[Tex/LaTex] What’s the difference between the environments quote and quotation

environmentsquoting

On meta, I've found the disscussion {quotation} and {quote}, but it doesn't answer my question.

When should I use the environment quote? When quotation?

Best Answer

The worth reading LaTeX Wiki Book describes the differences as follows:

quote for a short quotation, or a series of small quotes, separated by blank lines.

quotation for use with longer quotations, of more than one paragraph, because it indents the first line of each paragraph.

And in addition to the above:

verse is for quotations where line breaks are important, such as poetry. Once in, new stanzas are created with a blank line, and new lines within a stanza are indicated using the newline command, \\. If a line takes up more than one line on the page, then all subsequent lines are indented until explicitly separated with \\.

Environment Syntax

 \begin{shadequote}[<alignment>]{<author>}
    text of quote
 \end{shadequote}

Code

% !TEX TS-program = xeLaTeX

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{ifxetex,ifluatex}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage[svgnames]{xcolor}

\usepackage{tikz}

\usepackage{framed}

% conditional for xetex or luatex
\newif\ifxetexorluatex
\ifxetex
  \xetexorluatextrue
\else
  \ifluatex
    \xetexorluatextrue
  \else
    \xetexorluatexfalse
  \fi
\fi
%
\ifxetexorluatex%
  \usepackage{fontspec}
  \usepackage{libertine} % or use \setmainfont to choose any font on your system
  \newfontfamily\quotefont[Ligatures=TeX]{Linux Libertine O} % selects Libertine as the quote font
\else
  \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  \usepackage{libertine} % or any other font package
  \newcommand*\quotefont{\fontfamily{LinuxLibertineT-LF}} % selects Libertine as the quote font
\fi

\newcommand*\quotesize{60} % if quote size changes, need a way to make shifts relative
% Make commands for the quotes
\newcommand*{\openquote}
   {\tikz[remember picture,overlay,xshift=-4ex,yshift=-2.5ex]
   \node (OQ) {\quotefont\fontsize{\quotesize}{\quotesize}\selectfont``};\kern0pt}

\newcommand*{\closequote}[1]
  {\tikz[remember picture,overlay,xshift=4ex,yshift={#1}]
   \node (CQ) {\quotefont\fontsize{\quotesize}{\quotesize}\selectfont''};}

% select a colour for the shading
\colorlet{shadecolor}{Azure}

\newcommand*\shadedauthorformat{\emph} % define format for the author argument

% Now a command to allow left, right and centre alignment of the author
\newcommand*\authoralign[1]{%
  \if#1l
    \def\authorfill{}\def\quotefill{\hfill}
  \else
    \if#1r
      \def\authorfill{\hfill}\def\quotefill{}
    \else
      \if#1c
        \gdef\authorfill{\hfill}\def\quotefill{\hfill}
      \else\typeout{Invalid option}
      \fi
    \fi
  \fi}
% wrap everything in its own environment which takes one argument (author) and one optional argument
% specifying the alignment [l, r or c]
%
\newenvironment{shadequote}[2][l]%
{\authoralign{#1}
\ifblank{#2}
   {\def\shadequoteauthor{}\def\yshift{-2ex}\def\quotefill{\hfill}}
   {\def\shadequoteauthor{\par\authorfill\shadedauthorformat{#2}}\def\yshift{2ex}}
\begin{snugshade}\begin{quote}\openquote}
{\shadequoteauthor\quotefill\closequote{\yshift}\end{quote}\end{snugshade}}

\begin{document}

\begin{shadequote}[l]{Douglas Adams}
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
\end{shadequote}

\begin{shadequote}[r]{Douglas Adams}
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
\end{shadequote}

\begin{shadequote}[c]{Douglas Adams}
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
\end{shadequote}

\begin{shadequote}{}
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
\end{shadequote}

\end{document}

In this code, the font for the quotation marks is set independently of the main document font. This is because depending on the main font you choose, the very large quotation marks will not look good; Linux Libertine has pretty quotes that seem appropriate for the purpose. If you want to use this environment with another main document font, remove/change the \usepackage{libertine}.

Sample output

output of code

[Tex/LaTex] Reduce the space between a quotation and a title

Add code to quotation based on the fact that after a section the switch \if@nobreak is true:

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\AtBeginEnvironment{quotation}{\if@nobreak\vspace*{-\topskip}\fi\singlespacing}
\makeatother

Now you don't have to issue \doublespacing after quotation, because the environment will keep the single spacing confined into it.

It seems to work right even when the section falls near the bottom of a page.

Using lockstep suggestion you can also say

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\BeforeBeginEnvironment{quotation}{\par\begin{singlespace*}}
\AfterEndEnvironment{quotation}{\end{singlespace*}}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Block quote with big quotation marks

Environment Syntax

Code

Sample output

[Tex/LaTex] Reduce the space between a quotation and a title

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