[Tex/LaTex] Indentation of the signature in the letter class

indentationletters

I am writing a letter with the wikibooks template. The letter is going to be printed on a official paper which contains the address already. So I thought I can omit the \address command. For some strange reason the signature will not indent as shown on the webpage. I tried the \longindentation=20pt command, no matter what numbers I change, the closing and the signature are all aligned to the left margin of the body and will not indent. I was able to get it work by the command \address{\phantom{a}}, but that should not be how it is supposed to work (yes, I did try \address{}, but that doesn't work). Any better solutions?

What is wrong with omitting the \address command anyway?

Edit: Here is the what I am doing.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\documentclass[11pt]{letter}

\signature{James Bond}
%\address{\phantom{i}}
%\longindentation=0pt
\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{}

\opening{To whom it may concern:}

The body of the letter goes on here. 

\closing{Yours sincerely,}

\end{letter}

\end{document}
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As it stands now, without the address command, the closing and signature will not indent. However, if we uncomment the \address command, then they indents as shown in the Wikibook LaTeX example.

Best Answer

The reason for the apparent "conditional indentation" stems from the source code for \closing:

\newcommand{\closing}[1]{\par\nobreak\vspace{\parskip}%
  \stopbreaks
  \noindent
  \ifx\@empty\fromaddress\else
  \hspace*{\longindentation}\fi
  \parbox{\indentedwidth}{\raggedright
       \ignorespaces #1\\[6\medskipamount]%
       \ifx\@empty\fromsig
           \fromname
       \else \fromsig \fi\strut}%
   \par}

The indent of \longindentation is only executed if \fromaddress is non-empty. And, \fromaddress is defined when using \address:

\newcommand*{\address}[1]{\def\fromaddress{#1}}

So, in order for the indentation to work properly (for whatever reason), you need something in \fromaddress. Using \def\fromaddress{\null} works just as well.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Adding a signature on an online job application

Here is a play-by-play of how one can do it using potrace. It is similar to autotrace and provides a command line functionality/interface.

Download potrace. It is available for virtually every distribution out there.
Unpack it.
Provide a signature in (say) BMP high resolution format (click to enlarge and see the quality):
Store this file signature.bmp in your potrace folder.
Execute from the command line:
```
>potrace signature.bmp -b PDF -o signature.pdf
```
to create a PDF of signature.bmp. Alternatively, just executing
```
>potrace signature.bmp
```
would yield signature.eps that can be converted using epstopdfsignature.eps. This uses the default potrace settings/options and produces as output (click to enlarge and see the quality):

Other tracing options are also available. See the potrace usage page for details on the type of options you can specify.

Include it in your document...

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}% http://ctan.org/pkg/graphicx
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}% Remove paragraph indent
\begin{document}
\hspace*{0.5\linewidth}
\begin{minipage}{0.4\linewidth}
Random Institute \par
Random City 1000 \par
Randomia \par
\today
\end{minipage}

To whom it may concern: \par \bigskip

Hire me, it'll be worth your while. \par \bigskip

Sincerely, \par \medskip

\includegraphics[height=1.5\baselineskip]{signature} \par
Random Randofsky \par
Randomville
\end{document}

potrace also forms part of Inkscape's trace bitmap functionality, allowing you to use it in a GUI environment as well.

[Tex/LaTex] Changing \closing indents in koma-script scrlttr2 class

You vertical skip between the paragraphs can be done by the option parskip. So load the class with:

\documentclass[a4paper,parskip=full,]{scrlttr2}

The adjustment of \closing depends on the definition of \raggedsignature which is set to \centering so you can change it as follows:

\renewcommand*{\raggedsignature}{\raggedright}

Based on this modification the following example results:

\documentclass[a4paper,parskip=full,]{scrlttr2}
\usepackage[urw-garamond]{mathdesign}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{fontspec}
%\setmainfont{GaramondNo8}
%\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

\usepackage[english]{babel}
\nonfrenchspacing

\setkomavar{fromname}{Ole Nordmann}
\setkomavar{fromaddress}{Storebakken 15 \\ 5500 Haugesund}
\setkomavar{fromphone}{+47 5222 8183}
\makeatletter


\renewcommand*{\raggedsignature}{\raggedright}

\makeatother
\begin{document}

\begin{letter}{Christine Lagarde \\ Director \\ International Monetary Fund
\\ 700 19th Street, N.W. \\ Washington, D.C. 20431 \\ United States of America}

\KOMAoptions{fromphone=true,fromfax=false}
\setkomavar{subject}{Request for a loan}
\setkomavar{customer}{4455992}
\opening{Dear Ms. Lagarde,}

Attached please find my application for a home loan. Since the financial crisis, my family and I have been living in a tent. We're hopeful that in this fifth year, you'll see fit to grant us the credit we need to start our new life.

In 2009, my income for the year was almost zero.

In 2010, my mortgage was foreclosed on, the house seized by the bank, rented to Korean drug lords, turned into a marijuana grow operation, raided by police, then razed and the leftover wood thrown into a chipper. As a result, the rental income in 2010 for the basement suite was limited and went mostly to cover court costs.

I trust nonetheless that my prior years as a reliable debtor will give you sufficient confidence to accept this loan risk.

\closing{Sincerely}
\encl{loan application, gift certificate for chocolate}

\end{letter}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Adding a signature on an online job application

[Tex/LaTex] Changing \closing indents in koma-script scrlttr2 class

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