Guide to LaTeX (4th Edition) (Tools and Techniques

30 Chapter 2. Text, Symbols, and Commands
This is\hspace{1cm}1cm This is 1cm
This is \hspace{1cm}1cm This is 1cm
This is \hspace{1cm} 1cm This is 1cm
The length specification may be negative, in which case the command
works as a backspace for overprinting characters with other ones, or
moving them closer together. For example, there is an energy unit in
physics called electron volt, abbreviated ‘eV’, which looks much better if
the two letters are nearer together, as ‘eV’, with e\hspace{-.12em}V.
The command \hfill is an abbreviation for \hspace{\fill} (see
Section 2.4.2). It inserts enough space at that point to force the text
on either side to be pushed over to the left and right margins. With
Left\hfill Right one produces
Left Right
Multiple occurrences of \hfill within one line will each insert the
same amount of spacing so that the line becomes left and right justified.
For example, the text Left\hfill Center\hfill Right generates
Left Center Right
If \hfill comes at the beginning of a line, the spacing is suppressed
in accordance with the behavior of the standard form for \hspace. If
a rubber space is really to be added at the beginning or end of a line,
\hspace*{\fill} must be used instead. However, L AT E X also offers a
number of commands and environments to simplify most such applications
(see Section 4.2.2).
A number of other fixed horizontal spacing commands are available:
\quad and \qquad
The command \quad inserts a horizontal space equal to the current type
size, that is, 10 pt for a 10 pt typeface, whereas \qquad inserts twice as
much.
Inserting variable . . . . . . and sequences
Two commands that work exactly the same way as \hfill are
\dotfill and \hrulefill
Instead of inserting empty space, these commands fill the gap with dots
or a ruled line, as follows:
Start \dotfill\ Finish\\ and
Left \hrulefill\ Center \hrulefill\ Right\\ produce
Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Finish
Left Center Right