This is probably very simple but I couldn't find anything about in the usual latex guides. In this phrase:
{\em hello\/}
what is the purpose of the "\/" ?
+12
A:
This is a so-called italic correction. Its purpose is to ensure proper spacing after italic text.
Example: {\itshape M}M will produce MM, but with the M's touching {\itshape M\/}M will produce M M, with just enough spacing.
Martijn
2009-09-22 11:20:54
Interesting. and what about \emph{}? does it do the italic correction automatically?
shoosh
2009-09-22 11:29:18
Yes, \emph does italic correction automatically.
Jouni K. Seppänen
2009-09-22 12:30:22
Thanks for clearing that up. I wasn't sure about that.
Martijn
2009-09-22 12:31:58
What about \textit{}? ChkTex is giving me warnings on it.
Paul Biggar
2009-09-22 22:31:26
Paul—All of the font commands that take an argument insert italic correction automatically. ChkTeX is probably warning you that you should use `\emph` instead or something like that.
Will Robertson
2009-09-23 05:07:07
@Will Robertson: Thanks. Actually, it gives warnings about \emph{} as well, so I think its probably just wrong.
Paul Biggar
2009-09-23 22:38:10
+1
A:
\/ is also the standard macro for seperating letters which would form a ligature normaly, so as said before it acts as a seperator. But if you’re are using the packages (n)german or babel with option (n)german (I don’t know at the moment whether it works on other languages as well) you can take "| which generates a slightly better space and does not touch the hyphenation, as \/ would do.
Frakturfreak
2009-10-02 22:38:19