Next: , Previous: flushright, Up: Environments


8.13 itemize

Synopsis:

     \begin{itemize}
     \item item1
     \item item2
     ...
     \end{itemize}

The itemize environment produces an “unordered”, “bulleted” list. Itemizations 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).

Each item of an itemize list begins with an \item command. There must be at least one \item command within the environment.

By default, the marks at each level look like this:

  1. • (bullet)
  2. -- (bold en-dash)
  3. * (asterisk)
  4. . (centered dot, rendered here as a period)

The itemize environment uses the commands \labelitemi through \labelitemiv to produce the default label. So, you can use \renewcommand to change the labels. For instance, to have the first level use diamonds:

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

The \leftmargini through \leftmarginvi parameters define the distance between the left margin of the enclosing environment and the left margin of the list. By convention, \leftmargin is set to the appropriate \leftmarginN when a new level of nesting is entered.

The defaults vary from ‘.5em’ (highest levels of nesting) to ‘2.5em’ (first level), and are a bit reduced in two-column mode. This example greatly reduces the margin space for outermost lists:

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

Some parameters that affect list formatting:

\itemindent
Extra indentation before each item in a list; default zero.
\labelsep
Space between the label and text of an item; default ‘.5em’.
\labelwidth
Width of the label; default ‘2em’, or ‘1.5em’ in two-column mode.
\listparindent
Extra indentation added to second and subsequent paragraphs within a list item; default ‘0pt’.
\rightmargin
Horizontal distance between the right margin of the list and the enclosing environment; default ‘0pt’, except in the quote, quotation, and verse environments, where it is set equal to \leftmargin.

Parameters affecting vertical spacing between list items (rather loose, by default).

\itemsep
Vertical space between items. The default is 2pt plus1pt minus1pt for 10pt documents, 3pt plus2pt minus1pt for 11pt, and 4.5pt plus2pt minus1pt for 12pt.
\parsep
Extra vertical space between paragraphs within a list item. Defaults are the same as \itemsep.
\topsep
Vertical space between the first item and the preceding paragraph. For top-level lists, the default is 8pt plus2pt minus4pt for 10pt documents, 9pt plus3pt minus5pt for 11pt, and 10pt plus4pt minus6pt for 12pt. These are reduced for nested lists.
\partopsep
Extra space added to \topsep when the list environment starts a paragraph. The default is 2pt plus1pt minus1pt for 10pt documents, 3pt plus1pt minus1pt for 11pt, and 3pt plus2pt minus2pt for 12pt.

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 \parskip):

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