[Tex/LaTex] Best way to insert a horizontal cut line with a scissor symbol

rulessymbols

What's the best way to insert a horizonal dashed line with a scissor symbol to indicate that the paper should be cut with a scissor along this line?

If you have multiple layout alternatives without much code, please post it.

Best Answer

Alternatively, you can use the Dingbats symbols from the pifont package. If you do not insist on a dashed line, TikZ can be avoided by using \dotfill.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{pifont}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}

\lipsum[11]

\noindent\dotfill
\ding{33}\dotfill
\raisebox{-0.25\baselineskip}{\ding{34}}\dotfill
\raisebox{-0.50\baselineskip}{\ding{35}}\dotfill

\lipsum[11]

\end{document}

enter image description here

Note, that the size of the dots of \dotfill scales with the font size. The skip after the scissors symbol can be removed with \unskip if you want wo get rid of it. I personally like the following:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{pifont}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\newcommand{\cuthere}{%
\noindent
\raisebox{-2.8pt}[0pt][0.75\baselineskip]{\small\ding{34}}
\unskip{\tiny\dotfill}
}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[11]

\cuthere

\lipsum[11]

\end{document}

enter image description here

The alignment of the scissors symbol and the dotted rule and the spacing after the cut-line was done manual. On the other hand this approach is really simple.

EDIT (2012/09/10)

Adjust the \dotfill macro to get a dashed line instead of a dotted one. Here I simply used the hyphen symbol as dash:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{pifont}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\dashfill}{%
\leavevmode \cleaders \hb@xt@ .50em{\hss -\hss }\hfill \kern \z@
% original \dotfill macro:
% \leavevmode \cleaders \hb@xt@ .44em{\hss .\hss }\hfill \kern \z@
}
\makeatother

\newcommand{\cutheredashed}{%
\noindent
\raisebox{-0.5ex}[0pt][0.6\baselineskip]{\small\ding{34}}
\unskip{\tiny\dashfill}
}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[11]

\cutheredashed

\lipsum[11]

\end{document}

enter image description here

But that's getting a bit hackish now. If you are willing to spend so much effort on a line that will eventually be cut away Heiko's solution is probably cleaner.

Related Question