Multiple side-by-side signatures in letter

Question

I am attemting to add three side-by-side signature to a scrlttr2 letter by using a minipage environment in the signature definition. I am getting an error: Extra }, or forgotten \endgroup pointing me to the closing line. The error goes away if i do without the minpages. Here's the MWE:

\documentclass[%
paper=letter,
pagesize,
fontsize=10pt,
standard
]{scrlttr2}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\setkomavar{fromname}{Sender's Name}
\setkomavar{fromaddress}{Some street\\in some town\\with zip code}
\begin{filecontents}{standard.lco}
    \setkomavar{signature}{% 
    \begin{minipage}[b]{0.33\linewidth}
    First name\\
    Position 1
    \end{minipage}
    \begin{minipage}[b]{0.33\linewidth}
    Second name\\
    Position 2
    \end{minipage}
    \begin{minipage}[b]{0.33\linewidth}
    Third name\\
    Position 3
    \end{minipage}
}

\@setplength[1]{sigindent}{0.01\textwidth}
\end{filecontents}


\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{%
Recipient's name,\\
Some position\\
More address info
}

\opening{Dear Recipient}
\lipsum[1-2]

\closing{Sincerely,}

\end{letter}
\end{document}

The document renders correctly, even though the compilation fails. Am I going the right way about this?

can you post the error message you get when you try to compile it? — ArTourter, Aug 17 '12 at 20:25
Sure thing:
`ERROR: Extra }, or forgotten \endgroup.

---TeX said --- } l.153 \closing{Sincerely,}

--- HELP --- From the .log file...

I've deleted a group-closing symbol because it seems to be spurious, as in '$x}$'. but perhaps the } is legitimate and you forgot something else, as in \hbox{$x}'. In such cases the way to recover is to insert both the forgotten and the deleted material, e.g. by typing I$}' — Ricardo, Aug 17 '12 at 20:29
It also says 'TeX has become confused. The position indicated by the error locator is probably beyond the point where the incorrect input is.` For what is worth, I've checked all my braces and they are balanced. There's no math in this document. The error goes away when I remove the minipages. — Ricardo, Aug 17 '12 at 20:35

score 14 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 03 '17 at 13:41

14

Instead of minipages you can use \parboxes:

\documentclass[%
paper=letter,
pagesize,
fontsize=10pt,
standard
]{scrlttr2}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\newcommand\Sigline[4][t]{%
  \parbox[#1]{.333\linewidth}{\raggedright#2}%
  \parbox[#1]{.333\linewidth}{\raggedright#3}%
  \parbox[#1]{.333\linewidth}{\raggedright#4}%
}

\setkomavar{fromname}{Sender's Name}
\setkomavar{fromaddress}{Some street\\in some town\\with zip code}
\setkomavar{signature}{% 
   \Sigline{First name}{Second name}{Third name} \\
  \Sigline{Position 1}{Position 2}{Position 3} \\
}

\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{%
Recipient's name,\\
Some position\\
More address info
}

\opening{Dear Recipient}
\lipsum[2]

\closing{Sincerely,}

\end{letter}
\end{document}

enter image description here

edited Jun 03 '17 at 13:41

Moriambar

11,466

answered Aug 17 '12 at 20:30

Gonzalo Medina

505,128

I think it's critical to mention that you used \textwidth instead of \linewidth. Not sure, since I didn't delve deep enough... – Werner Aug 17 '12 at 20:42
@Werner Hmmm I was just editiong to change to \linewidth; can you elaborate your comment, please? – Gonzalo Medina Aug 17 '12 at 20:45
This worked! Why should I prefer parbox over minipage in this case, and why did you replace \textwidthfor \linewidth? – Ricardo Aug 17 '12 at 20:47
2

@Ricardo \textwidth produced overfull boxes; as for the reason \parbox works but minipage doesn't, I am not so sure in this case and will have to look more closely to what \setkomavar and signature do. – Gonzalo Medina Aug 17 '12 at 20:58
@GonzaloMedina: When I used \linewidth instead of \textwidth, it seemed like the signature was squished horizontally. I thought it might be that it puts it in a reduced-width box. – Werner Aug 17 '12 at 20:58
Some elaboration on what the \sigline function is doing would be helpful. – Faheem Mitha Nov 16 '15 at 22:46

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 17 '12 at 20:38

Here is a solution that is independent of any particular document class.

\documentclass{minimal}

\begin{document}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,
sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore
et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

\def\s#1#2{\vbox{\hsize=4.5cm
    \kern2cm
    \hrule\kern1ex
    \hbox to \hsize{\strut\hfil #1 \hfil}
    \hbox to \hsize{\strut\hfil #2 \hfil}}}

\hbox to \hsize{\s{John Doe}{President}\hfil
    \s{Jane Doe}{COO}\hfil
    \s{James Dow}{CFO}} 

\end{document}

screenshot

Multiple side-by-side signatures in letter

2 Answers2

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