Single spacing a 11pt font (Times New Roman) a la Microsoft Word equals a leading of?

[stefano franchi]

For a book contribution,   I have been sent formatting instruction as MS Word screenshots, which I am "translating" to Latex. Most parameters are quite straigthforward, but the interline space isn't. I am supposed to use 11pt at single space. But what is single spacing in MS Word (in point or big points, I mean)? I found an official Microsoft document which says that, starting with MS Word 2007, single line has been increased to "1.15 lines" from the previous standard of "1.0 lines". But it does not define what a "line" is (see text copied below), although the text implies it is not the font's x-height.

I do have a camera ready sample pdf I was sent, but I do not have a typographer's ruler, so I am proceeding by trial and error. I tried 1 line = 12pt (as in the 11/12 rather common spacing), t/f single spacing = 12*1.15=13.8 pt. But it is too wide, whereas 11pt*1.15 is too narrow.

has anyone ever faced this issue?

  

Help appreciated.

Thanks,

Stefano

------------from the Microsft Word blog:

But, of course the line spacing in the new template is single spacing. It's just that it's a little bit "more" than single spacing used to be: 1.15, instead of 1.0. But what is 1.0? You might think that if you're using an 11-point font that line spacing of 1.0 would be 11 points. But if you lay out paragraphs that way – depending on the font you're using – the parts that stick below one line will crash into the parts that stick up from the line below. You need to allow some extra space between lines. In a former life when I set type on a Compugraphic phototypesetting machine, the convention we used was about 20% extra space, so we'd set 10-point type on a 12-point line. Larger fonts demanded more breathing room. This was at a newspaper, so we spaced things a bit tighter than you'd expect to see in, say, a report or a brochure (or, dare I say… a professional looking document).

--
__________________________________________________
Stefano Franchi
Associate Research Professor
Department of Hispanic Studies            Ph:   +1 (979) 845-2125
Texas A&M University                          Fax:  +1 (979) 845-6421
College Station, Texas, USA

ste...@tamu.edu
http://stefano.cleinias.org

[Werner Grundlingh]

As a point of departure, the following posts on TeX.SE might be of interest:

- Setting a document in MS Word-12pt (12bp)

- How can I convert from Microsoft Word to a LaTeX document

- Making a LaTeX document appear as though it were typeset in MS Word

The first one suggests the difference in point size between (La)TeX and MS Word.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "LaTeX Users Group" group.
To post to this group, send email to latexus...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to latexusersgro...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/latexusersgroup?hl=en.

[Peter Flynn]

On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 6:32 PM, stefano franchi <stefano...@gmail.com> wrote:

For a book contribution,   I have been sent formatting instruction as MS Word screenshots, which I am "translating" to Latex. Most parameters are quite straigthforward, but the interline space isn't. I am supposed to use 11pt at single space.

What do they mean by "single space" anyway? It's not a meaningful term in typography.

 

But what is single spacing in MS Word (in point or big points, I mean)?

I assume, in the absence of any proper information, that they mean 11pt on the baseline that Word uses, as you seem to have deduced:

 

I found an official Microsoft document which says that, starting with MS Word 2007, single line has been increased to "1.15 lines" from the previous standard of "1.0 lines". But it does not define what a "line" is (see text copied below), although the text implies it is not the font's x-height.

In this case it means the point size, and that means 11bp. So their "single space" means 12.65bp as the line-spacing, eg \fontsize{11.04}{12.7} expressed in printers' points.

 

I do have a camera ready sample pdf I was sent, but I do not have a typographer's ruler, so I am proceeding by trial and error. I tried 1 line = 12pt (as in the 11/12 rather common spacing), t/f single spacing = 12*1.15=13.8 pt. But it is too wide, whereas 11pt*1.15 is too narrow.

"A line" when referring to body copy always means "at the body font size", so it means 11bp.

 

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{mathptmx}

\begin{document}

\fontsize{11.04}{12.7}\selectfont

This would be their idea of 11bp Times ``single-spaced'', by which

they apparently mean ``on a 1.15 factor baseline''. This computes to

11.04pt/12.7pt in \TeX's terms.

\end{document}

has anyone ever faced this issue?

Many times, alas. 

///Peter