Special spaces in LaTeX

Question

I need special hard spaces for example i need 0.33em, 0.5em, 1em, hair etc. spaces.

Also i need a normal spaces (word spacing) in 0.25em to 0.75em.

How to do it?

Sorry for bad English.

Do you want to change the spacing between 2 adjacent characters in a word? — kiss my armpit, Jan 03 '13 at 13:01
Please do not cast downvotes this quickly for questions that aren't spam or offensive. Usually, we allow some time (e.g. a day) for the poster to edit their question with more information. Also, if you cast the first vote, please also leave a comment explaining your reason to do so. — Jake, Jan 03 '13 at 13:05
It would be useful if you could provide some context. What is the situation in which you want to have these spaces? Could you provide an example where you would like to have these spaces appear? — Andrew Stacey, Jan 03 '13 at 13:13
(Jake's comment also applies to votes-to-close, not just down-votes.) — Andrew Stacey, Jan 03 '13 at 13:14
Adorable Creature your solution is good. I wanted to do it for all text. — Jablon, Jan 03 '13 at 13:46

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 03 '13 at 14:12

For getting "hard coded" space between two words, independently on inputs such as

word\hard{2em}word
word \hard{2em}word
word \hard{2em} word

just define

\newcommand{\hard}[1]{\unskip\hspace{#1}\ignorespaces}

Thus spaces input before \hard will be nullified by \unskip, the following ones by \ignorespaces.

In order to change the default interword space in a paragraph, use the primitive \spaceskip:

\newenvironment{myiwspace}[1][0.75em]
  {\spaceskip=#1\relax\ignorespaces}
  {\unskip}

so you can write

This is a part of the paragraph with normal space
\begin{myiwspace}
and this is a part with $0.75$\,em space between words;
\end{myiwspace}
this has normal space,
\begin{myiwspace}[2.5em]
while this part will have $2.5$\,em space between words,
\end{myiwspace}

enter image description here

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 03 '13 at 13:01

For really hard (i.e. non-shrinkable, non-stretchable) spaces —something that could upset a bit the justification algorithm if you want to use it as word separator— \hspace{length} is the way to go.

Otherwise, you can use glues to allow some variation : \hskip 1em plus .1em minus .1em.

As far as inter-word spacing is concerned, this is decided by the font ; the low-level \fontdimen parameter 2 specifies the inter-word spacing, the 3 the stretching and the 4 the shrinking.

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 03 '13 at 12:41

2

With \hspace{length} you can specify the length of a horizontal space.

answered Jan 03 '13 at 12:41

Dohn Joe

1,912

I tried that, but something like that: "word \hspace{1em} word" works diffrent like something like that: "word\hspace{1em} word". Im not sure but i think that second example work not properly to and i have 1em+some space from space :) – Jablon Jan 03 '13 at 12:51
3

omit the spaces between the words and the command. Try this: "word\hspace{2em}word". Otherwise LaTeX typesets after 'word' an ordinary space plus a fixed space plus an ordinary space and then the next word. – Dohn Joe Jan 03 '13 at 13:11
Ok its good and cleaver solution. – Jablon Jan 03 '13 at 13:47

Special spaces in LaTeX

3 Answers3