Re: Vertical spacing between @deffn output and preceding text

On Sat, Aug 08, 2026 at 06:16:46PM +0200, Patrice Dumas wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 19, 2026 at 01:01:37PM +0100, Gavin Smith wrote:
> > > Actually, I would prefer if
> > > 
> > >  @fonttextsize 12
> > > 
> > > was allowed in Texinfo for LaTeX and possibly other similar formats.
> > 
> > The @fonttextsize command, as I understand it, can change the font size at
> > any point in the document (I just tested this).  This is too low level a
> > formatting detail to be providing a Texinfo-language level option for,
> > in my opinion.  We should view the @fonttextsize command as a wart of the
> > Texinfo language and not a feature to be emulated or extended upon.
> > 
> > It could be fine to edit the documentation if "@fonttextsize 12" actually
> > works in LaTeX output.  As @fonttextsize does do something in LaTeX output,
> > it would be wrong to imply it is a command for texinfo.tex only, so being
> > "more fuzzy" and stating that the command may be ignored depending on the
> > output format could make sense.
> 
> It seems to me that this is not settled, as the two paragraphs above
> seem inconsistent to me.  "@fonttextsize 12" would work in LaTeX output,
> but we need first to allow 12 as a valid argument.  However the previous
> paragraph seem to imply that @fonttextsize should be deprecated and not
> extended.
> 
> What could be the final word?

It wasn't necessary to spend any time on this as a larger font size is
attainable with LaTeX in other ways, as previously discussed.

One consideration is that if a user puts "@fonttextsize 12" in a document
and texi2any accepts this, then they will not realise that this didn't change
anything with the texinfo.tex output.

A problem may have come about with the phrase "printed output" in the manual
where it may not be clear whether this applies to LaTeX or not.

I have made the following change to the manual:

diff --git a/doc/texinfo.texi b/doc/texinfo.texi
index 43853dad2a..d000a384ca 100644
--- a/doc/texinfo.texi
+++ b/doc/texinfo.texi
@@ -5892,10 +5892,15 @@ @node Fonts
 @cindex Reducing font size
 @cindex Smaller fonts
 Texinfo provides one command to change the size of the main body font
-in printed output for a document: @code{@@fonttextsize}.  It has no
-effect in other output.  It takes a single argument on the remainder
-of the line, which must be either @samp{10} or @samp{11}.  For
-example:
+in printed output (with @file{texinfo.tex}) for a document:
+@code{@@fonttextsize}.  (This command is not a good way for setting the
+font size in other output formats, where it may be ignored by
+@command{texi2any}---in formats such as HTML or @LaTeX{},
+we recommend using format-specific features to control such details of
+formatting, e.g.@: CSS or @LaTeX{} package options respectively.)
+
+@code{@@fonttextsize} takes a single argument on the remainder of the line,
+which must be either @samp{10} or @samp{11}.  For example:
 
 @example
 @@fonttextsize 10