itemize (LaTeX2e unofficial reference manual (November 2018))

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### 8.14 `itemize`

Synopsis:

    \begin{itemize}
      \item[optional label of first item] text of first item
      \item[optional label of second item] text of second item
      ...
    \end{itemize}

Produce a list that is unordered, sometimes called a bullet list. The environment must have at least one `\item`; having none causes the LaTeX error ‘`Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item`’.

This gives a two-item list.

    \begin{itemize}
     \item Pencil and watercolor sketch by Cassandra
     \item Rice portrait
    \end{itemize}

As a top-level list each label would come out as a bullet, •. The format of the labeling depends on the nesting level; see below.

Start list items with the `\item` command (see \item). If you give `\item` an optional argument by following it with square brackets, as in `\item[Optional label]`, then by default it will appear in bold and be flush right, so it could extend into the left margin. For labels that are flush left see the description environment. Following the `\item` is optional text, which may contain multiple paragraphs.

Itemized lists can be nested within one another, up to four levels deep. They can also be nested within other paragraph-making environments, such as `enumerate` (see enumerate). The `itemize` environment uses the commands `\labelitemi` through `\labelitemiv` to produce the default label (this also uses the convention of lowercase roman numerals at the end of the command names that signify the nesting level). These are the default marks at each level.

1. • (bullet, from `\textbullet`)
2. -- (bold en-dash, from `\normalfont\bfseries\textendash`)
3. * (asterisk, from `\textasteriskcentered`)
4. . (centered dot, rendered here as a period, from `\textperiodcentered`)

Change the labels with `\renewcommand`. For instance, this makes the first level use diamonds.

    \renewcommand{\labelitemi}{$\diamond$}

The distance between the left margin of the enclosing environment and the left margin of the `itemize` list is determined by the parameters `\leftmargini` through `\leftmarginvi`. (Note the convention of using lowercase roman numerals a the end of the command name to denote the nesting level.) The defaults are: `2.5em` in level 1 (`2em` in two-column mode), `2.2em` in level 2, `1.87em` in level 3, and `1.7em` in level 4, with smaller values for more deeply nested levels.

For other major LaTeX labeled list environments, see description and enumerate. For information about list layout parameters, including the default values, and for information about customizing list layout, see list. The package `enumitem` is useful for customizing lists.

This example greatly reduces the margin space for outermost itemized lists.

    \setlength{\leftmargini}{1.25em} % default 2.5em

Especially for lists with short items, it may be desirable to elide space between items. Here is an example defining an `itemize*` environment with no extra spacing between items, or between paragraphs within a single item (`\parskip` is not list-specific, see \parindent & \parskip):

    \newenvironment{itemize*}%
      {\begin{itemize}%
        \setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}%
        \setlength{\parsep}{0pt}}%
        \setlength{\parskip}{0pt}}%
      {\end{itemize}}

Unofficial LaTeX2e reference manual