Yes, you can place expressions in troff motion and line drawing commands: \h'8*\w' 'u' moves 8 ems times the width of one space. You want to say: \h'8u*\w' 'u' or, for better readability: \h"8u*\w' 'u" This works the same way for \l, \L, \v and the \D commands: Just make sure the units are correct.