From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/25671 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Taco Hoekwater Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: Dropped caps, \startlines\stoplines, and indentation question Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:59:05 +0100 Message-ID: <43DD0269.3080505@elvenkind.com> References: Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1138557517 28053 80.91.229.2 (29 Jan 2006 17:58:37 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 17:58:37 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Sun Jan 29 18:58:34 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl ([131.211.172.88] helo=ronja.ntg.nl) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1F3Goq-0007VG-6y for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:58:33 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4061B127EB; Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:58:31 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 08578-04-3; Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:58:27 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3930A127DB; Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:58:27 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 517DF127DB for ; Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:58:25 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 08578-04-2 for ; Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:58:24 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from post-22.mail.nl.demon.net (post-22.mail.nl.demon.net [194.159.73.192]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with SMTP id 6BD73127D9 for ; Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:58:24 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from boo.demon.nl ([82.161.175.147]:34369 helo=[192.168.1.3]) by post-22.mail.nl.demon.net with esmtp (Exim 4.51) id 1F3Goh-0007FQ-VF for ntg-context@ntg.nl; Sun, 29 Jan 2006 17:58:24 +0000 User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (X11/20050215) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en Original-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users In-Reply-To: X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.7 Precedence: list List-Id: mailing list for ConTeXt users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Errors-To: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:25671 Archived-At: Adrian Drury wrote: > Is there a way to calculate the width of some number of characters (or a > string of characters) to use as a dimension parameter? For example, a > macro that returns the width in points of 5 space characters in the > current font? I figured hardcoding the width of a space as a percentage > of an em might work, but would probably not be consistent across fonts. > Is that true, or is it really that simple? That would break now and then. Here is how you get the natural size of a space: \setbox0=\hbox{ } now \wd0 (the WiDth of box 0) is the 'natural' width of a space. But note that this is not 100% accurate in normal typesetting, because TeX adjusts spaces when needed for justification. Anyway, after this \setbox command, 5\wd0 is the width of five spaces, etc. Chees, taco