{margins} is about dealing with (above all, changing) the margins of (whole) pages and, conversely, the width and height of the textblock and its positioning on the page. Popular packages are {geometry} and {typearea}. For changing the "margins" in the middle of a page, use {indentation} instead.
100
votes
4answers
10k views
Why are default LaTeX margins so big?
I've read that—unless I know a lot about typesetting—I shouldn't change the margins of a LaTeX document. The default margin size of the article class is really big and it feels like a lot of space is ...
99
votes
4answers
20k views
Difference between \textwidth, \linewidth and \hsize
The three lengths \textwidth, \linewidth and \hsize seem to all hold the width of the current line. At least I never saw some real difference between \textwidth and \linewidth in my code. Both seem to ...
48
votes
4answers
4k views
Modern book design, margins and typed area
The golden fleece of book design has been the typesetting of the typed area in relation to the paper and the spread. Famous typographers such as Jan_Tschichold and Rosarivo devised canon's of page ...
47
votes
9answers
5k views
Preparing PDF files for ebook readers, etc.
People are nowadays increasingly often reading papers on screen, using ebook readers, tablet PCs, laptops, etc. A typical PDF file generated with Latex is far from ideal for such use; in particular, ...
44
votes
4answers
2k views
How to scale a tikzpicture to \textwidth
I would like to scale my tikzpicture to exactly (or a proportion of) the \textwidth
Of course I could play with the [scale=0.5] option until I found the right value, but I assume there must be an ...
38
votes
1answer
505 views
different type areas on even/odd pages
in some (very rare) cases, it might be desirable to have the type area, particularly the text width, be different on even and odd pages. Let's say we're typesetting a textbook that's supposed to have ...
37
votes
7answers
16k views
Custom margin settings for figure in LaTeX
I have a fairly large figure in a LaTeX document. This figure is too large for the left and right margin of the document. This results in the figure being placed flush with the left margin, and way ...
35
votes
2answers
6k views
Center figure that is wider than \textwidth
I have a figure that is wider than the \textwidth of my document. (I don't want to change the \textwidth.) As a result, the leftmost part of the figure is flush with the left margin, while the ...
29
votes
3answers
5k views
pgfplots: how can I scale to text width?
This question led to a new package:
tikzscale
When I try to scale a plot with: width=\textwidth there is some horizontal space between the
start/end of the plot and the start/end of the ...
25
votes
3answers
1k views
Nicely force 66 characters per line
I would like to have "something" (a package, a trick, a macro, ...?) that makes it possible for me to nicely play with the margins (or the layout) in order to set the average or typical number of ...
23
votes
2answers
26k views
How to force a table into page width?
I have the following table:
\begin{table}[htb]
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node (table) [inner sep=0pt] {
\begin{tabular}{ l | l }
{\bf Symptom} & {\bf Metric} \\
\hline
Class that has many accessor ...
21
votes
1answer
660 views
Why doesn't a 17cm x 25cm picture fit on a 17cm x 25cm page?
Why doesn't this tikz picture fit on the first page of the document?
\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage[showframe, centering, text={17cm, 25cm}]{geometry}
\begin{document}
...
18
votes
2answers
656 views
A package to help with layout generation? Graph paper in the background?
Once in a while I have to create a layout given by several parameters, such as "left margin 3cm, logo 4 cm from the right margin, 2cm high" etc. Now I use geometry package an other helpers to create a ...
17
votes
3answers
2k views
Illogical twoside margins
Shouldn't the twoside option produce a wider margin at the binding/spine edge, rather than the other way around?
I'm using \documentclass[twoside]{report}.
17
votes
4answers
880 views
A line of length \textwidth in TikZ
Why does the following latex document:
\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) -- (\textwidth,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
...
17
votes
4answers
670 views
How to set a letter to the margin of the page and position it vertically according to alphabetical order?
I would like to place a letter (that indicates which letter in the dictionary is shown) on the outer side of the book, set it for example in a darker box and position that letter vertically. Users of ...
