Remove page number in blank even pages within the front matter

Question

In the front matter, is there any way to show blank pages without any headings or page numbers?

For example, if I have a preface which just fits in one odd page, I don't want the follwing blank even page to show anything.

I am using the book class.

Thanks.

Answer 1

If you want that behavior in the whole document, simply load the package emptypage.

MWE

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{emptypage}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\frontmatter
\chapter*{Preface}
\lipsum[1]

\mainmatter
\chapter{1}
\lipsum[1]
\chapter{2}
\lipsum[1]

\backmatter
\chapter*{Conclusions}
\lipsum[1]
\chapter*{At the end}
\lipsum[1]

\end{document} 

If instead, you want that behavior in the frontmatter, but not in the mainmatter, you can do the following.

Using the code from the emptypage package we define two commands, \setempty to print blank empty pages, and \setnonempty to print normal empty pages.

\makeatletter
\def\emptypage@emptypage{%
    \hbox{}%
    \thispagestyle{empty}%
    \newpage%
    \if@twocolumn%
        \hbox{}%
        \newpage%
    \fi%
}
\let\oldcleardoublepage\cleardoublepage
\newcommand{\setempty}{%
  \def\cleardoublepage{%
      \clearpage%
      \if@twoside%
          \ifodd\c@page%
              % do nothing
          \else%
              \emptypage@emptypage%
          \fi%
      \fi%
  }%
}
\newcommand{\setnonempty}{%
  \let\cleardoublepage\oldcleardoublepage%
}
\makeatother

Here is a MWE that shows how it works.

\documentclass{book}
\makeatletter
\def\emptypage@emptypage{%
    \hbox{}%
    \thispagestyle{empty}%
    \newpage%
    \if@twocolumn%
        \hbox{}%
        \newpage%
    \fi%
}
\let\oldcleardoublepage\cleardoublepage
\newcommand{\setempty}{%
  \def\cleardoublepage{%
      \clearpage%
      \if@twoside%
          \ifodd\c@page%
              % do nothing
          \else%
              \emptypage@emptypage%
          \fi%
      \fi%
  }%
}
\newcommand{\setnonempty}{%
  \let\cleardoublepage\oldcleardoublepage%
}
\makeatother
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\frontmatter
\setempty
\chapter*{Preface}
\lipsum[1]

\mainmatter
\setnonempty
\chapter{1}
\lipsum[1]
\chapter{2}
\lipsum[1]

\backmatter
\setempty
\chapter*{Conclusions}
\lipsum[1]
\chapter*{At the end}
\lipsum[1]

\end{document} 

Answer 2

You can load the package scrextend. Then it is the default behaviour.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{scrextend}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\chapter{preface}
\blindtext
\mainmatter
\blinddocument
\end{document}

It is also possible to choose an other style for such pages using the package option cleardoublepage=<pagestyle> or using the macro

\KOMAoptions{cleardoublepage=<pagestyle>}

So you can use plain in the \mainmatter if you want:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{scrextend}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\chapter{preface}
\blindtext
\mainmatter
\KOMAoptions{cleardoublepage=plain}
\chapter{Start}
\blindtext
\blinddocument
\end{document}

Answer 3

I had the same problem and I found this to be the simplest solution:

\usepackage[clearempty]{titlesec}