\hbadness

TEX engines provide the commands \hbadness and \vbadness that are used to help TEX determine whether it classifies, and reports, a particular horizontal or vertical box as underfull or overfull. Note these commands do not change or affect the appearance of typeset boxes, they merely determine what TEX reports to you.

  • \hbadness[=]<number>: \hbadness specifies a threshold badness value to be used when classifying a horizontal box as underfull or overfull.
  • \vbadness[=]<number>: \vbadness specifies a threshold badness value to be used when classifying a vertical box as underfull or overfull.

Usage examples:

  • \vbadness=1000 or \vbadness 1000 (the “=” sign is optional)
  • \hbadness=500 or \hbadness 500 (the “=” sign is optional)

Note that TEX also uses two additional parameters when determining whether an \hbox or \vbox is to be reported as overfull: