typesetting Typesetting is the composition of text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or '' glyphs'' in digital systems representing '' characters'' (letters and other ...

, a strut is an invisible character or element, used to ensure that a text has a minimum height and depth, even if no other elements are included. For example,

LaTeX Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latices are found in nature, but synthetic latices are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a wikt:milky, milky fluid, which is present in 10% of all floweri ...

and plain

TeX Tex, TeX, TEX, may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tex (nickname), a list of people and fictional characters with the nickname * Tex Earnhardt (1930–2020), U.S. businessman * Joe Tex (1933–1982), stage name of American soul singer ...

Donald E. Knuth. ''The TeXbook'' ( Computers and Typesetting, Volume A). Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1984. , page 82. provide the command \strut to insert a font size-specific strut. In

Braams, J. and Carlisle, D. and Jeffrey, A. and Lamport, L. and Mittelbach, F. and Rowley, C. and Schöpf, R., ''The LaTeX2e Sources''. 2009/09/24, pages 19 and 129. Available online a
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it has a height of 70% of the baseline skip (the distance between the baselines of two consecutive lines of text) and a depth of 30% of the baseline skip. It ensures that two vertical stacked boxes which include such a strut have the same distance as two normal consecutive lines.

also supports the creation of general struts using the command: \rule ''depth'' where \strut is equivalent in size to \rule .3\baselineskip/syntaxhighlight>.

References

{{Reflist Typesetting