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\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{mwrep}    
\renewcommand\baselinestretch{1.5}
\begin{document}
\chapter{Test}
Text text text text text text text text text text      
\begin{equation}
1 + 2 + 3 = 6
\end{equation}  
Text text text text text text text text text text  
\begin{equation}
1 + 2 + 3 = 6
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
1 + 2 + 3 = 6
\end{equation}
\end{document}

Spaces between two equations and between equations and text are too big. How can I lower them? I know that using \renewcommand\baselinestretch{1.5} is responsible for that but I need this command.

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5 Answers 5

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43

I would recommend taking the following measures:

  1. Instead of \renewcommand\baselinestretch{1.5}, load the setspace package with the nodisplayskipstretch option, and execute the command \setstretch{1.5} in your document's preamble:

    ...
\usepackage[nodisplayskipstretch]{setspace}
\setstretch{1.5}
...

    This way, you won't experience the excessive spacing between lines of text and display-math material. Also, material in footnotes and in tabular-like environments will remain single-spaced.

  2. When you have consecutive equations, don't use separate equation environments; instead, use the gather environment provided by the amsmath package. (If the equations should be aligned along, say, their equal signs, use the align environment instead of the gather environment, and use the & (ampersand) character to mark the desired alignment points in each row.) Two consecutive equations could be entered as

    \begin{gather}
1 + 2 + 3 = 6 \\
2 + 4 + 6 = 12
\end{gather}
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10
  • 1
    Ok, I figured on my own that I need to put ` \\ ` instead of ` \ `
    – Ichibann
    Commented Oct 27, 2011 at 19:56
  • 2
    You need an & character on each line for an alignment tab. You can put it anywhere, but I ususally put it in front of the =.
    – Brandon Kuczenski
    Commented Oct 27, 2011 at 20:03
  • 3
    It's not wrong to have two consecutive equation environments. However, doing so will in general use more space than if you use an environment that "knows" that successive lines are equations rather than switches between text and equations. Moreover, if you use consecutive equation environments, you can't align them on, say, the equal sign -- something you could do if you'd use the align environment, say.
    – Mico
    Commented Oct 27, 2011 at 21:04
  • 1
    +1 for the gather environment. I didn't want to mess around with document-wide spacing parameters just because LaTeX didn't "know" I was providing a series of equations.
    – Warrick
    Commented Mar 23, 2012 at 9:42
  • 2
    @DávidTóth - You should insert \label directives at the end of each line (but before \`) in a gather` environment. You can then \ref (or \eqref, etc) them just as you would a simple equation environment.
    – Mico
    Commented Aug 23, 2015 at 9:56
42

TeX uses \abovedisplayskip and \belowdisplayskip for the spacing above/below equations. There's also a short version of the former two commands for paragraphs ending/beginning with shorter lines. Here's an example showing the difference:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}% http://ctan.org/pkg/amsmath
\begin{document}
Text text text text text text text text text text
\begin{equation}
1 + 2 + 3 = 6
\end{equation}  
Text text text text text text text text text text
\begin{align}
1 + 2 + 3 &= 6 \\
1 + 2 + 3 &= 6
\end{align}

\setlength{\belowdisplayskip}{0pt} \setlength{\belowdisplayshortskip}{0pt}
\setlength{\abovedisplayskip}{0pt} \setlength{\abovedisplayshortskip}{0pt}

Text text text text text text text text text text
\begin{equation}
1 + 2 + 3 = 6
\end{equation}  
Text text text text text text text text text text
\begin{align}
1 + 2 + 3 &= 6 \\
1 + 2 + 3 &= 6
\end{align}
\end{document}​

The same effect is obtained with/without a modified \baselinestretch - it is just clearer when viewed without that set. Of course, you can modify these lengths as needed.

Edit: Heed @egreg's suggestion and/or @Mico's answer regarding two equations

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1
  • 9
    One should never use two consecutive equation environment, but rather the gather environment provided by amsmath
    – egreg
    Commented Oct 27, 2011 at 19:47
13

you should use package setspace for the vertical spacing. The distance between two equations is set by the short skips!

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{mwrep}    
\usepackage{setspace}\onehalfspacing
\AtBeginDocument{%
  \addtolength\abovedisplayskip{-0.5\baselineskip}%
  \addtolength\belowdisplayskip{-0.5\baselineskip}%
%  \addtolength\abovedisplayshortskip{-0.5\baselineskip}%
%  \addtolength\belowdisplayshortskip{-0.5\baselineskip}%
}

\begin{document}
\chapter{Test}
Text text text text text text text text text text      
\begin{equation}
1 + 2 + 3 = 6
\end{equation}  
Text text text text text text text text text text  
\begin{equation}
1 + 2 + 3 = 6
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
1 + 2 + 3 = 6
\end{equation}
some nmore text\par
some more text

\end{document}

enter image description here

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1

In my case below command fix the problem,

\usepackage[nodisplayskipstretch]{setspace}
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2
  • 2
    How does your recommendation differ from what I wrote in my answer?
    – Mico
    Commented Nov 16, 2019 at 18:53
  • @Mico there is a little difference. You have extra instruction setstretch which I didn’t use.
    – Sazzad Hissain Khan
    Commented Nov 17, 2019 at 1:27
1

You can simply use

\vspace{} or \hspace{}

with a negative value to reduce the vertical or horizontal spacing respectively.

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1
  • Simple, yet does the work.
    – Wrichik Basu
    Commented Dec 7, 2022 at 21:42

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