LaTeX Line Break & Newline
Three different commands. Different uses. \\ for hard breaks, \newline as a synonym, and a blank line for new paragraphs.
The decision tree
| What you want | Use |
|---|---|
| Hard line break, same paragraph | \\ |
Same as \\, alternate name | \newline |
| Line break + extra space | \\[10pt] |
| New paragraph (preferred) | blank line |
| New paragraph (programmatic) | \par |
| Justified line break | \linebreak |
| Force new page | \newpage |
Examples
% Hard line break
First line. \\
Second line, same paragraph.
% New paragraph (blank line)
First paragraph.
Second paragraph (indented).
% Line break with extra vertical space
Line one. \\[12pt]
Line two, with 12pt of extra space above it.
% Inside a tabular cell
\begin{tabular}{ll}
A & multi\newline line \\
B & cell \\
\end{tabular}
% Non-breaking space (keep together)
Section~3 (will not break between Section and 3)Common mistakes
- Using
\\as a paragraph break.\\stays in the same paragraph (no first-line indent on the next line, no \parskip). For a real paragraph break, use a blank line. - Trailing
\\at the end of a paragraph. Causes "There's no line here to end" errors. Just delete it. - Three backslashes
\\\\. A typo for\\. Triple-backslash is not a real command. - Using
\\inside align/tabular for a soft break. In those environments,\\means "next row." Use\newlinefor an in-cell break.
Line one. \
Line two, same paragraph.
Blank line for a new paragraph.Single backslash for line break, blank line for new paragraph. No special rules inside tables. Try TypeTeX free.
Try TypeTeX freeFrequently Asked Questions
Use \\ (two backslashes) at the end of a line. This creates a hard line break without starting a new paragraph. \newline does the same thing in most contexts. To start a new paragraph instead, leave a blank line or use \par.
In normal text they're equivalent. The differences: (1) \\ accepts an optional vertical space [\\[10pt]] to add extra space; (2) \\ is required in tables, alignment environments, and equations to mean 'next row'; (3) \newline doesn't allow vertical-space arguments. For body text, use whichever you prefer — most authors use \\.
Leave a blank line in your source. LaTeX treats one or more blank lines as a paragraph break. The first line of the new paragraph will be indented (unless you've used \noindent or \setlength{\parindent}{0pt}). \par does the same thing programmatically.
Some environments (like tabular, align, array) reserve \\ for 'next row'. If you need a line break inside a cell, use \newline. In other environments where neither works, wrap the cell content in a \parbox{width}{text}.
Use the optional argument: \\[10pt] adds 10 points of extra vertical space after the line break. \\[1em] uses one em-height. For larger, semantic gaps, use \medskip, \smallskip, \bigskip, or \vspace{Xpt}.
\linebreak forces a line break and stretches the line to fit the right margin (justified). Useful when you specifically want LaTeX to spread out the words on a line. Use \\ for a normal hard break (left-aligned at the break point).
URLs in regular text won't break automatically. Use \url{} (from the url package) or \href{} (from hyperref) — both handle line-breaking inside URLs. For really long URLs, the breakurl package adds more flexibility.
\\ ends the line at that point — if the resulting line is shorter than the column width, LaTeX warns about under-full. It's just a warning, not an error. To suppress, use \linebreak (which justifies) or accept the short line. For poetry/code where short lines are intentional, ignore the warning.
Use a tilde ~ for a non-breaking space: 'Section~3' keeps 'Section' and '3' on the same line. For a non-breaking dash, use \nobreakdash-. For longer phrases, use \mbox{phrase} — LaTeX won't break the contents.