Text Formatting ⇒ Difference between \/ and \thinspace

[shau-kote]

Hello.

I only started to study TeX/LaTeX, and now I'm reading "The TeXbook".
Knuth tells about prints(ch. 4) and say about \/, italic correction.
But then he use \/ in `{\bf f\/}', that it looked more beautifully. But this haven't an italic print!
Why he don't use \thinspace: `{\bf f\thinspace}'?
How difference between \/ and \thinspace?

Thank you.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

welcome to the board! \thinspace is a fixed space of 1/6 of an em. \/ may vary, it depends on the font and the glyph. And it can be defined also for roman fonts.

Stefan

[shau-kote]

I thought the same way.

But why Knuth don't use \thinspace in `{\bf f\/}' construction instead of \/?