the second sentence. Why is it so, and is there a way to have the first sentence with the correct spacing?

This problem was encountered while writing a program that generates latex code and I'd prefer to use the \begin{} ... \end{} structure for text formatting if possible.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\begin{document}
A sentence with
\begin{bfseries}
some words
\end{bfseries}
in  bold.
A sentence with  {\bfseries some words} in bold.
\end{document}

@Teepeemm Thank you for the link, I'll read it to understand fully why dexteritas solution works! — Gribouillis, Feb 25 '23 at 20:20

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 25 '23 at 21:02

In my opinion, the idea that \begin{env} is a wrapper for \env is a design mistake of LaTeX. Alas, it's not really possible to change this after 40 years.

There are no environments called bfseries, itshape, large or similar. One can use \begin{bfseries}...\end{bfseries}, but should know what actually happens.

In your input there is a space

before \begin{bfseries}
after \begin{bfseries}
after words
after \end{bfseries}

All of them come from the endlines. To the contrary, no spaces are added with

A sentence with {\bfseries some words} in bold.

but, of course, it's better to do

A sentence with \textbf{some words} in bold.

We can see why by typesetting all three versions in the same sequence.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
A sentence with
\begin{bfseries}
some words
\end{bfseries}
in  bold.
A sentence with {\bfseries some words} in bold.
A sentence with \textbf{some words} in bold.
{\bfseries if} text
\textbf{if} text
\end{document}

Since the difference with {\bfseries ...} and \textbf{...} is not so evident from the example, I add two more tests. In the last one, you see that there's more space between “if” and ”text”, due to the italic correction that's added at font change.

The pseudoenvironment bfseries is safe if used between paragraphs. Otherwise you need to mask some of the endlines, limiting clarity of input.

On the other hand, a simple test shows that \begin{large}...\end{large} or similar is bad even between paragraphs. I use scriptsize in order to better show the problem.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[nopar]{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1][1-4]
\begin{scriptsize}
\lipsum[1][1-4]
\end{scriptsize}
\lipsum[1][1-4]
{\scriptsize\lipsum[1][1-4]\par}
\end{document}

As you see, the second paragraph is typeset with the baseline distance pertaining to \normalsize, not to \scriptsize. The last paragraph is typeset correctly. Of course you might do

\begin{scriptsize}
\lipsum[1][1-4]\par
\end{scriptsize}

but, again, this requires thinking each time to what's needed.

Define your own environments correcting such bad behaviors, if you really want and avoid using declarations as environments.

I'm not sure I understand the issue because if you omit the \par in {\scriptsize\lipsum[1][1-4]\par}, the paragraph is also typeset with the wrong baseline distance, so the {\scriptsize ...} version is not better than the begin ... end. — Gribouillis, Feb 25 '23 at 22:50
@Gribouillis That's why I recommend defining your own environments and not rely on “naked” commands. — egreg, Feb 25 '23 at 23:03

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 25 '23 at 20:07

Description

insert %, so no space is inserted at the end of the line (in code)
or simply use \textbf{...}

Result

Code

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\begin{document}
A sentence with
\begin{bfseries}%
some words
\end{bfseries}%
in  bold.
A sentence with  {\bfseries some words} in bold.
A sentence with \textbf{some words} in  bold.
\end{document}

Too much space in \begin{bfseries} as compared to {\bfseries ...}

2 Answers2

Description

Result

Code

Linked