Is there a way to reduce spacing before the footnote call?

Question

I find the spacing between the word it refers to and the footnote call a bit too large. Is there a way to reduce it ?

Welcome to TeX.sx! Please add a minimal working example (MWE) that illustrates your problem. It will be much easier for us to reproduce your situation and find out what the issue is when we see compilable code, starting with \documentclass{...} and ending with \end{document}. — yo', Feb 25 '13 at 10:29
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You may want to have a look at the fnpct package (originating from »Is there a way to automatically change kerning between commas/full stops and footnote marks?« — cgnieder, Feb 25 '13 at 10:53

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 25 '13 at 10:43

5

Please always post a complete small document that shows the problem and all classes/packages used. The layout of the footnote marking is under the control of the document class, and you haven't said which you are using.

however the default definition is

\def\@makefnmark{\hbox{\@textsuperscript{\normalfont\@thefnmark}}}

So you could have

\makeatletter
\renewcommand\@makefnmark{%
  \hbox{\hspace{-.1em}\@textsuperscript{\normalfont\@thefnmark}}}
\makeatother

or whatever negative space you want. Note there is no space added by default so any negative space has the potential to make the footnote mark over-print the preceding text.

@tohecz suggests in comments that you have gone

word \footnote{this} or word
\footnote{that}

In either case the space before the footnote mark is the word space entered into the document not coming from the macro. This again shows the importance of always posting a complete example. If you have spaces before your \footnote command do not redefine the command just remove the spaces and use

word\footnote{this} or word%
\footnote{that}

edited Feb 25 '13 at 10:43

lockstep

250,273

answered Feb 25 '13 at 10:29

David Carlisle

757,742

I'm suspicious that there's an un-procented end-of-line before \footnote or after \footnote{, causing some extra space. – yo' Feb 25 '13 at 10:30
@tohecz ah good guess, I'll add a note expanding that – David Carlisle Feb 25 '13 at 10:31
@cristelle the redefinition or not putting in spaces? – David Carlisle Feb 25 '13 at 10:40
the redefinition. – cristelle Feb 25 '13 at 10:49
for more details, I use the book environment with no specific customisation of the footnotes, and of course, no suspicious space or linebreak before the footnote call. It's just an aesthetic appreciation, (maybe a French habit?) code n’ont plus cours\footnote{NDT : L’auteure ...}code – cristelle Feb 25 '13 at 10:57
Well OK but just beware that (especially if the word ends in a capital) that there is a danger of overprinting as there is no space added initially and you are making it negative space) – David Carlisle Feb 25 '13 at 11:01

Is there a way to reduce spacing before the footnote call?

1 Answers1