How to move paragraph first line to left by 1cm?

Question

First of all, I can't find how to move paragraph first line to left by one cm. I am looking for something like this:

|<- 1cm space ->|Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing.
Vivamus ac mattis eros. Proin urna arcu, vestibulum quis nunc in, 
sodales auctor dui. Nam lacinia urna quis ipsum sollicitudin, ut 
sagittis ante euismod. In consectetur ac metus quis molestie. Cras 
hendrerit vel dolor in eleifend. Duis vel est est.

My section looks like:

\documentclass{report}[12pt]
\begin{document}
     \subsection{AAA}
          Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing.
    Vivamus ac mattis eros. Proin urna arcu, vestibulum quis nunc in, 
    sodales auctor dui. Nam lacinia urna quis ipsum sollicitudin, ut 
    sagittis ante euismod. In consectetur ac metus quis molestie. Cras 
    hendrerit vel dolor in eleifend. Duis vel est est. \newline
         Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing.
    Vivamus ac mattis eros. Proin urna arcu, vestibulum quis nunc in, 
    sodales auctor dui. Nam lacinia urna quis ipsum sollicitudin, ut 
    sagittis ante euismod. In consectetur ac metus quis molestie. Cras 
    hendrerit vel dolor in eleifend. Duis vel est est.
\end {document}

Thanks in advance

The width of this space is controlled by the \parindent length. To set its value arbitrary, use \setlength{\parindent}{1cm}. Note that in some configurations, indentation of the first line after a title might be disabled. (Be sure, e.g., you have not the parskip package loaded.) | P.S.: please ask two separate questions if you have two different question to ask (-; — ebosi, Jan 31 '17 at 07:58
I am not using parskip , so my \setlength{\parindent}{1cm} will work? Should I use in preamble or before every paragraph? — Satnam, Jan 31 '17 at 08:14
Without seeing any line of your code (i.e. a minimal working example (MWE)), I could not guarantee it. But why not just try it?! — ebosi, Jan 31 '17 at 08:15
@Satnam put it in your preamble and it will act on every paragraph in your document. But be warned: usually the very first paragraph dirctly after any kind of section command (in your example \subsection won't be indented, as it is logical, that behind a section, always a new paragraph starts. — Jan, Jan 31 '17 at 08:23
\newline is just a new line that will not be indented (and in my opinion should not be used in text). To get a new paragraph use either \par or an empty line. — StefanH, Jan 31 '17 at 08:27
Oh nice, its working, but like @ebo said first line is not moved left, how to fix this? — Satnam, Jan 31 '17 at 08:29
Often the first paragraph after new section is not indented. It is obviously a new paragraph so it is not needed. You can add \indent just before the text. — StefanH, Jan 31 '17 at 08:36
@Satnam : reason for this is that indentation is there to highlight the beginning of a new paragraph. Yet after a title, it is obvious a new paragraph starts. Thus, indenting the first line is a redundant information - hence it is ofter omitted. (Plus it might look neater because its left-aligned with the title line) — ebosi, Jan 31 '17 at 08:47
@StefanH \indent at the start of the first paragraph isn't working for me. — Satnam, Jan 31 '17 at 09:10
No, I was too quick. For some reason you need two of them: \section{The section}\indent\indent text of the section. But you probably want to have a look at indentfirst package instead. — StefanH, Jan 31 '17 at 09:25

StefanH · Answer 1 · 2017-01-31T08:40:02.653

The indentation of a new paragraph is controlled by the two lengths \parindent and \parskip. The first controls the horizontal indentation and the second the vertical. It is often recommended to use one of them, but not both. That is, a new paragraph should be marked by either a horizontal indetation or an empty row, but not both.

You can set them with \setlength. There are also two commands for turning on and off indentation: \indent and \noindent. Here are some examples, where the last sets the horizontal to 1cm and the vertical to 0cm.

