Show spacing, paragraphs and tab characters in PDF

Question

I am writing my Masterthesis with Latex (lualatex). For the actual writing part I like to use showframe option of the geometry package. This helps me to find overfull hboxes.

Today I wondered if I could also include paragraph, tab and spacing characters (and maybe some others) into my PDF file for better visibility.

I am talking about something like the option in Microsoft Word where you can show your spaces etc.

I have searched google but did not find anything (may I only used the wrong words ;) ).

So can I have some similar functionality in Latex and include those characters automatically into my PDF file?

I am using Sumatra PDF for viewing the PDF file. Maybe there is an option to enable this?

Thanks in advance!

lua-visual-debug? https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/2083/how-can-i-visualize-boxes — David Carlisle, Jan 24 '21 at 11:21
Thank you this does something like I wanted! If you want to convert your comment to an answer I will gladly accept it! — Sorkfa, Jan 26 '21 at 14:01

Steven B. Segletes · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-26T14:55:57.203

I can delete this if it is not what is being asked, but here is an approach with tokcycle:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tokcycle}
\Macrodirective{\tctestifx{\par#1}{\addcytoks{\P}}{%
  \tctestifx{\space#1}{\addcytoks{\textvisiblespace
  \allowbreak}}{\addcytoks{#1}}}}
\Spacedirective{\addcytoks{\textvisiblespace\allowbreak}}
\begin{document}
\tokencyclexpress
\section{This is my section title}
Now here is my text.
A new paragraph.Even math
[
y = mx + b
]
Oops, a double line skip and then a double*  space not seen because of
the way things are absorbed, but this type of one \space*is seen
as double
\endtokencyclexpress
\end{document}

If you wanted to actually have the \par in addition to seeing the \P, that is a trivial change to the macro directive

\Macrodirective{\tctestifx{\par#1}{\addcytoks{\par\P}}{%
  \tctestifx{\space#1}{\addcytoks{\textvisiblespace
  \allowbreak}}{\addcytoks{#1}}}}

I have not addressed tabs, because it is unclear to me whether the OP intends detection of an actual TAB character in the input stream, or whether it refers to visual handling of & tabbing separators.

This looks really like what I wanted. Thank you! – Sorkfa Jan 29 '21 at 13:46 — Sorkfa, Jan 29 '21 at 13:46

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 26 '21 at 14:14

2

The lua-visual-debug package which was developed for an answer on this site

How can I visualize boxes?

Does something similar to your request.

answered Jan 26 '21 at 14:14

David Carlisle

757,742

I may accepted the other answer but this package also works like a charm! – Sorkfa Jan 29 '21 at 13:47
@Sorkfa the other answer is not by egreg so I don't mind the green tick going there :-) – David Carlisle Jan 29 '21 at 15:04

Show spacing, paragraphs and tab characters in PDF

2 Answers2