Fonts and Spacing

Last updated on 2025-05-05 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 12 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can we set paragraph spacing in LaTeX?
  • How can we customize text formatting in LaTeX?
  • How can we align text in LaTeX?

Objectives

  • Add custom spacing between paragraphs in LaTeX.
  • Create a title page with custom text formatting.

Paragraph Spacing

A common style in LaTeX is to have no indents for paragraphs, but to incorporate a blank line between them. We can achieve this using the parskip package.

We’re going to use another package here just to show off some commands without having to write a lot of text: the lipsum package. This package provides the \lipsum command, which generates “Lorem Ipsum” text.

LATEX 

\usepackage{lipsum}

Callout

Lorem Ipsum is a common piece of placeholder text used in publishing and graphic design. It is often used to demonstrate the visual form of a document without relying on meaningful content.

The text itself comes from the first-century BC work De finibus bonorum et malorum by Marcus Tullius Cicero.

In our document, we can now use a blank line to separate paragraphs:

LATEX 

\section{Fonts and Spacing}

% Generate some "Lorem Ipsum" text
% The parameters mean "include paragraphs 1 thru 2" from the "Lorem Ipsum" text
\lipsum[1-2]

Compile the document and take a look at our section. You should see that our first paragraph has no indent, and there is no blank line between it and the following paragraph. The second paragraph does have an indent. This is the default behavior in LaTeX.

Now let’s add our package:

LATEX 

\usepackage[parfill]{parskip}

Keep an eye on the preview pane as you compile the document. You should see that the first paragraph now has a blank line between it and the second paragraph, and there is no indent on the first line of the second paragraph.

Forcing a New Line

Most of the time, you should not force a new line in your document; you almost certainly want to use a new paragraph or parskip instead. However, there are a few places where you might want to force a new line:

  • At the end of table rows
  • Inside a center environment
  • In poetry (the verse environment)

To force a new line, we can use the \\ command.

Adding Explicit Space

We can insert a thin space (about half the normal thickness) use the \, command.

Callout

In math mode, there are also other commands:

  • \. for a “dot” space
  • \: for a “colon” space
  • \; for a “thick” space
  • \! for a “negative” space
  • \, for a “thin” space

Very rarely, for example when creating a title page, you might want to add explicit horizontal or vertical space. We can do this using the \hspace and \vspace commands:

LATEX 

\hspace{1cm} % 1cm of horizontal space
\vspace{1cm} % 1cm of vertical space

We can also use the \vfill command to fill the remaining space on a page. This is useful for centering content vertically on a page.

Explicit Text Formatting

We’ve touched on this in previous episodes, but we can also use the following commands to format text explicitly:

  • \textbf{} for bold text
  • \textit{} for italic text
  • \textrm{} for roman text
  • \textsf{} for sans serif text
  • \texttt{} for typewriter text
  • \textsc{} for small caps text

We can set the font size in the same way. All sizes are relative to the base font size:

  • \huge for huge text
  • \large for large text
  • \normalsize for normal text
  • \small for small text
  • \footnotesize for footnote text

Text Alignment

We can align text using the following commands:

  • \centering to center text
  • \raggedright to left-align text
  • \raggedleft to right-align text

Creating a Title Page

Using all of this, let’s create a simple title page for our document. We’ll put this just after the \begin{document} command, and enclose everything in a titlepage environment:

LATEX 

\begin{titlepage}
    \centering

    \huge
    \textbf{My Example Document}

    \vspace{1cm}
    \normalsize
    \textit{An example of a LaTeX document}

    \vfill
    January 1, 2000
\end{titlepage}

Callout

The titlepage environment is a special environment that LaTeX uses to create a title page. It sets some simple formating rules, like removing multiple columns and resetting the page number. It also prevents styling rules we add like centering from affecting the rest of the document.

Inline instructor notes can help inform instructors of timing challenges associated with the lessons. They appear in the “Instructor View”

Challenges

Challenge 1: Create a Title Page with Custom Formatting

Using the content covered, create a title page with custom formatting. Your title page should have:

  • A centered title “My Custom LaTeX Title Page” in large, bold text.
  • A centered subtitle “A Sample Document with Custom Formatting” in italic text, smaller than the title.
  • The date centered at the bottom of the page.

You can use the commands \vspace and \vfill to make fill blank space between the items and may find the following LaTeX template helpful:

LATEX 

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\begin{titlepage}
    



\end{titlepage}

\end{document}

LATEX 

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\begin{titlepage}
    \centering
    \huge
    \textbf{My Custom LaTeX Title Page}

    \vspace{1cm} % Space between title and subtitle
    \normalsize
    \textit{A Sample Document with Custom Formatting}

    \vfill % Fill remaining space
    \large
    January 1, 2025
\end{titlepage}

\end{document}

Challenge 2: Adjust Paragraph Spacing in Your Document

Create a LaTeX document with the following:

  • Use the parskip package to adjust the paragraph spacing.
  • Generate some text using the lipsum package.
  • Ensure that paragraphs are separated by a blank line (without indentation).

LATEX 

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}  % To generate sample text
\usepackage[parfill]{parskip}  % Adds space between paragraphs without indentation

\begin{document}

\section{Paragraph Spacing Example}

% Generating Lorem Ipsum text with the lipsum package
\lipsum[1-2]

\end{document}

Key Points

  • Use the parskip package to add space between paragraphs
  • Force a new line with \\
  • Add explicit space with \hspace and \vspace
  • Format text explicitly with \textbf, \textit, etc.
  • Align text with \centering, \raggedright, and \raggedleft