Raising a colon to center

[Maximus_Rumpas]

Hi All,

I am writing some Latin text within a document:

MARIA STVARTA SCOT : ET GALL : REG : IACO : MAG : BRITA : REG : MATER

I need to raise the colon between the abbreviated text to the centre
of the text line, rather as normal, aligned at the bottom of the text.

I use \textperiodcentered for a single period but I can't find
anything similar to fix the above problem.

Thanks for your time
Max

[Philipp Stephani]

Maximus_Rumpas <pmken...@gmail.com> writes:

You can move things around with the \raisebox command:

\documentclass{minimal}
\newcommand*{\raisedcolon}{\raisebox{0.3ex}{:}}
\begin{document}
MARIA STVARTA SCOT \raisedcolon\ ET GALL \raisedcolon\ REG \raisedcolon\ IACO \raisedcolon\ MAG \raisedcolon\ BRITA \raisedcolon\ REG \raisedcolon\ MATER
\end{document}

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[Maximus_Rumpas]

On 21 Nov, 13:30, Philipp Stephani <LookIn...@arcor.de> wrote:
> Maximus_Rumpas <pmkench...@gmail.com> writes:

> You can move things around with the \raisebox command:
>
> \documentclass{minimal}
> \newcommand*{\raisedcolon}{\raisebox{0.3ex}{:}}
> \begin{document}
> MARIA STVARTA SCOT \raisedcolon\ ET GALL \raisedcolon\ REG \raisedcolon\ IACO \raisedcolon\ MAG \raisedcolon\ BRITA \raisedcolon\ REG \raisedcolon\ MATER
> \end{document}
>
> --
> Change “LookInSig” to “tcalveu” to answer by mail.

Thank you Philipp, both for a quick reply and a simple solution.
Your help is much appreciated.
Kind regards
Max

[Heiko Oberdiek]

Maximus_Rumpas <pmken...@gmail.com> wrote:

There are many ways. The following solution centers the colon
using an uppercase letter for comparison. Also it makes the
colon active inside an environment for easier writing.

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}

\begingroup
\lccode`\~=`\:%
\lowercase{\endgroup
\newenvironment{vccolon}{%
\catcode`\:=\active
\let~\textcoloncentered
\ignorespaces
}{%
\ifhmode\unskip\fi
}%
}
\newcommand{\textcoloncentered}{}
\DeclareRobustCommand*{\textcoloncentered}{%
\begingroup
\sbox0{T}%
\sbox2{:}%
\dimen0=\ht0 %
\advance\dimen0 by -\ht2 %
\dimen0=.5\dimen0 %
\raisebox{\dimen0}{:}%
\endgroup
}

\begin{document}
\begin{vccolon}

MARIA STVARTA SCOT : ET GALL : REG : IACO : MAG : BRITA : REG : MATER

\end{vccolon}
\end{document}

Yours sincerely
Heiko <ober...@uni-freiburg.de>

[Dan Luecking]

This looks like a job for \valign!

\def\textcoloncentered{%
\valign{&##\cr\vphantom{T}\cr\vfil\hbox{:}\vfil\cr}}

One disadvantage is it has the height and depth of the
uppercase T.

Probably one should just \raisebox by some carefully
chosen multiple of ex. Exact centering is less important
than a well designed appearance.

Dan
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