Is there ever a difference between \vspace{...} and \vspace*{...} if a negative argument is supplied?
Most importantly, does the choice of which macro to use have an influence on page breaking behavior?
[Tex/LaTex] difference between \vspace and \vspace* for negative arguments
comparisonspacing
Related Solutions
Using your code snippet as an example, \centering only has an impact on the \caption. However,
\hspace*{\fill}
{ILLUSTRATION 1} \hfill {ILLUSTRATION 2}
\hspace*{\fill}
is meant to set ILLUSTRATION 1 and ILLUSTRATION 2 even distributed across \textwidth:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{showframe}% http://ctan.org/pkg/showframe
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\hspace*{\fill}
{ILLUSTRATION 1} \hfill {ILLUSTRATION 2}
\hspace*{\fill}
\caption{Example float with two illustrations}
\label{fig:mult1}
\end{figure}
\end{document}
However, replacing \hspace*{\fill} with \hfill, the space from the right margin is "gobbled":
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{showframe}% http://ctan.org/pkg/showframe
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\hfill%\hspace*{\fill}
{ILLUSTRATION 1} \hfill {ILLUSTRATION 2}%
\hfill%\hspace*{\fill}
\caption{Example float with two illustrations}
\label{fig:mult1}
\end{figure}
\end{document}
giving value to the command definition for \hspace*:
LaTeX removes horizontal space that comes at the end of a line. If you don't want LaTeX to remove this space, include the optional
*argument. Then the space is never removed.
An alternative to use if \hfill is more intuitive than \hspace*{\fill}, is to insert dummy text (like \null or \mbox{}) at the (start and) end of the line. That way the \hfill will always have "something to infinitely stretch against":
\null\hfill%
{ILLUSTRATION 1} \hfill {ILLUSTRATION 2}%
\hfill\null%
In the above examples, showframe merely highlighted the text block.
Control space \ and a tie ~ have the same width and only differ in their line-breaking behaviour. The definition of the latter, taken from latex.ltx is:
\DeclareRobustCommand{\nobreakspace}{%
\leavevmode\nobreak\ }
\catcode `\~=13
\def~{\nobreakspace{}}
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Best Answer
I don't think the sign of the argument matters, Without the
*the skip is always discarded at the start of the page, and with the*it is not discarded.To answer the second question added later, it shouldn't affect the page before the break (although it may be possible to generate edge cases where it does) but it will of course affect the positioning of the first box on the page after the break and so will affect all subsequent breaks.