How to get MS Word style single line spacing in LaTeX?

Question

I am working with a limited amount of pages and have to write in Arial 11pt with single line spacing. Now, I noticed that the single line spacing in MS Word (which is probably what the authors of the restrictions assumed) is much narrower than the standard line spacing in LaTeX. How do I get MS Word style single line spacing in LaTeX?

I tried \singlespacing, \setstretch{1} and \linespread{1} but the line-spacing stays too wide.

A test code:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}

\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Arial}
\usepackage{setspace}
\setstretch{1}

\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim
veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip
ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in
voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur
sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt
mollit anim id est laborum.
\end{document}

Answer 1

I think the setspace package is intended to increase spacing; I don't think it has options for reducing it. The simplest option here is probably a manual setting to \baselinestretch, as per page 172 of Lamport's book.

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Arial}
\renewcommand\baselinestretch{0.8}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\end{document}

You can experiment with the \baselinestretch value to get different results (1 is the default). The result with 0.8 is hideous, so I suppose quite similar to Word.

Answer 2

You're on the right track:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}

\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{setspace}

\setmainfont{Arial}
\setstretch{0.8}

\begin{document}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim
veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip
ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in
voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur
sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt
mollit anim id est laborum.

\end{document}

For just text, you can avoid setspace by just issuing

\linespread{0.8}

in the document preamble.

\documentclass[11pt]{article}

\usepackage{fontspec}

\setmainfont{Arial}

\linespread{0.8}

\begin{document}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim
veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip
ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in
voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur
sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt
mollit anim id est laborum.

\end{document}