Cfrgtkky

What is the difference between hbox and mbox?

What are these commands intended to do?

I cannot see what they do from my code alone without a word explanation...

As mentioned in a comment, mbox leaves vertical mode before employing an hbox. But the question also seemed to encompass "what is a box"?

So, this answer tries to answer both issues. The first three examples compare boxed text to unboxed text. The last example addresses when leaving vertical mode makes a difference.

documentclass{article}

usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

usepackage{lmodern}

parindent0pt

begin{document}



Mbox Meaning: meaningmbox



hrulefill



textbf{BOXES ARE UNBREAKABLE}



This is a texting piece of text. This is a texting piece of text.

This is a texting piece of text.



mbox{This is a texting piece of text. This is a texting piece of text.

This is a texting piece of text.}



hrulefill



textbf{BOXES ARE UNHYPHENATABLE}



This is a texting piece of text. This is texting piece of text.

This is an hyphenatable piece of text.



This is a texting piece of text. This is texting piece of text.

This is an mbox{hyphenatable} piece of text.



hrulefill



textbf{BOXES ARE UNSTRETCHABLE}



This is a texting piece of text. This is the texting piece of text.

This is a texting piece of text.



This is a texting mbox{piece of text. This is the texting piece of text.}

This is a texting piece of text.



hrulefill



textbf{WHEN LEAVING VERTICAL MODE MAKES A DIFFERENCE}

parskip 1ex



blah



mbox{Regular line space with mbox}



hbox{Irregular line space with hbox}



blah

end{document}