## LaTeX forum ⇒ TeXworks ⇒ Inquire about width and scale

Information and discussion about TeXworks, an integrated LaTeX environment for several platforms
yaozhao
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2018 10:38 pm

### Inquire about width and scale

`\includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{ImageFilename}`

Another option command is [scale=0.5]

Any difference between these two option commands? Which one do you prefer?
Also, for scale, I can change the centimeters. What's the meaning of width=1\textwidth?

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Stefan Kottwitz
Posts: 9880
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:44 pm

### Inquire about width and scale

Hi!

`width` means an absolute width of the image in the document. `\textwidth` is the value of the width of the text body, from left to right. So, no matter what resolution or width the image actually has, this command scales it so it matches the text from left to right margin.

`scale=0.5` means scaling by a factor, here it's 50 percent, the half. It's relative to the image original size: if it's 10cm, it now becomes 5cm. So `scale` is less often used, since it's a multiple (fraction) of the image dimension, not the text dimension.

Stefan

yaozhao
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2018 10:38 pm

### Inquire about width and scale

I'm still confused.

width means an absolute width of the image in the document.

So [width=1\textwidth] means now the width is 1 cm?

Johannes_B
Site Moderator
Posts: 4183
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 4:08 pm

### Inquire about width and scale

No. The width is one time the width of your text width. The width of the page minus the page margins.
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