lines= does not reflect \baselinestretch

[kberry]

Hi David. Is the lines= option supposed to reflect \baselinestretch? As far as I can tell, it doesn't, which is too bad. Even if not, it would be nice to document it. Simple case below.

Also, is there a better way to change the interline spacing than \baselinestretch? It is weird to specify it as a multiplication factor. Normally one would say "I want 15pt leading". Merely setting \baselineskip since it gets overwritten at font changes, etc.

Thanks.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
% without any \baselinestretch, get 30 lines as requested.
% with \baselinestretch, get 23 lines.
\def\baselinestretch{1.3}
\usepackage[lines=30]{geometry}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-15]
\end{document}

[dr-scsi]

@kberry - I thought the usual practice to activate the factor in \baselinestretch is to issue a \selectfont after it. Changing your example above:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
% \selectfont added
\renewcommand\baselinestretch{1.3}\selectfont
\usepackage[lines=30]{geometry}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-15]
\end{document}

works as expected.

[kberry]

I didn't know that. Thanks. I'd suggest documenting that (it's not in Lamport afaics), but searching for "baselinestretch" in doc/latex/base/ turns up basically empty, so I guess there's nowhere to do so without lots of effort. Doesn't really seem to fit in the geometry doc, although that's where I was looking. Hmm.

My main question was about whether it was possible to specify the leading directly, not via the \baselinestretch factor and related. I think the answer is no. Which is unfortunate, but such is life, I suppose ...