The cutwin package generates bad vertical spacings

[hair-splitter]

I have a problem with the cutwin package. See the next MWE:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{cutwin,lipsum}
\begin{document}
\opencutcenter
\begin{cutout}{4}{5cm}{5cm}{5}
\lipsum[1]
\end{cutout}
\end{document}

As you can see, the marked spacings are different:

[u-fischer]

Well yes, that is a quite old bug, you can find various variants if you search a bit. cutwin splits the paragraph into three boxes which it then outputs again. But its guesses about the needed glue between these boxes is often wrong. It is not so obvious in your example but also the spacing at the top of the window is not right.

Your best bet is probably to set the two shifts cutwin uses to 0 and to add a \strut in various places:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{cutwin}

\ExplSyntaxOn
\newcommand\manyx[2]{\int_step_inline:nn{#1}{#2\c_space_tl}}
\ExplSyntaxOff
\begin{document}

\makeatletter
\renewcommand*{\c@twcalcilg}{\c@twvsilg=0pt }

\renewcommand*{\c@twcalcshift}{\c@twvsilg=0pt }
\makeatother


\section{with strut}

\begin{cutout}{4}{5cm}{5cm}{5}
\manyx{400}{\strut--}
\end{cutout}

\end{document}

[hair-splitter]

Thank you very much! Although this solution does not work correctly with normal text (or \lipsum[1]).

[u-fischer]

well no, it won't work with \lipsum. But with normal text it should be okay (but it requires a bit manual work to insert \strut in the relevant lines).

[hair-splitter]

Indeed, if I use \strut in the relevant lines, then the vertical spacings will be correct. Thanks!