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I'm a teacher, and this is a design pattern I hope to use a lot. I have some information that I want to present as 1) a poster (a1), and 2) a handout (a4). What I would like to be able to do is set just the paper size, and get an appropriate scaling of my font. The data I'm presenting, is also almost always going to be laid out using some sort of grid (tabular) layout. So for example. I'm working on a poster with all of the greek letters. Here is what I have so far: screenshot of current document

and this is the code I used to generate it:

\documentclass[extrafontsizes,60pt]{memoir}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{a1paper, portrait, margin=0.5in}

\begin{document} \Huge \centering

Greek Letters \begin{center} \begin{tabular}{ c c c c } $A$ $\alpha$ & $B$ $\beta$ & $\Gamma$ $\gamma$ & $\Delta$ $\delta$ \ \large alpha & \large beta & \large gamma & \large delta \ $E$ $\epsilon$ & $Z$ $\zeta$ & $H$ $\eta$ & $\Theta$ $\theta$ \ \large epsilon & \large zeta & \large eta & \large theta \ $A$ $\alpha$ & $B$ $\beta$ & $\Gamma$ $\gamma$ & $\Delta$ $\delta$ \ \large alpha & \large beta & \large gamma & \large delta \ $E$ $\epsilon$ & $Z$ $\zeta$ & $H$ $\eta$ & $\Theta$ $\theta$ \ \large epsilon & \large zeta & \large eta & \large theta \ $A$ $\alpha$ & $B$ $\beta$ & $\Gamma$ $\gamma$ & $\Delta$ $\delta$ \ \large alpha & \large beta & \large gamma & \large delta \ $E$ $\epsilon$ & $Z$ $\zeta$ & $H$ $\eta$ & $\Theta$ $\theta$ \ \large epsilon & \large zeta & \large eta & \large theta \ \end{tabular} \end{center}

\end{document}

The things I'm not sure how to do are: 1) the table doesn't fill the width of the page, 2) the "label row" under each "character row" should be tight to the row above, not the row below, and 3) if I change from a1paper to a4paper, I want the font to scale appropriately so that everything stays in proportion. Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: here is the current code using John's suggestion The table row spacing/vertical alignment is sorta the last issue

\documentclass[extrafontsizes,12pt]{memoir}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{a1paper, portrait, margin=0.5in}
\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document} \centering \begin{center} \adjustbox{min width=\textwidth}{ \def\arraystretch{0.5} \begin{tabular}{ c c c c } \multicolumn{4}{c}{\huge Greek Letters} \ \hline \\ \Large $A$ $\alpha$ & \Large $B$ $\beta$ & \Large $\Gamma$ $\gamma$ & \Large $\Delta$ $\delta$ \ \tiny alpha & \tiny beta & \tiny gamma & \tiny delta \\\ \Large $E$ $\epsilon$ & \Large $Z$ $\zeta$ & \Large $H$ $\eta$ & \Large $\Theta$ $\theta$ \ \tiny epsilon & \tiny zeta & \tiny eta & \tiny theta \\\ \Large $I$ $\iota$ & \Large $K$ $\kappa$ & \Large $\Lambda$ $\lambda$ & \Large $M$ $\mu$ \ \tiny iota & \tiny kappa & \tiny lambda & \tiny mu \\\ \Large $N$ $\nu$ & \Large $\Xi$ $\xi$ & \Large $O$ $o$ & \Large $\Pi$ $\pi$ \ \tiny nu & \tiny xi & \tiny omicron & \tiny pi \\\ \Large $P$ $\rho$ & \Large $\Sigma$ $\sigma$ & \Large $T$ $\tau$ & \Large $\Upsilon$ $\upsilon$ \ \tiny rho & \tiny sigma & \tiny tau & \tiny upsilon \\\ \Large $\Phi$ $\phi$ & \Large $X$ $\chi$ & \Large $\Psi$ $\psi$ & \Large $\Omega$ $\omega$ \ \tiny phi & \tiny chi & \tiny psi & \tiny omega \end{tabular} } \end{center}

\end{document}

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    I would use \resizebox (adjustbox package) on tabular inside center. (Tabular is a box, center isn't.) – John Kormylo Jan 22 '22 at 00:47
  • Thanks, this solved most of it. I added the updated code to the OP. The problem with this scaling approach is how to deal with vertical spacing inside the table cells. I ended up using extra blank rows and setting a very small base line row spacing to make it look right, but that isn't sustainable. – randomlogic78 Jan 25 '22 at 18:20
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    Instead of blank lines, you can also use \\[10ex] (or any other length) to change the amount of vertical space after that line break. Which still requires typing that every time you want the extra space, but you'll need to do something. – Teepeemm Jan 25 '22 at 18:36
  • I'm wondering if there is a way to create something like a "label row" so imagine a table where the first row is the item of interest which could be an equation, a photo, or some text, and the next row is a "label row" So the label row would have the table data vertically aligned at the top providing the cell spacing for the next row of items of interest. The table/document will be standard, but the data/objects in the table will change.

    So maybe my question is as simple is how do I top aline a general data object in a table cell, maybe it's more complicated. I'm not sure.

    – randomlogic78 Jan 25 '22 at 20:05

0 Answers0