Modify title page

Question

Is it possible to modify the title page from its default in LaTeX? Example:

\documentclass[pdftex,12pt,a4paper,english,dutch,leqno]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{authblk}
    %title and author details
    \title{This is the title for my work}
    \author[1]{Name1}
    \author[1]{Name2}
    \affil[1]{Address of author}
    \renewcommand\Authands{ and }
    \date{} %remove date

\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}

I would like to alter this so that the title page was left orientated (i.e. not centered) and that the font size was the same as the remainder of the document. How can this be achieved?

Answer 1

Using authblk is a good idea, but it still exploits the standard \maketitle command, which centers. So we have to patch it.

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{authblk,etoolbox}

\makeatletter
% patch \maketitle so that it doesn't center
\patchcmd{\@maketitle}{center}{flushleft}{}{}
\patchcmd{\@maketitle}{center}{flushleft}{}{}
% patch \maketitle so that the font size for the title is normal
\patchcmd{\@maketitle}{\LARGE}{\normalsize}{}{}

% patch the patch by authblk so that the author block is flush left
\def\maketitle{{%
  \renewenvironment{tabular}[2][]
    {\begin{flushleft}}
    {\end{flushleft}}
  \AB@maketitle}}
\makeatother

% a couple of other settings
\renewcommand\Authands{ and }
\renewcommand\Authfont{\normalfont\normalsize}
\renewcommand\Affilfont{\normalfont\normalsize}

\begin{document}

%title and author details
\title{This is the title for my work}
\author[1]{Name1}
\author[1]{Name2}
\affil[1]{Address of author}
\date{} %remove date

\maketitle

\lipsum[1]
\end{document}

As you can see, the title seems not to be sufficiently highlighted, so you may prefer to use something else in the third \patchcmd, for example \normalsize\bfseries or \large

Answer 2

You should redefine the macro \maketitle or use the environment titlepage (see example at http://theoval.cmp.uea.ac.uk/~nlct/latex/thesis/node18.html)

    \documentclass[pdftex,12pt,a4paper,english,dutch,leqno]{article}
    \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

    \renewcommand{\maketitle}{%
            \textbf{This is the title of my work}
            \par \vspace{.5ex}
            Name1 and Name2
            \par
            \textsl{Address of author}
            \par
            \hrulefill\par \vspace{2ex}
    }

    \begin{document}

    \maketitle
    Test

    \end{document}