17
votes
3answers
2k views
Best ratios of number of letters per line and of number of lines per page
I am actually writing a master thesis in LaTeX but I didn't really like the default page style of the document style book. Therefore I tried to make my own page style and I resized manually the ...
17
votes
2answers
2k views
Margin Figures/Captions
I have two figure/caption related questions.
Firstly, in many textbooks, it is customary to put thin figures (along with their captions) entirely in the outer margin of the page. What is the most ...
17
votes
1answer
224 views
Is there an overview of Beamer's slide (page) geometry anywhere?
I find this classic figure of LaTeX's page geometry very helpful:
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Latex_layout.svg
Now, I am fiddling with some beamer slides and I could really use ...
16
votes
2answers
4k views
How to find the \textwidth in two-column mode?
Sometimes I find that floats don't fit nicely on a page, so I use
\resizebox{\textwidth}{!}{ <blah blah blah> }
so that the borders match the margins. However, I'm now working on a paper in ...
16
votes
4answers
4k views
Draw true page border
Is there a way to draw a rectangle around every page?
The problem is that my document (a Ph.D. thesis) is in a funny format (16x24cm). So to print it centered on A4 paper (for reviewing) I played ...
16
votes
3answers
10k views
Determine text width
For sizing figures in LaTeX it's helpful to know how wide the text is so that figures can be sized to match without rescaling. LaTeX provides \textwidth for reference by other commands, e.g.
...
16
votes
4answers
2k views
Place figures side by side, spill into outer margin
I would like to place two figures side by side (not subfigures) and what’s more, I’d like to let the figures spill into the outer margin (since they are too wide for the the text width. Like this:
...
16
votes
2answers
936 views
Default margins for geometry package
I want to explicitly specify sizes of my document. For this purposes I use geometry package. I do the following (I found the solution here):
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[paperwidth=2394pt, ...
16
votes
2answers
553 views
Is there any package to automatically select font size and margins to optimize pages?
Suppose I am preparing multi-page handouts using LaTeX.
I don't care much about the font and margins size (while they are reasonable), but I would like all the pages to be filled, ie. avoid the ...
15
votes
2answers
499 views
Problem with the geometry package reset option
Page 11 of the geometry package manual says that the reset option
sets back the layout dimensions and switches to the settings before geometry is loaded.
On page 30 there is a slightly different ...
15
votes
1answer
705 views
Wrong protrusion with csquotes and microtype
I’m experiencing problems using the csquotes package and microtype using protrusion (margin kerning). The problem is that using \enquote I only get margin kerning on the left margin.
...
14
votes
3answers
6k views
making a table fit on a page by moving it left
I have a table where the last columns fall off the page. Instead of making the text smaller I would like the table to not adhere to the margin of where it begins. I would like to move it to the left. ...
14
votes
3answers
1k views
Making a LaTeX document appear as though it were typeset in MS Word
I am typesetting a document in LaTeX for which I have been given exact specifications that are intended for an MS Word-processed document (single-sided, single-spaced, 0.75 inch margins, no more than ...
14
votes
2answers
624 views
Customised section overlapping in margin
How can I fix the following overlap happening in the margin? I want the numbers to follow each other with a comma in between them.
Edit: Clarification of the question. The text needs to be flowing ...
14
votes
1answer
683 views
Rules of thumb for size of binding correction (BCOR)
I was searching for this for a while now and I keep getting referred to an article about binding correction (probably in german) that seems to be offline.
Another tip was to measure the horizontal ...
14
votes
1answer
491 views
How could one setup a layout for a dictionary? (if possible)
A friend asked me if I knew any free software for creating dictionaries - which is good at saving space (reduce total number of pages).
Example:
I suppose this might be possible in LaTeX. ...
14
votes
1answer
607 views
Create a fancy page layout
In the following picture (desired layout)
the grayed area is reserved for the header. It is supposed to be fancy looking with tikz pictures, chapter/section names with pretty fonts etc. The ...
