# [texhax] default length of a space

Gerard E. Seibert jerry at seibercom.net
Tue Nov 4 13:44:03 CET 2014

```> From: texhax [texhax-bounces at tug.org] on behalf of Gerard E. Seibert
>
> This is probably a dumb question; however, I have not been able to find a
> definitive answer. Exactly how wide is a "space" in LaTeX? I found that the
> default for a line was "0.4pt", or at least that is what it states in one
> publication. I want to know what the length of a "space" is. Is it dependent
> on the font size? If so, how would I compute it? Is there a list anywhere
> that shows all of the common lengths and their measurements?
>
> One last question. I tried using "\the \rightmargin" and it always displays
> "0"; however "\the \leftmargin" shows the margin size. Why is the
> "\rightmargin" not shown?
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Jerry

> On Tue, 4 Nov 2014 12:03:37 +0000, Lars Madsen stated:

> isn't it a feature of the font?
>
> it might be stored in
>
> \fontdimen2
>
> see TeX By Topic (http://www.eijkhout.net/texbytopic/texbytopic.html),
> section 4.3.1
>