Huge white-space in latex template (springer journal)

Question

I'm writing a paper for a Springer journal, so I downloaded Springer journal template from Springer Manuscript and after I compiled it, there is a huge white-space on the right.

Anyone know how I can solve that?

Answer 1

I expect that the dimensions of the text body are chosen on purpose. Filling a complete A4 (or letter) paper would either require

• very long lines ⇒ poor readability; or
• quite large margins ⇒ ineffective high paper costs).

Therefore I assume that the one-column layout is intended for a final paper size that is smaller than A4 (or letter). And I expect that the large margins on the right and the bottom are automatically removed by the journal.

If you want to review a more symmetrical page layout, then the large margins can be reduced to the amount of their counterparts. The following code can be put at the beginning of the file (e.g. template.tex). Before submitting, I would remove it. Package geometry does not change the layout, if option pass is given. But the package tells the page dimensions to the output driver (\pdfpagewidth/\pdfpageheight for pdfTeX, LuaTeX, XeTeX; \special{papersize=...} for dvips, ...).

\AtBeginDocument{%
  \paperwidth=\dimexpr
    1in + \oddsidemargin
    + \textwidth
    % + \marginparsep + \marginparwidth
    + 1in + \oddsidemargin
  \relax
  \paperheight=\dimexpr
    1in + \topmargin
    + \headheight + \headsep
    + \textheight
    % + \footskip
    + 1in + \topmargin
  \relax
  \usepackage[pass]{geometry}\relax
}

The final paper size is now about 169.3 mm × 247.4 mm.

Or the original document can be included in a print document via pdfpages. Options trim control the removed margins. Also the page can be scaled to the output page size A4:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}

% \extratrim is removed from the margins at each side
\newlength{\extratrim}
\setlength{\extratrim}{10mm}

\newcommand*{\trimexpr}[1]{\dimexpr(#1)+\extratrim\relax}

\begin{document}
  \includepdf[
    pages=-,
    trim=\trimexpr{0mm} \trimexpr{49.6mm} \trimexpr{40.7mm} \trimexpr{0mm},
  ]{template.pdf}
\end{document}