Change font of csquotes' block quotation

Question

I'm trying to change the fontsize of csquotes' blockquotes, but seem to be facing some unexpected hard-time.

I know csquotes uses an environment for that, which is by default quote, and can be set with \SetBlockEnvironment. And I do recall being able to use a "begin environment" hook on that single environment for this purpose. And I think I'm not going senile on this (yet), since I am able to find advice along these lines here on the site (e.g. https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/370024/105447 and https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/370027/105447).

However, this is currently not working (so, please consider this before flagging duplicate). A MWE to demonstrate:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\SetBlockEnvironment{quotation}
\AtBeginEnvironment{quotation}{\footnotesize\bfseries}
\begin{document}
\begin{quotation}
  \lipsum[1]
\end{quotation}
\begin{displayquote}
  \lipsum[2]
\end{displayquote}
\end{document}

My question here is then is: is this expected behavior? Has something changed in this regard with the new hook system?

If it is not expected, where should I report it: csquotes or latex?

If it is expected, what is the current best method to change font size for csquotes' block quotes? (including \blockquote and friends).

displayquote essentially calls, with your setting, \quotation, not \begin{quotation}, so the hooks pertaining to the quotation environment are not applied. As far as I can see, your idea would have never worked. — egreg, Jun 22 '21 at 14:38
Can you explain which output you want to see? I'm guessing you want quotation also to show in small and bold? I just checked with older versions of TeX Live on Overleaf and the output is always the same as shown in the screenshot. — moewe, Jun 22 '21 at 14:42
Yes, moewe, that's what I'd expect to see. But, as you and @egred observed, the hypothesis I'm not senile on that memory yet, may well be wrong. :-) — gusbrs, Jun 22 '21 at 14:49

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 22 '21 at 14:46

This has never worked, even if the etoolbox hook mechanism is used (so with LaTeX kernels prior to the 2020-10-01 release).

The problem is that \begin{displayquote} does \csuse{\csq@blockenvironment} (and similarly for \end{displayquote}), which in your case reduces to executing \quotation. Thus the hooks pertaining to the environment are not executed: they're triggered by \begin{quotation}.

You can solve the issue by patching the relevant commands to use \begin{\csq@blockenvironment} and \end{\csq@blockenvironment}.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\SetBlockEnvironment{quotation}
\AtBeginEnvironment{quotation}{\footnotesize\bfseries}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\csq@bdquote}{\csuse}{\begin}{}{}
\patchcmd{\csq@edquote}{\csuse{end\csq@blockenvironment}}{\end{\csq@blockenvironment}}{}{}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\begin{quotation}
  \lipsum[1]
\end{quotation}
\begin{displayquote}
  \lipsum[2]
\end{displayquote}
\end{document}

I fervently hope that \bfseries is used only by way of example.

Probably my memory has failed me this time. About "I fervently hope that \bfseries is used only by way of example." Yes, of course!, and \footnotesize too. :-) Thank you very much! But, even though your answer gets the job (well) done, I think moewe's got a point with \mkbegdispquote as a more "user level" handle for the purpose. — gusbrs, Jun 22 '21 at 14:59

moewe · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-22T15:20:48.453

I'd look into using official csquotes hooks for these kinds of things.

There is \mkblockquote for \blockquote and friends as well as \mkbegdispquote/\mkenddispquote for displayquote and friends.

So to make displayquote go small and bold, you could use

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\renewcommand{\mkbegdispquote}[2]{\footnotesize\bfseries}
\begin{document}
\begin{displayquote}
  \lipsum[2]
\end{displayquote}
\end{document}

For smaller display quotes csquotes.cfg suggest something along the lines of

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\newenvironment*{footnoteboldquote}
  {\quote\footnotesize\bfseries}
  {\endquote}
\SetBlockEnvironment{footnoteboldquote}
\begin{document}
\begin{displayquote}
  \lipsum[2]
\end{displayquote}
\end{document}

Thanks, moewe! I think \mkbegdispquote is the appropriate way to go. — gusbrs, Jun 22 '21 at 14:54

Change font of csquotes' block quotation

2 Answers2