"Killmargins" package?

Question

Editors such as "Gummi" show a split-screen with the LaTeX source code on the left, and a preview of the later document on the right. However, having a substantial paper margin makes editing more tedious due to the extra scrolling and the fact that the "Fit Page Width" scaling is not suitable when working with small screens.

For editing documents with a wide variety of document classes, which are often publisher-dependent, it would be nice to have a simple way of removing the page margin to 1 or 2 millimeters.

Is there some package for LaTeX that can read the current page layout settings and modify them accordingly, so that the publisher's layout stays the same? Of course, this could be done by defining the page geometry by hand, but this is relatively tedious as it would have to be done for every style file separately. In principle, shouldn't it be possible to have a package doing that for the user when being included?

Surely, the effect can be obtianed using "pdfcrop" or similar tools, but that slows down live preview considerably, not mentioning that some editors (such as "Gummi") do not support customizing the build command.

---

Edit: Here is an example for which tohecz's easy-to-use solution unfortunately does not work due to a "Package geometry Error: \paperheight (0.0pt) too short.":

\documentclass{sig-alternate} 
\usepackage[paperwidth=\dimexpr\the\textwidth+2em\relax, hmargin=1em]{geometry} 
\begin{document} 
Hello World 
\end{document} 

Without the second line, the TeX code compiles file. The class file can be downloaded from http://acm.org/sigs/publications/sig-alternate.cls

Answer 1

In the following, I do exactly the "tedious approach". I modify the physical page size and layout offsets (by altering \pdfpagewidth, \pdfpageheight, \hoffset and \voffset) without changing the publisher's layout itself.

While it is true that the actual numbers are highly class-specific, it is generally just two or three tries until one has found them.

\documentclass{sig-alternate}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% tweak page size and offsets during development
% TODO: remove before submission
  \pdfpagewidth=7.2in
  \pdfpageheight=9.5in
  \hoffset=-0.65in
  \voffset=-0.65in
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\title{The Dark Side of The Moon: Legends, Myths, and Musik}

\author{Various Artitsts}
\maketitle              % typeset the title of the contribution

\begin{abstract}
The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in March 1973. It built on ideas explored in the band's earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their work following the departure in 1968 of founder member, principal composer, and lyricist, Syd Barrett. The Dark Side of the Moon's themes include conflict, greed, the passage of time, and mental illness, the latter partly inspired by Barrett's deteriorating mental state.
\end{abstract}

\section{Introduction}

\lipsum

\end{document}

Answer 2

Well, you can add to your preamble the following line:

\usepackage[paperwidth=\dimexpr\the\textwidth+2em\relax, hmargin=1em]{geometry}

It will make a custom-sized page width, but preserve the set-up textwidth, and the page will have just very small horizontal margins. Similar tricks can be used for vertical margins, but it's more tricky because of headers and footers, so for that, one would actually need to know your exact settings.

Answer 3

fullpage package

You could be interested by the package fullpage which enlarges the text width.

Normal margins:

With fullpage package declared:

Normal layout:

Fullpage layout:

MWE:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\usepackage{fullpage}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{layout}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]
\newpage
\layout
\end{document}

savetrees package

There is also the savetrees package which is designed for using less paper when printing. This package reduces the margins like fullpage but go beyond that and packs as much text as pos­si­ble onto each page. For example, the titles are in smaller fonts with less vertical space between them.

Here is an example:

MWE (by carefull, savetrees needs lmodern package).

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\usepackage{savetrees}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{layout}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]

\section{section 1}
\label{sec:section-1}

\subsection{subsection 1}
\label{sec:subsection-1}



\end{document}

Answer 4

A "fully automatic" solution is difficult, a document might use headers, footers, marginal stuff, ...

Therefore the example uses the layout conventions of the used class sig-alternate:

\documentclass[preprint]{sig-alternate}

\newif\ifkillmargins
\killmarginstrue % configure

\ifkillmargins
  % horizontal settings
  % -------------------
  \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{1mm}% configure
  \setlength{\paperwidth}{\textwidth}
  \addtolength{\paperwidth}{2\oddsidemargin}
  % the class sig-alternate forbids marginal paragraphs
  \addtolength{\oddsidemargin}{-1in}% TeX origin fix
  \setlength{\evensidemargin}{\oddsidemargin}

  \setlength{\topmargin}{1mm}%
  \setlength{\paperheight}{\textheight}
  \addtolength{\paperheight}{2\topmargin}
  % class sig-alternate forbids page headings
  \addtolength{\topmargin}{-\headheight}
  \addtolength{\topmargin}{-\headsep}
  % class sig-alternate does not seem to use a footer (\let\thepage\relax)
  % \addtolength{\paperheight}{\footskip}
  \addtolength{\paperheight}{\maxdepth}
  \addtolength{\topmargin}{-1in}% TeX origin fix

  % propagate settings of paper size to the driver
  % without changing the layout
  \usepackage[pass]{geometry}
\fi

\begin{document}
  \Large
  \noindent
  Top left\leaders\hbox{$\cdot$}\hfill top right\par
  \vfill\centerline{\huge\bfseries column 1}\vfill
  \noindent
  left\footnote{bottom left\leaders\hbox{$\cdot$}\hfill bottom right}%
  \hfill right
  \newpage
  \noindent
  Top left\leaders\hbox{$\cdot$}\hfill top right\par
  \vfill\centerline{\huge\bfseries column 2}\vfill
  \noindent
  bottom left\leaders\hbox{$\cdot$}\hfill bottom right%
  \newpage
\end{document}