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Adding lines for taking handwritten notes in LaTeX

I recently wanted to add a few empty lines to a document for taking handwritten notes on a printed copy. Somewhat similar to a package available for slides created with the document class beamer (see handoutWithNotes). However, I couldn’t find a package that allows me to do that. So I wrote a few lines of code which go into the preamble of the document. Since it’s not very handy to copy the code every time, I’m considering writing a package.

The code it simple, it defines a command notes which has 3 arguments (1 is optional).

\notes[add. vertical space]{number lines}{width}

 
Preamble code

\usepackage{pgffor, ifthen}
\newcommand{\notes}[3][\empty]{%
	\noindent Notes\vspace{10pt}\\
	\foreach \n in {1,...,#2}{%
		\ifthenelse{\equal{#1}{\empty}}
			{\rule{#3}{0.5pt}\\}
			{\rule{#3}{0.5pt}\vspace{#1}\\}
		}
}

 
Example 1

\notes{5}{\textwidth}

 
Example 2

\notes[10pt]{3}{\textwidth}

 
Complete code example

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgffor, ifthen}
\newcommand{\notes}[3][\empty]{%
	\noindent Notes\vspace{10pt}\\
	\foreach \n in {1,...,#2}{%
		\ifthenelse{\equal{#1}{\empty}}
			{\rule{#3}{0.5pt}\\}
			{\rule{#3}{0.5pt}\vspace{#1}\\}
		}
}
\begin{document}
\begin{minipage}{0.5\textwidth}
	\rule{5cm}{5cm}
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.5\textwidth}
	\notes[10pt]{6}{\textwidth}
\end{minipage}
\end{document}

 
Feel free to propose enhancements.

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