Text

Overview

Teaching: 20 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• How can I write text in my LaTeX document?

Objectives

• Change fonts and their size

• Change the alignment of paragraphs

• Work with paragraphs, pages and structure your document

• Include lists and tables

Fonts: style, typeface and size

We know how to write simple plain text. Let’s see how we can change the style of our text.

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\begin{document}

	Plain text

	\textit{Italic text}

	\textbf{Bold text}

  \underline{Underlined text}

\end{document}

With the commands \textit{...}, \textbf{...} and \underline{...} you can modify parts of the text. Keep in mind that such modifications are useful to emphasize your point but should be used consistently and parsimoniously.

The relative size of the font can be changed with the following commands: (from the smallest to the biggest, the actual font size is relative to the size specified in the documentclass )

• \tiny
• \small
• \normalsize
• \large
• \Large
• \LARGE
• \huge
• \Huge

Their usage is a little different than regular commands. Indeed, they are like switches and changes the font size until the end of the current group.

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\begin{document}

        \tiny

				tiny

				tiny

        \small

				small

				small

				still small

        \normalsize

				normal

				back to normal

        \large

				large

        \LARGE

				LARGE

        \Huge

				Huge

\end{document}

In this example the font size is changed when the command is used and will stay until another size is specified; if you want to change the font size only for a few number of words, you can group the command using: {\Large only some text is large}.

It’s also possible to specify the font size for a specific environment by just switching the size the size at the beginning of the environment like:

\begin{itemize}
  \Large
  \item Alpha
  \item Beta
  \item Gamma
\end{itemize}

By default, LaTeX use the Computer Modern typeface. You can easily change it in the preamble using a package: \usepackage{tgpagella} will use the typeface Gyre Pagella. You can change the default font size in the class declaration: \documentclass[10pt]{article} but please be aware that by default the class Article can only have values 10pt, 11pt or 12pt. You can have more control using a package: \usepackage[fontsize=15pt]{fontsize}.

A list of available font types can be found here: https://tug.org/FontCatalogue/

Paragraphs

You may have realized that LaTeX doesn’t jump to a new line when you press enter in your source file. This is because, you need to jump at least two lines in the source file for LaTex to jump one in the compiled document (it will ignore the extra lines you add). You can also jump line by using the \\ at this end of the line.

By default, LaTeX justifies the paragraph. It is possible to change that inside an environment: flushright center or flushleft.

%<-----> ADDED to minimal <----->

\begin{flushright}
This text will be right-aligned
\end{flushright}

\begin{center}
This text will be centered
\end{center}

\begin{flushleft}
This text will be left-aligned
\end{flushleft}

This line
and this line will be attached

This line

and this line will be separated

This line \newline
And this line will be separated

Page

To create a new page, insert \newpage. If you have a double sided document (\documentclass[twoside]{article}), the command \cleardoublepagewill make sure that the new page will be an odd page.

List

LaTeX manages two kinds of lists: lists that are numbered or lists that are not. The numbered list uses the environment enumerateand the non-ordered list uses the environment itemize. For both environments a new element of the list is defined with the \item command.

%<-----> ADDED to minimal <----->

\begin{enumerate}
	\item the first entry in the list
	\item the second entry of the list
\end{enumerate}

With non-ordered list the option in the command \item specified the type of bullet.

%<-----> ADDED to minimal <----->

\begin{itemize}
	\item One entry in the list
	\item[-] Another entry in the list with a -
\end{itemize}

Footnotes

Footnotes can be added with the command \footnote{} with the content of your note inside the {}. Put the command in your text, where you want the number of the footnote to appear (without space) and LaTeX will automatically put the note at the bottom of the page with automatic numbering.

%<-----> ADDED to minimal <----->

I'm always correct and I always say the truth\footnote{Even when I'm lying}

Code

The simplest way to display code inside your document it’s the verbatim environment.

%<-----> ADDED to minimal <----->
Here is my code that does a lot of beautiful work

\begin{verbatim}
if i<0 then
	j = j + 1
else
	j = j - 1
endif
\end{verbatim}

and then the data analysis was done by [...].

Anyway, a much better way it’s using the lstlisting environment. For this, you will need to use the \usepackage{listings}:

Exercises

Align paragraph

I would like to right-aligned my text .

In order to do that I need to write :

1. \begin{flushright}
     This text will be right-aligned
   \end{flushright}
   

2. \begin{alignright}
     This text will be right-aligned
   \end{alignright}
   

3. \flushright{This text will be right-aligned}
   

Solution

1. Correct: the text will be right-aligned.
2. Wrong: the name of the environment is flushright.
3. Wrong: in order to align you need to use an environment, not a command.

New page

I would like to write a book, with normal font size of 14pt and two-sided. Put some text and add a page that starts on a odd side and put again some text on this page.

Please try to write the corresponding source file.

Solution

\documentclass[a4paper,14pt,twoside]{book}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
This is my example text. I like latex
\cleardoublepage
This is another chapter of my LaTeX life
\end{document}

Using packages

I would like to use the package listings to write a bit code in Python.

The package uses the lstlistingenvironment

the used language for the code is defined in an option language=Python

Please try to include the package, call the environment and specify the option

The code I want to include is :

# Calculate the average
round1 = int(raw_input("Enter score for round 1: "))
round2 = int(raw_input("Enter score for round 2: "))
round3 = int(raw_input("Enter score for round 3: "))   
# Calculate the average
average = (round1 + round2 + round3) / 3
# Print out the test score
print "the average score is: ", average

Solution

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{listings}
\begin{document}
\begin{lstlisting}[language=Python]
# Get three test score
round1 = int(raw_input("Enter score for round 1: "))
round2 = int(raw_input("Enter score for round 2: "))
round3 = int(raw_input("Enter score for round 3: "))
# Calculate the average
average = (round1 + round2 + round3) / 3
# Print out the test score
print "the average score is: ", average
\end{lstlisting}
\end{document}

Key Points

• Font size can be changed using \tiny, \small, \normalsize, \large, \Large, \LARGE, \huge, \Huge

• To have your text in italic: \textit or in bold : \textbf

• Ordered lists use the enumerate environment; unordered lists the itemize. Items are defined with \item

• New page is added with \newpage