| mbox | <CTL OPT M> | ||
| makebox | |||
| fbox | |||
| framebox |
Perhaps the most useful box-making command is \mbox, which formats its argument in LR mode, a restricted form of paragraph mode impervious to line breaks. The \mbox command is especially useful for inserting a bit of plain text in the middle of a math formula (see the LaTeX book for examples). The \makebox command is a generalized form of \mbox, which takes the width and height of the box as additional arguments.
The commands \fbox and \framebox are analogous to \mbox and \makebox except that a rectangular frame is drawn around the box.
| newsavebox | |||
| sbox | |||
| savebox | |||
| usebox |
A ``savebox'' is a bin for storing text, graphics, formulas, or whatever. The argument to \sbox or \savebox is typeset once and may be recalled later, any number of times, via \usebox.
| raisebox |
This box-making command takes a vertical offset as one of its arguments.
| parbox | |||
| minipage |
The primary argument of LaTeX's \parbox command or minipage environment is typeset in paragraph mode. \parbox is for small amounts of text, while the minipage environment is for large blocks of text.
| rule |
The \rule command makes a box filled with ink. For example,
\newcommand{\filledsquare}{\rule[0.125ex]{1.3ex}{1.3ex}}
makes a black square approximately the same size as LaTeX's open \Box.
(There is an analogous command called \blacksquare defined in the AMS
symbol package.)