Time for action – creating a narrow text column

We would like to explain the acronym TUG in a text column of only 3 cm width:

1. Create a new document containing these four lines:

   \documentclass{article}
   \begin{document}
   \parbox{3cm}{TUG is an acronym. It means \TeX\ Users Group.}
   \end{document}

2. Typeset and take a critical look at the output:

   

What just happened?

We used the command \parbox to create a column. We stated the width of 3 cm in the first argument and the contained text in the second argument to \parbox.

\parbox takes the argument text and formats the output to fit the specified width. We see that the text is fully justified. Our example shows an obvious problem: insisting on full justification could lead to undesirable big gaps in the text. Possible solutions are:

• Introducing hyphenation: the word acronym could easily be divided

• Improving justification: LaTeX could do better

• Giving up full justification: narrow text could look better when it's only left justified

We will check out all of...