# Distance between top edge of paper and header

EDIT : Please apologize me. I forget to add two lines to MWE I think very essential to handle the problems. Please re-check the MWE.

There is parameter defining distance between bottom edge of top margin and first baseline of body, called \topskip. Existence of such parameter encourage me to search for parameter defining distance between top edge of paper to (first line of) header text. The aim is to set such a distance to 1.5cm.

At first, I think \voffset could be used, from fancyhdr documentation. After some experiment, including elimination of extra 1 inch to 2.1 cm, I find that it will create kind of inconsistency on top margin with option-setting in geometry package loading. Before setting \voffset, the top margin (distance from top edge of paper to body) is 3 cm. After setting, the margin shrink 0.6 cm roughly.

Moving \voffset setting before \geometry loading has no effect. Setting \headheight to eliminate too-small-warning, adding \includeheadfoot option as suggested by this make top-margin larger than 3 cm.

The requirement is, to make the distance between top edge of paper to top edge of header text 1.5 cm, meanwhile preserving top margin of paper 3cm.

Note that top margin here is distance between top edge of paper to top edge of paragraph/text body/main

Here is MWE before setting \headheight and \includeheadfoot.

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper, onecolumn, oneside, final]{report}

\newlength{\theDistance}
\setlength{\theDistance}{1.5cm}
\setlength{\voffset}{\theDistance}
\setlength{\footskip}{0.5cm}
\setlength{\topskip}{8.2pt}

\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\fancypagestyle{plain}
{%
\fancyhf{}%
\fancyfoot[C]{\thepage}%
\fancyfoot[R]{\footnotesize {\fontfamily{phv}\selectfont{\bo{Dummy University}}}}
\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0pt}
}%

\begin{document}
Some text blah blah blah
\end{document}

-

Set headsep=1.05cm, headheight=0.75cm, top=1.2cm. The sum of them is 3cm and the layout is the one you want.

MWE (I've added two lines, one at 1.5cm and one at 3cm just to show that it works, remove them):

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper, onecolumn, oneside, final]{report}

\setlength{\footskip}{0.5cm}
\setlength{\topskip}{8.2pt}

\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{fancy}

\usepackage{tikzpagenodes}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}

\begin{document}
\section{test}
Some text blah blah blah

% this is just to show the correct layout

\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay]
\draw ($(current page.north west) +(0,-1.5cm)$) --
($(current page.north east) +(0,-1.5cm)$);
\draw ($(current page.north west) +(0,-3cm)$) --
($(current page.north east) +(0,-3cm)$);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}


Output:

-
Have followed option - order in geometry, result: distance between top edge of paper to top edge of header text: 0.89 cm top margin of paper (distance between top edge of paper to top edge of paragraph/text in body/main part of page: 2.39cm –  aggy Mar 23 at 13:16
@aggy Did you remove the line \setlength{\voffset}{\theDistance} from your document? –  karlkoeller Mar 23 at 15:21
Now it is removed, but bottom margin still isn't OK. Bottom edge of paper to last baseline is about 4 cm. To a footer text is 3.5 cm. –  aggy Mar 24 at 2:15
By decreasing bottom option to 2 cm, it solves. It will be nice to know the logic behind this decrement. –  aggy Mar 24 at 2:18