Making the next space fixed width

spacingwhite space

I'm using the IEEEtrans document class and sometimes the figure caption

Fig. n: label

looks like

Fig. n: label

where the space after the “Fig.” is stretched.

How do I make the next space after “Fig.” fixed width?

I have tried the commands \enspace and \kern 0.33em which I found on this link What's the easiest way of putting a fixed-width space? but neither works.

I cannot use the \spaceskip command as
proposed here Fixed-width interword space
because I don't know where to turn it off.
I need to fix the width of the next space but
not all spaces in the environment.

Thank you for your time.

Best Answer

The IEEEtran class has

\def\fnum@figure{\figurename\nobreakspace\thefigure}

You can solve your problem by saying, before \begin{document},

\makeatletter
\def\fnum@figure{\mbox{\figurename\ }\thefigure}
\makeatother

so the space after \figurename will not be influenced by the space factor of the period and be fixed because it appears in a box.

Related Question