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I am typesetting a book which has some very short chapters. If two consecutive chapters are short enough, I would like to fit them both on the same page. Otherwise, the next chapter should always begin on the next page.
As a bonus, it would be great if chapters longer than one page could allow a new chapter before a page break if and only if that subsequent chapter would fit entirely on that last page of the current chapter without another page break.
Is this possible?
The following is just an example that gives the general idea. It contains a patch of the \chapter command that is suitable for the standard book class; for other document classes, the patch could (and in general will) be different. Of course, etoolbox's \patchcmd could be used instead.
\documentclass[a4paper]{book}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\makeatletter
\renewcommand\chapter{%
% \if@openright\cleardoublepage\else\clearpage\fi
\vfil \penalty-9000 \vfilneg
% Something from the following two lines could be retained:
% \thispagestyle{plain}%
% \global\@topnum\z@
\@afterindentfalse
\secdef\@chapter\@schapter
}
\makeatother
% \tracingpages = 1
\begin{document}
\chapter{First}
\lipsum[1-16]
\chapter{Second}
A very short chapter.
\chapter{Third}
Another very short chapter.
\chapter{Fourth}
This is true minimalism.
\chapter{Fifth}
\lipsum[17-20]
\chapter{Sixth}
\lipsum[21]
\chapter{Seventh}
\lipsum[22]
\chapter{Eighth}
\lipsum[23-24]
\chapter{Ninth}
\lipsum[25-32]
\chapter{Tenth}
And so on\ldots
\end{document}
Edit
As another example, for the memoir class (as explicitly requested), the patch would be:
\documentclass[a4paper]{memoir}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\makeatletter
\renewcommand\chapter{%
% Do not remove support for "article" option:
\ifartopt\par\@nameuse{chapterblock}\else
% \clearforchapter
\vfil \penalty-9000 \vfilneg
% Something from the following two lines could be retained:
% \thispagestyle{chapter}
% \global\@topnum\z@
\fi
\m@mindentafterchapter
\@ifstar{\@m@mschapter}{\@m@mchapter}%
}
\makeatother
% \tracingpages = 1
\begin{document}
\chapter{First}
\lipsum[1-16]
\chapter{Second}
A very short chapter.
\chapter{Third}
Another very short chapter.
\chapter{Fourth}
This is true minimalism.
\chapter{Fifth}
\lipsum[17-20]
\chapter{Sixth}
\lipsum[21]
\chapter{Seventh}
\lipsum[22]
\chapter{Eighth}
\lipsum[23-24]
\chapter{Ninth}
\lipsum[25-32]
\chapter{Tenth}
And so on\ldots
\end{document}
And so on…
\filbreakcommand of plain TeX, provided that you prohibit page breaks in the first page or so of every chapter. – GuM May 19 '15 at 16:14\vfil\penalty-500\vfilneg. 500 units of "bonus" should be enough to overcome other bonuses that might occur in the first few lines of the new chapter. – GuM May 19 '15 at 16:44