[Tex/LaTex] centered hrule (plain tex)

horizontal alignmentplain-texrules

As my nick suggests, I am just starting out with tex. Using plain tex, I am trying to create a document where certain paragraphs are separated by a centered horizontal line. I would like the separating line to be slighty larger than \hsize. I tried the following:

\parindent 0pt
\hsize 5in
{\hsize 6in \hrule}
\bigskip
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
%The "x x x ... x" above is the text of a dummy paragraph.
\bigskip
{\hsize 6in \hrule}
\vfill
\eject
\end

but it didn't work. The hrule width came out the same as the text width.

I would appreciate any advice as to how I can achieve the desired effect.

Best Answer

\hrule draws a rule as wide as the vertical box enclosing it; since we're in the main vertical list and there's a paragraph, the width is the same as the \hsize used for the paragraph, so 5 inches.

You perhaps want \hrule width 6in:

\input plipsum

\parindent 0pt
\hsize 5in

\hrule width 6in
\bigskip
\lipsum{1}
\bigskip
\hrule width 6in

\bye

If you want the rule to stick half an inch at the left, some more work is needed

\input plipsum

\parindent 0pt
\hsize 5in

\moveleft.5in\vbox{\hrule width 6in}
\nointerlineskip
\bigskip
\lipsum{1}
\bigskip
\nointerlineskip
\moveleft.5in\vbox{\hrule width 6in}

\bye

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] \hrule with indents in Plain TeX

You have to \moveright a box with a rule in it, but also to watch out against page breaks before the rule

\def\beginrecipe{
  \par
  \begingroup
  \leftskip=\baselineskip
  \multiply\leftskip by 2
  \rightskip=\leftskip
  \parindent=-\baselineskip
  \parfillskip=0pt plus 1fil
  \nobreak
  \reciperule
}
\def\endrecipe{
  \par\nobreak
  \reciperule
  \endgroup
}
\def\reciperule{
  \nointerlineskip
  \vskip0.5em
  \moveright\baselineskip\vbox{
    \advance\hsize-3\baselineskip
    \hrule width \hsize
  }
  \nointerlineskip
  \nobreak
  \vskip0.5em
}

\beginrecipe
{\bf Blonde roux}

2 tbsp of butter.

2 tbsp of flour.

Melt the butter in a pan and add the flour.

Cook the flour without browning for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk.
Cook the flour without browning for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk.
\endrecipe

\bye

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] How to make a long underscore in Plain TeX

Use a negative height and a slightly bigger depth:

\vrule height -3pt depth 3.4pt width 7cm

Adjust to suit.

enter image description here

The same idea can be used for “raised rules” (with a negative depth). No rule will appear if depth + height is negative.

If you want a “low rule” that fills up a given space, leaders should be used:

\def\lowhrulefill{%
  \leavevmode % be sure to be in horizontal mode
  \leaders\hrule height height -3pt depth 3.4pt\hfill % fill all available space
  \kern0pt % so \par won't remove the rule
}

Note that \leavevmode is necessary because the command appearing in vertical mode would raise an error because of \hfill (and would do nothing good either).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] \hrule with indents in Plain TeX

[Tex/LaTex] How to make a long underscore in Plain TeX

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