[Tex/LaTex] What are the possible dimensions / sizes / units LaTeX understands

dimension-expressionsdimensionsunit-of-measureunits

I know there are different ways of expressing sizes or dimensions in LaTeX such as points (pt), inches (in) and ex.

As some commands, such as \hspace understand all of them, I would like to have a reference or complete list of possible dimensions or sizes including a description of what they mean.

Best Answer

From the plain TeX reference:

pt: Point
pc: pica (12 pt)
in: inch (72.27 pt)
bp: Big point (72 bp = 1 in)
cm: Centimeter
mm: Millimeter
dd: Didot point (1157 dd = 1238 pt)
cc: cicero (12 dd)
sp: Scaled point (65536 sp = 1 pt), the smallest TeX unit
ex: Nominal x-height
em: Nominal m-width

Available in math mode:

mu: math unit, 1 em = 18 mu, where em is taken from the math symbols family, various lengths are derived from it (thinspace, thickspace, etc.)

Additionally available in pdfTeX and LuaTeX:

px: "pixel", the dimension given to the \pdfpxdimen primitive; default value is 1 bp, corresponding to a pixel density of 72 dpi

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Is it possible in Latex to convert all numbers between imperial and metric

Implementing your hack is quite easy:

\newif\ifMetric\Metrictrue% metric by default
\newcommand\MyUnit[2]{\ifMetric #1\else #2\fi}% \MyUnits{metric}{imperial}

Then you can simply use \MyUnit{191cm}{6'3''} in your document and change between metric and imperial at any point using \Metrictrue and \Metricfalse.

Here's a full example (with a crude use of SIunits as requested in the comments):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{SIunits}
\newif\ifMetric\Metrictrue% metric by default
\newcommand\MyUnit[2]{\ifMetric #1\else #2\fi}% \MyUnits{metric}{imperial}

\begin{document}
   Metric: \MyUnit{191 \centi\meter}{$6'3''$}

   \Metricfalse Imperial:  \MyUnit{191 \centi\meter}{$6'3''$}

   \Metrictrue Metric:  \MyUnit{191 \centi\meter}{$6'3''$}
\end{document}

and the output:

enter image description here

Edit: the smartunits package

When I first wrote this post I said that it ought to be possible to do this properly using pgfkeys. Partly as a proof-of-concept, and partly as an exercise to learn how to use pgfkeys, there is now a smartunits package for converting between metric and Imperial units.

Here is a MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{smartunits}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{listings}\lstset{language=[LaTeX]TeX}
\lstset{language=[LaTeX]TeX,
        texcsstyle=*\bfseries\color{blue},
        keywordstyle=\color{blue},
        commentstyle=\color{brown},
        morekeywords={SmartUnit,SmartUnitSettings,sisetup},
}

\begin{document}
  \begin{lstlisting}[texcl]
      \SmartUnitSettings{metric imperial, places=1}
      \SmartUnit{km=100.0,figures=1}   % \SmartUnit{km=100.0,figures=1}
      \SmartUnit{miles=62.15,places=1} % \SmartUnit{miles=62.15,places=1}
      \SmartUnit{cm=10}                % \SmartUnit{cm=10}
      \SmartUnit{celsius=20}           % \SmartUnit{celsius=20}
      \SmartUnit{miles=5.0, figures=1} % \SmartUnit{miles=5.0, figures=1}
      \SmartUnit{miles=5.0,places=2}   % \SmartUnit{miles=5.0, places=2}
      \SmartUnit{hours=0, minutes=59}  % \SmartUnit{hours=0, minutes=59}
      \SmartUnit{hours=12, minutes=12} % \SmartUnit{hours=12, minutes=12}
      \SmartUnit{kg=10.0, places=1}    % \SmartUnit{kg=10.0, places=1}
      \SmartUnit{pound=10.0,figures=1} % \SmartUnit{pound=10.0,figures=1}
      \SmartUnit{l=10.0, places=1}     % \SmartUnit{l=10.0, places=1}
      \SmartUnit{L=10.0, places=1,uk}  % \SmartUnit{L=10.0, places=1,uk}
  \end{lstlisting}
\end{document}

and here is the output this produces:

(There is some trickery using the listings package to have LateX typeset the commands after the %'s on each line.)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Is it possible in Latex to convert all numbers between imperial and metric

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