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For the writing of a document with a limited number of pages that I would like to keep easy to read and scheme over, I would like to have

  • the main text in one column, 12pt

  • the bibliography in two-columns, 10pt

Is this possible ? How to do that ?

N.B.: I know the multicol command is working well for the two-column / one-column change, but what about the 12 / 10 pt change ? Since the bibliography is not too long, I can eventually suppose it to be a specific page, and do some manual command locally if required.

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    You can add the \small command just before the bibliography, followed by \normalsize at the end of the bibliography. Or alternatively use the \fontsize{10pt}{12pt}\selectfont combo, where the first size is the font size and the second is the baseline skip.
    – guillem
    Oct 9, 2013 at 9:58
  • @guillem Thanks a lot, \small is working perfectly indeed. I thought it does not change the space between the lines. Actually it works perfectly. Thanks again.
    – FraSchelle
    Oct 9, 2013 at 10:03
  • @guillem: How do you make sure the effects will be restricted to the bibliography only? Your suggestion assumes that code which comes before \printbibliography and after it in the source will also start being effective just before, and stop being effective just after it in the output. If you know a bit about TeX's output routine, or have ever worked with, for example, floats, you won't be surprised to hear that something like \small\printbibliography\normalsize is gonna backfire sooner or later. That's why there's things like \bibsetup.
    – Nils L
    Oct 9, 2013 at 10:15
  • @NilsL Thanks for pointing out the possible problems of my "solution". I don't know much (if anything) of TeX output routine and wasn't fully aware of the difference between source and output.
    – guillem
    Oct 9, 2013 at 10:34

1 Answer 1

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\documentclass[12pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{biblatex,lipsum,multicol}

\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\appto{\bibfont}{\footnotesize}
\appto{\bibsetup}{\raggedright}

\begin{document}
\nocite{*}
\lipsum[1-2]
\begin{multicols}{2}
\printbibliography
\end{multicols}
\end{document} 

enter image description here

@Andrew: I usually try to keep the amount of explanation I add to my code in a relation to the amount and helpfulness of the information provided by the person asking the question (think of who's providing the MWE here, and who should be). But since you're asking... :-)

So this code mainly relies on biblatex's \bibsetup and \bibfont, which is the probably the safest (and most elegant) way to customize a bibliography's style. I'm appending \footnotesize (that's 10pt in a 12pt environment) to whatever else is already contained in \bibfont. I'm also switching to a right rag, which is a nice thing in bibliographies, and a must when working with columns that narrow. Then there's multicols, restricted to the bibliography only. One might also try using \twocolumn and \onecolumn instead of the multicol package.

\appto{\bibsetup}{\raggedright\twocolumn}
\AtEndBibliography{\onecolumn}

Un-tested, though.

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    +1 The answer would be better if you explained your code. Oct 9, 2013 at 10:22
  • @NilsL Thanks a lot for the detailed answer. SO biblatex is my friend up to now :-)
    – FraSchelle
    Oct 9, 2013 at 11:29

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