Cancel Paragraph Indentation Globally in LaTeX (including a simple introduction to LaTeX length variables)
Jan. 07, 2025
We can use \setlength\parindent{0pt} in the preamble to cancel indentation for all paragraphs in a LaTeX document. The following text shows the effect of without this command and with it, respectively.
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\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{article}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage[x11names]{xcolor}
\pagecolor{AntiqueWhite1}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-7]
\end{document}
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\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{article}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage[x11names]{xcolor}
\pagecolor{AntiqueWhite1}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\setlength\parindent{0pt}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-7]
\end{document}
It is literally clear that the meaning of the command is to set (\setlength) the paragraph indentation as 0 pt (\parindent{0pt}).
Besides \parindent, there are also other length variables in LaTeX that can be set by the \setlength command. Here are their length names1:
| No. | Length | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | \baselineskip |
Vertical distance between lines in a paragraph. |
| 2 | \columnsep |
Distance between columns. |
| 3 | \columnwidth |
The width of a column. |
| 4 | \evensidemargin |
Margin of even pages, commonly used in two-sided documents such as books. |
| 5 | \linewidth |
Width of the line in the current environment. |
| 6 | \oddsidemargin |
Margin of odd pages, commonly used in two-sided documents such as books. |
| 7 | \paperwidth |
Width of the page. |
| 8 | \paperheight |
Height of the page. |
| 9 | \parindent |
Paragraph indentation. |
| 10 | \parskip |
Vertical space between paragraphs. |
| 11 | \tabcolsep |
Separation between columns in a table (tabular environment). |
| 12 | \textheight |
Height of the text area in the page. |
| 13 | \textwidth |
Width of the text area in the page. |
| 14 | \topmargin |
Length of the top margin. |
and we can use the \the command2 to check out their current values:
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\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{article}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage[x11names]{xcolor}
\pagecolor{AntiqueWhite1}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\setlength\parindent{0pt}
\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}
\item \verb*|\baselineskip|: \the\baselineskip
\item \verb*|\columnsep|: \the\columnsep
\item \verb*|\columnwidth|: \the\columnwidth
\item \verb*|\evensidemargin|: \the\evensidemargin
\item \verb*|\linewidth|: \the\linewidth
\item \verb*|\oddsidemargin|: \the\oddsidemargin
\item \verb*|\paperwidth|: \the\paperwidth
\item \verb*|\paperheight|: \the\paperheight
\item \verb*|\parindent|: \the\parindent
\item \verb*|\parskip|: \the\parskip
\item \verb*|\tabcolsep|: \the\tabcolsep
\item \verb*|\textheight|: \the\textheight
\item \verb*|\textwidth|: \the\textwidth
\item \verb*|\topmargin|: \the\topmargin
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}
References