How to get a shorter hyphen in text mode?

Question

I'm creating a title page with large fonts, in French, and I really hate the usual hyphen for such a big title. So I'm looking for a shorter hyphen, something elegant and simple. Here's a MWE showing the issue (I'm using manual kerning to adjust the spacements, since it's a big title on a title page. Not the main text!):

\documentclass[11pt,letterpaper,twoside]{book}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[french]{babel}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage[total={6in,10in},left=1.5in,top=0.5in,includehead,includefoot]{geometry}
\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{libertine}
\renewcommand*\familydefault{\sfdefault}
\begin{document}
\raggedleft
        {\fontsize{58}{0}\selectfont{l\kern-0.03em '\kern-0.10em e\kern-0.02em s\kern-0.03em p\kern-0.03em a\kern-0.02em c\kern-0.02em e\textperiodcentered t\kern-0.03em e\kern-0.03em m\kern-0.04em p\kern-0.03em s}}
    {\fontsize{58}{0}\selectfont{l\kern-0.03em '\kern-0.10em e\kern-0.02em s\kern-0.03em p\kern-0.03em a\kern-0.02em c\kern-0.02em e-t\kern-0.03em e\kern-0.03em m\kern-0.04em p\kern-0.03em s}}

    {\fontsize{58}{0}\selectfont{l'espace-temps}}


\end{document}

Preview:

So is there a way to define or get a shorter hyphen, just for this title? I'm really jealous of the English word spacetime, which I can't use in my French book!

Well, it is adapted to the font size of your title! Consistency in sizes is important. — Bernard, Aug 12 '20 at 18:51
Well, yes, but it’s a special case for a title page. I could get a better looking result with half an hyphen. — Cham, Aug 12 '20 at 18:55
You may try \scalebox{0.5}[1]{-} (but maybe you'll have to adapt the kerning). — Bernard, Aug 12 '20 at 19:01
It works. But it’s weird. Too small with 50%. Is it a good idea to use a bullet instead (the one shown above) ? — Cham, Aug 12 '20 at 19:11
I was going to suggest what @Bernard just did. If you find it too small, make it {0.7}. — Steven B. Segletes, Aug 12 '20 at 19:12
I wouldn't use a bullet. It would look like advertisement æsthetic. I suppose you don't want it looks like a flyer? Try other values for the horizontal ratio, as suggested Steven B. Segletes. — Bernard, Aug 12 '20 at 19:17
I tested the suggestions. Im no longer convinced that it’s a good idea to hack that hyphen. I may use the bullet but it’s highly non-standard and may be qualified as « bad style » or « bad taste ». — Cham, Aug 12 '20 at 19:19
Very related: Making hyphens in text slightly longer and thinner Just change the parameters to make the hyphens shorter rather than longer. — Henri Menke, Aug 12 '20 at 22:12

Davislor · Answer 1 · 2020-08-12T22:04:53.737

With fontspec, you have several options. One is to add the font feature FakeStretch= with a value less than 1.0.

\documentclass[11pt]{book}
\tracinglostchars=2
\usepackage[french]{babel}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{libertinus}
\renewcommand*\familydefault{\sfdefault}
\newcommand\shorthyphen{{\addfontfeature{FakeStretch=0.5}^^^^2010}}
\begin{document}
\raggedleft
        {\huge l'espace-temps}
    {\huge l'espace{\shorthyphen}temps}

\end{document}

If your font has it, you could substitute a shorter hyphen-like character, such as ﹣ (U+FE63 small hyphen-minus).

\newcommand\shorthyphen{^^^^fe63}

If you have a condensed or extra-condensed version of the font, you could load the hyphen character from that. If you’d previously declared \newfontfamily\condensedfont{...}, that might be

\newcommand\shorthyphen{{\condensedfont -}}

or if using the NFSS scheme where medium condensed is the series mc, something like

{\fontseries{mc}\selectfont -}

How to get a shorter hyphen in text mode?

1 Answers1