\documentclass{article}
\newcommand\exampletext{Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing. Vivamus ac mattis eros. Proin urna arcu, vestibulum quis nunc in,  sodales auctor dui. Nam lacinia urna quis ipsum sollicitudin, ut  sagittis ante euismod. In consectetur ac metus quis molestie. Cras hendrerit vel dolor in eleifend. Duis vel est est.}
\begin{document}
\noindent
\verb|\parskip|: \the\parskip\newline
\verb|\parindent|: \the\parindent\newline
\indent
\exampletext
\par
\exampletext

\noindent\hrulefill

\setlength\parskip{1em plus 0.3em minus 0.3em}
\setlength\parindent{0pt}
\noindent
\verb|\parskip|: \the\parskip\newline
\verb|\parindent|: \the\parindent\newline
\indent
\exampletext
\par
\exampletext

\noindent\hrulefill

\setlength\parskip{0pt}
\setlength\parindent{1cm}
\noindent
\verb|\parskip|: \the\parskip\newline
\verb|\parindent|: \the\parindent\  (that is, 1cm)\newline
\indent
\exampletext
\par
\exampletext

\end{document}

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Here is my advice: use \setlength{\parindent}{1cm} in the preamble of your document. Thus this setting will act on the complete document in an identical way.

Second: the first line directly after a sectioning command like \subsection is always a new paragraph. Therefore, you don't have to indent it, to mark it as a new paragraph. As it is so obvious, by convention it won't be indented.

If you want the first paragraph also be indented, look up this question.

Also: to create paragraphs, you have to have a blank line in your input file. Therefore hit the enter-key twice. \newline will just do what its name says: it creates a new line. Not a paragraph. (To create a paragraph, there is the \par command.)

Here is my MWE

\documentclass{report}[12pt]
\usepackage{lipsum}             % for blindtext.

%% As requested by the OP: indent the beginning of a paragraph by 1
%% cm! 
\setlength{\parindent}{1cm}

\begin{document}
\chapter{AAA}
\label{cha:aaa}

\section{BBB}
\label{sec:bbb}

\subsection{CCC}
\label{sec:ccc}
Always set global paramters in the preamble.  But be warned, that
usually, the very first paragraph directly after any kind of
sectioning command like \verb!\section! is always a new paragraph and
hence does not need to be indented, to be marked as new paragraph. By
convention, those paragraphs are not indented.

Start new paragraphs in your \LaTeX-files always by inserting a
complete blank line, this hit the enter-key twice.

\lipsum[1-1]

\lipsum[2-2]

\lipsum[2-4]
\end {document}

And the result:

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 31 '17 at 09:28

There are three things involved here:

the amount of indentation is controlled by the parameter \parindent;
LaTeX, by default, doesn't indent paragraphs immediately following a section title (it's standard in American typography);
paragraph must be ended with a blank line, not with the \newline command.

Assuming you want to move right the first line (usually called “indent”), you get it with

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage{indentfirst} % indent also after section titles

%\setlength{\parindent}{1cm}% remove the leading % if indent should be 1cm

\begin{document}

\section{AAA}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing.
Vivamus ac mattis eros. Proin urna arcu, vestibulum quis nunc in, 
sodales auctor dui. Nam lacinia urna quis ipsum sollicitudin, ut 
sagittis ante euismod. In consectetur ac metus quis molestie. Cras 
hendrerit vel dolor in eleifend. Duis vel est est.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing.
Vivamus ac mattis eros. Proin urna arcu, vestibulum quis nunc in, 
sodales auctor dui. Nam lacinia urna quis ipsum sollicitudin, ut 
sagittis ante euismod. In consectetur ac metus quis molestie. Cras 
hendrerit vel dolor in eleifend. Duis vel est est.

\end{document}

The default value of \parindent depends on the document class and the chosen options; with report and 12pt it turns out to be 17.6pt (about 6.2mm). If you want it to be 1cm, remove the comment on the line before \begin{document}.

Here I used \section, but any section level command does the same, when the title is set on its own line (for report it happens with \chapter, \section, \subsection and \subsubsection).

The value of \parindent can also be negative, with the expected effect of indenting the first line in the left margin.

Don't forget the blank line between paragraphs and never use \newline for separating paragraphs.

Here's the default indentation.

Here's the same with 1cm indentation.

Here's with negative 1cm indentation (\setlength{\parindent}{-1cm})

thank you for the answer. I have still one problem, in the last chapter, the first paragraph after chapter is not indented. — Satnam, Jan 31 '17 at 10:44
@Satnam I can't read your mind, I'm afraid. If that happens only in the last chapter, there's some setting you do somewhere. — egreg, Jan 31 '17 at 10:56

How to move paragraph first line to left by 1cm?

3 Answers3