\rule (LaTeX2e unofficial reference manual (November 2018))

Next: \today, Previous: Additional Latin letters, Up: Special insertions [Contents][Index]

### 23.7 `\rule`

Synopsis, one of:

    \rule{width}{thickness}
    \rule[raise]{width}{thickness}

Produce a rule, a filled-in rectangle.

This produces a rectangular blob, sometimes called a Halmos symbol, often used to mark the end of a proof.

    \newcommand{\qedsymbol}{\rule{0.4em}{2ex}}

The `amsthm` package includes this command, with a somewhat different-looking symbol.

The mandatory arguments give the horizontal width and vertical thickness of the rectangle. They are rigid lengths (see Lengths). The optional argument raise is also a rigid length, and tells LaTeX how much to raise the rule above the baseline, or lower it if the length is negative.

This produces a line, a rectangle that is wide but not tall.

    \noindent\rule{\textwidth}{0.4pt}

The line is the width of the page and 0.4 points tall. This line thickness is common in LaTeX.

A rule that has zero width, or zero thickness, will not show up in the output, but can cause LaTeX to change the output around it. See \strut for examples.

Unofficial LaTeX2e reference manual