walters@oksce1.okstate.edu (Harold G. Walters) (12/07/89)
I'm trying to make an exactly 1 inch \vbox with text set in
paragraph mode along the bottom of the \vbox. Like
------------------------------------------
Text goes along the
bottom
------------------------------------------
with the macro
\long\def\oneline#1{\vbox to 1.0in{
\vfil{#1}
}}
Which works fine when the bottom line does not have descenders,
BUT if the bottom line has descenders like
------------------------------------------
Text goes along the
bottom with descenders like ygp
------------------------------------------
The actual size of the box is greater than 1 inch by an amount
of the depth of the descenders. I guess the \vbox is calculating
the height based on the baseline of the text inside.
IS this what is happening?
WHY does is happen this way, it seems like a \vbox should contain
all of its contents in their entirety?
COULD someone tell me how to fix it?
--
Harold G. Walters walters@1.ce.okstate.edu
School of Civil Engineering okstate!oksce1!walters
Oklahoma State University "If all you have is a hammer,
Stillwater, OK 74078 everything looks like a nail".piet@cs.ruu.nl (Piet van Oostrum) (12/08/89)
In article <272@oksce1.okstate.edu>, walters@oksce1 (Harold G. Walters) writes:
`
`I'm trying to make an exactly 1 inch \vbox with text set in
`paragraph mode along the bottom of the \vbox. Like
`
`\long\def\oneline#1{\vbox to 1.0in{
`\vfil{#1}
`}}
`
`Which works fine when the bottom line does not have descenders,
`BUT if the bottom line has descenders like
`
`The actual size of the box is greater than 1 inch by an amount
`of the depth of the descenders. I guess the \vbox is calculating
`the height based on the baseline of the text inside.
`
`IS this what is happening?
`WHY does is happen this way, it seems like a \vbox should contain
` all of its contents in their entirety?
`COULD someone tell me how to fix it?
`
Look into the TeXbook, chapter 12, the paragraph just below exercise 12.10.
I think this is done so that you can align a few vboxes next to each other
with the texts coming out on equal height.
I think you can do something like this: put the text in a \vbox with
\boxmaxdepth set to 0, and then put that in the 1 inch \vbox.
Read page 81 of the TeXbook.
--
Piet* van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University,
Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Telephone: +31-30-531806 Uucp: uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!ruuinf!piet
Telefax: +31-30-513791 Internet: piet@cs.ruu.nl (*`Pete')peter@memex.co.uk (Peter Ilieve) (12/12/89)
I tried mail but it bounced, so I will burden everyone with this. In article <272@oksce1.okstate.edu> walters@oksce1.okstate.edu (Harold G. Walters) writes: > >I'm trying to make an exactly 1 inch \vbox with text set in >paragraph mode along the bottom of the \vbox. > >with the macro > >\long\def\oneline#1{\vbox to 1.0in{ >\vfil{#1} >}} > >BUT if the bottom line has descenders like > >The actual size of the box is greater than 1 inch by an amount >of the depth of the descenders. I guess the \vbox is calculating >the height based on the baseline of the text inside. > >IS this what is happening? Yes, the 1.0in does not include the depth of the text. >WHY does is happen this way, it seems like a \vbox should contain > all of its contents in their entirety? The box still does contain its contents. The problem is that a \vbox has both a height and a depth. The "\vbox to 1.0in" construct is DEFINED as only affecting the height, that's just how TeX is. >COULD someone tell me how to fix it? The rules for setting the depth of a \vbox are explained in a "double dangerous bend" section in Chapter 12 of the TeXbook (page 80 in mine). One simple thing that will fix it is to put a \vskip 0pt after the {#1} in your macro definition. A \vbox that has at least one internal box (the text in your case) gets set with zero depth if the final box is followed by kerning or glue. I have tried this here and it works, changing the box in your example from \vbox(72.26999+1.94444)x469.75499 to \vbox(72.26999+0.0)x469.75499. Peter Ilieve peter@memex.co.uk