Small spaces for \textcite name

Question

I want to have small spaces, i.e \,, between the name parts for a citation with \textcite. \renewcommand{\bibinitdelim}{\,} did not work.

MWE:

\documentclass{scrbook}
\begin{filecontents}{test.bib}
    @book{DINENISO527-1,
        author = {{DIN EN ISO 527-1}}
}
\end{filecontents}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=ext-numeric, citestyle=numeric-comp, sorting=nyt, autocite=inline, isbn=false, innamebeforetitle=true, giveninits=true, maxbibnames=99, maxcitenames=2]{biblatex} \addbibresource{test.bib}
\renewcommand{\bibinitdelim}{,}
\begin{document}
\Huge 

DIN\,EN\,ISO\,527-1 \autocite{DINENISO527-1}

DIN EN ISO 527-1 \autocite{DINENISO527-1}

\textcite{DINENISO527-1}


\end{document}

If you want small spaces here, you should input small spaces, i.e. say @book{DINENISO527-1, author = {{DIN\,EN\,ISO\,527-1}},}. Biber passes the name through as is (because of the braces), so if you have normal spaces, you'll get normal spaces in the .bbl. — moewe, Jul 16 '20 at 14:19
@moewe I'm using Zotero and Export it with the BetterBibtex extension, so I can't manually Put in small spaces — fuj36840, Jul 16 '20 at 18:23
I'm pretty sure you can. (I wouldn't know how.) BetterBibTeX can be instructed to do all sorts of shenanigans. The first thing I'd try is using (U+202F) or (U+2009) instead of the normal space when you enter the reference in Zotero. Or you can use <script>DIN\,EN\,ISO\,527-1</script> (see https://retorque.re/zotero-better-bibtex/exporting/advanced/). — moewe, Jul 16 '20 at 19:42
BBT translates U+2009 to \,. I don't currently map U+202F -- is U+202F a better mapping for \, than U+2009? — retorquere, Jul 24 '20 at 09:56

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 17 '20 at 07:24

There is no biblatex punctuation command/delimiter that applies here. Since you (correctly, see Using a 'corporate author' in the "author" field of a bibliographic entry (spelling out the name in full)) protect the DIN EN ISO 527-1 with an additional pair of braces to stop it from being parsed as a personal name (and being split into given and family parts), it ends up like this in the .bbl file

  \name{author}{1}{}{%
    {{hash=f9811a86a7ebf8984f8c4efa2d2d34ec}{%
       family={{DIN EN ISO 527-1}},
       familyi={D\bibinitperiod}}}%
  }

So biblatex gets to see DIN EN ISO 527-1 as a single unit with normal spaces. It would be pretty hard to get LaTeX to replace these spaces with thin spaces.

If you want thin spaces I think the best method is to make sure to give small spaces in the .bib file. If you are using a reference manager like Zotero to export .bib files this may not be as easy as writing

author = {{DIN\,EN\,ISO\,527-1}},

but it should be possible.

Since you are using BetterBibTeX, I'd try the following (I don't use Zotero or BetterBibTeX, so this is just guesswork based on what I know about the .bib export)

Use other Unicode spaces. For example   (U+202F) or (U+2009). If you are lucky one of them is exported as \, or as something that comes close enough to \,.
Use <script>DIN\,EN\,ISO\,527-1</script> to avoid any conversion of special characters (see https://retorque.re/zotero-better-bibtex/exporting/advanced/).

If all else fails and you insist on inputting

author = {{DIN EN ISO 527-1}},

with normal spaces, you can still have Biber remap those spaces. This has to be used carefully though, so you need a flag to tell Biber whether or not to apply the mapping.

\documentclass{scrbook}
\usepackage[backend=biber,
  style=ext-numeric,
  citestyle=numeric-comp,
  sorting=nyt,
  maxbibnames=99, maxcitenames=2,
  giveninits=true, 
  autocite=inline,
  innamebeforetitle=true,
  isbn=false,
]{biblatex}
\DeclareEntryOption{smallspaces}{}
\DeclareSourcemap{
  \maps[datatype=bibtex]{
    \map{
      \step[fieldsource=options, match=\regexp{(\A|,)\ssmallspaces\s(\Z|,)}, final]
      \step[fieldsource=author, match=\regexp{\s}, replace=\regexp{\,}]
    }
  }
}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{DINENISO527-1,
  author  = {{DIN EN ISO 527-1}},
  options = {smallspaces},
}
@book{DINENISO527-2,
  author  = {{DIN,EN,ISO,527-2}},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}
\begin{document}
  \Huge
DIN,EN,ISO,527-1 \autocite{DINENISO527-1}
DIN EN ISO 527-1 \autocite{DINENISO527-1}
\textcite{DINENISO527-1}
\textcite{DINENISO527-2}
\textcite{sigfridsson}
\end{document}

It is a matter of style, but I find the version with \, too crammed and much harder to read than the version with normal spaces.

Small spaces for \textcite name

1 Answers1