14
votes
1answer
317 views
Periodic word count in margin
I need to have a continuous word count for an assignment. This is either in the form of a note in the margin or one parenthesised in-text every 100 words or so. For instance,
----- TEXT ------|- ...
13
votes
4answers
2k views
Putting a bar in the margin
I sometimes want to give examples in a document I am writing. Because these examples are quite general it could be difficult for readers to see the difference between the examples and the theoretical ...
13
votes
2answers
230 views
Inserting a line to separate the text and the margin note
How can I insert a vertical line through a whole page to separate the text and the margin notes?
13
votes
2answers
3k views
Caption of figure in marginpar and caption of wrapfigure in margin
I'm writing my master thesis and have run into trouble with the layout of captions in relation to the margins. I have two main questions:
How can I make the caption text of an figure placed in a ...
13
votes
2answers
7k views
Different margins for title page
My document class is article with a4paper. The margins that I want for the body are:
top: 1 inch
bottom: 1 inch
right: 0.5 inch
left: 1.5 inch
The title page should have a 1 inch margin on all four ...
12
votes
2answers
3k views
margins of book class
I would like to know what are the margins (top, right,bottom and left; in meters) that are by default assigned for thebook class. Is there a command or a way to know them?
12
votes
2answers
607 views
Where is the left-hand margin?
I'm working on the TikZ-from-TeX-SX package, specifically developing the code for putting equation numbering at places within a tikzpicture environment. To do this, I need to know where the text ...
12
votes
2answers
1k views
Storing the original document class page layout with geometry
Is it possible, using the geometry package, to store (and restore) the original layout specified by the document class (in my case, the class is report)?
Here is some context. I have been editing ...
12
votes
1answer
324 views
Put equation numbers in the sidemargin with Tufte-Latex class
In Tufte-Latex all captions etc. are in the side margin. I want to put the equation numbers there as well. Is it possible to do this?
11
votes
3answers
180 views
Arithmetic in arguments to the geometry package
I'd like to use the geometry package to auto-crop the output of my LaTeX (so that it looks bigger on-screen as I'm editing). I have found a way to remove the margins completely and brutally:
...
11
votes
3answers
380 views
How to set colored ruled margins for different pages?
I want to write a LaTeX document, and I want to have document rules (colored margins distinguishing sections and/or even/odd pages).
Here is a model of what I have in mind:
How can this be ...
11
votes
4answers
5k views
Scale (resize) large images (graphics) that exceed page margins
Background
A large number of screen captures have been scaled 300% at 288dpi. They appear correctly when embedded in OpenOffice, but not LyX.
Problem
Images that do not extend beyond the margins ...
11
votes
1answer
364 views
Why are odd pages left pages?
I'm typesetting a friend's novel using LaTeX (in my actual document I'm using memoir, but the same happens if I just use book). It's possible I'm going crazy, but I'm sure that it's setting up odd ...
11
votes
1answer
9k views
Change \textwidth and \textheight in mid-document
I set my \textwidth and \textheight in the preamble and would like to change both for some pages. How can this be done? E.g., the following example for \textwidth appears to work for the page number, ...
11
votes
2answers
2k views
How can I get todonotes in the left margin
I want to use the package todonotes. Standard, the package prints the todo's in the right margin, while I want to have them in the left margin. Funny is, that in the manual itself they are placed in ...
11
votes
1answer
912 views
Geometry settings for default document layout?
How can I obtain the corresponding settings for the geometry package so that the document looks just like the standard article or report?
Assume that I have a document in the default style, and I ...
11
votes
3answers
401 views
Layout guidelines not exactly a multiple of \baselineskip
Many conferences in my area require that papers be submitted on letter paper (8.5" x 11") with 1" margins and a 12pt leading. So we end up with 9" for text. (I'm sure there's a name for that, but it ...
