How do you add horizontal and vertical space in LaTeX?

There is always a need to apply some amount of spacing when doing adjustments in our work for a better presentation.

Aspect of spacing is very important and this article will guide you to have a full understanding of spacing in LaTeX.

LaTeX Algorithm permits the treatment of blank spaces by ignoring them whereby a sequence of blank spaces is treated as a single space. LaTeX does the same for a sequence of blank lines, it converts it to a single newline.

LaTeX provides us with a good number of commands to help us in creating both vertical and horizontal spacing.
Spacing in LaTeX makes use of length commands.

In this context, there are basically 3 types of length commands when dealing with spacing.

Length data commands represent a fixed length. It can be assigned or used as the length in other commands.
Length assignment command basically assigns value to the length data.
Length setting command which generate a blank space with a certain height or width.

Horizontal spacing

The following are length commands that generate horizontal space with their various descriptions and examples.

1. \quad and \qquad generates a horizontal blank space with a width of 1em and 2em respectively. In summary, \qquad doubles the effect of \quad.

Space produced by \quad and \qquad simultaneously can be demonstrated:⏹ ⏹ and ⏹ ⏹

Example:

Apples \quad Apples will give Apples Apples.
Apples \qquad Apples will give Apples Apples.

2. \hspace{length} and \hspace*{length} generate a horizontal blank(white) space equivalent to the length. \hspace*{length} produces a non-ignoring space.

By default, LaTeX will delete any space at the beginning or end of a line. This command forces the space to be
implemented.

NB: Lengths can be positive or negative.

Apples \hspace{5em} Apples will give Apples Apples.
will give This is to demonstrate the effect of negative space.

3. \hfill command generates a white space that fills the entire line.
Example:

\rule{0.5cm}{1em}\hfill \rule{0.5cm}{1em}

will give

4. \hphantom{text} command gives us a white space that is equivalent to the width of the text.
Example:

The quick \hphantom{brown} fox jump over the lazy dog.

will give

The quick fox jump over the lazy dog.

5. \thinspace or \, generates a horizontal blank(white) space with a width of 0.16667em. It is mostly used in character spacing.

6. \negthinspace or \! generates a horizontal blank(white) space with a width of −0.2777em. It can be used for character adjustment.

7. \medspace or \: generates a horizontal blank(white) space with a width of 0.2222em.

8. \thickspace or \; generates a horizontal blank(white) space with a width of 0.2777 em.

9. \enskip generates a horizontal blank(white) space with a width of 0.5em.

10. \enspace generates a horizontal blank(white) space with a width of 0.5em and can be use for character spacing adjustments.

Vertical spacing

The following are length commands that generate vertical space with their various descriptions and examples.

1. \vspace{height} and \vspace*{height} produces vertical white space equivalent to the specified height in the braces.

\vspace*{height} will forcefully produce a vertical space equivalent to the specified height in the braces at the top of page. The height can either be positive or negative.

2. \vfill generates a white space the vertical fills the rest of the page.

3. \vphantom{text} generates a vertical blank of width zero and a total height equal to the total height of the text in the braces.

4. \smallskip generate a vertical space with a height of 3pt ± 1pt.

5. \medskip doubles the effect of the \smallskip i.e 6pt ± 2pt.

6. \bigskip generates a vertical space which is equivalent to four times the effect of \smallskip
i.e 12pt ± 4pt.

\phantom{text} Generates a blank with a total height and width equal to the total height and width of the text in the braces, respectively.

Horizontal Spacing Summary

Commands	Effects
`\quad`	1em horizontal space
`\qquad`	2em horizontal space
`\hspace{length}`	horizontal space equal to length specification
`\hspace*{length}`	horizontal space at beginning of line equal to length specification
`\hfill`	a horizontal white space that fill entire line
`\hphantom{text}`	white space equal to width of text
`\enskip`	horizontal blank(white) space with a width of 0.5em.
`\enspace`	horizontal blank(white) space with a width of 0.5em.
`\thinspace or \,`	horizontal blank(white) space with a width of 0.16667em.
`\negthinspace or \!`	horizontal blank(white) space with a width of −0.16667em.
`\medspace or \:`	horizontal blank(white) space with a width of 0.2222em.
`\thickspace or \;`	horizontal blank(white) space with a width of 0.2777 em.

Vertical Spacing Summary

Commands	Effects
`\vspace{height}`	vertical space equal to the length specification
`\vspace*{height}`	vertical space at the top of page equal to the length specification
`\vfill`	a vertical white space that fills an entire page
`\vphantom{text}`	white space equal to the total height of text
`smallskip`	vertical white space with a height 3pt ± 1pt
`medskip`	vertical white space with a height 6pt ± 2pt
`bigskip`	vertical white space with a height 12pt ± 4pt