# Glue at bottom of page

I'm writing a lengthy document which will have prompts typically between 2 and 5 lines long with a space after each prompt for notes. Ideally I want a 2-inch space with a stretch of 1 in and a shrink of 0.2 in. The 'internal' prompts are easily handled with \vspace{2in plus 1in minus 0.2in}.

The problem is at the bottom of the page, since TeX absorbs glue at the bottom of pages. I've tried variations of \vspace, \filbreak, and \def\filbreak{\par\vfil\penalty-200\vfilneg}, adjusting both the \vfil and \vfilneg. No success. Either the bottom prompt's space is the normal 2 in and the rest are spaced evenly using the remaining space or the bottom space is whatever's left on the page after the others are set to 2 in.

Is there any way to (automatically) evenly distribute the spaces?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[showframe,margin=1in]{geometry}

%\def\spacer{
%    \par\vspace*{1.7in plus 0.5in minus 0.3in} \penalty-200 %
%    \vfilneg}
\def\comment{The page total is \the\pagetotal. \spacer}
\def\spacer{\par\vspace{2.4in plus 1in minus 0.2in} \penalty-200}
\raggedbottom

\begin{document}

\comment

\comment

\comment

\comment

...

\comment

\end{document}

-
If you make the glue more stretchy it should more closely balance the glue added at the bottom of the page. Try \vspace{2.4in plus 1fill minus 0.2in} in your macro. Does that give you what you want? – Thruston Aug 24 '13 at 22:20
\par\nopagebreak\vspace{2in plus 1in minus 0.2in}? – egreg Aug 24 '13 at 23:15
@Thruston: That totally did it. I had previously tried \vspace{2in plus 1fil minus 0.2in}. I guess I just needed more infinity. @egreg: Yours still leaves larger gaps at the bottom of the pages. – Dale Aug 25 '13 at 1:13

Try making the glue more infinitely stretchy so that it balances the glue added by the page eject (which is essentially equal to \vfill\eject).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[showframe,margin=1in]{geometry}

%\def\spacer{
%    \par\vspace*{1.7in plus 0.5in minus 0.3in} \penalty-200 %
%    \vfilneg}
\def\comment{The page total is \the\pagetotal. \spacer}
\def\spacer{\par\vspace{2.4in plus 1fill minus 0.2in} \penalty-200}
\raggedbottom

\begin{document}

\comment

\comment

\comment

\comment

...

\comment

\end{document}

-