# Align text not at the center

I know that I can use \center or \centering to align the text at the (horizontal) center of the page. How can I align in a different position, say 3/4 of the page?

• Did you mean 3/4 (vertically, from the top) of the page? – Ruixi Zhang Jun 29 '18 at 23:45
• No, I mean 3/4 horizontally, instead of the classic 1/2 given by \center – Capublanca Jun 29 '18 at 23:57
• Then perhaps edit the tag “vertical-alignment”? – Ruixi Zhang Jun 29 '18 at 23:59
• How wide is the chunk of text that's supposed to be centered at 3/4 of the page? Can it be assumed that it's no wider than half of the width of the full texblock? – Mico Jun 30 '18 at 0:02
• You are right Ruixi :D, I edited – Capublanca Jun 30 '18 at 0:05

The solution depends on whether the centering point is less than or greater than 0.5.

Suppose first that the centering point x is less than 1/2, i.e., to the left of the exact halfway mark. Then, simply place the text in a minipage that's 2x wide. E.g., if x=0.375, you might write

\noindent
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.75\textwidth}
\centering
... % text to be centered
\end{minipage}
\par


Conversely, suppose that x>0.5. You could proceed by creating two side-by-side minipage environments, the one on the left being left empty. E.g., suppose x=0.6. The width of the right-hand minipage must be 2*(1-0.6)=2*0.4=0.8\textwidth, and the left-hand minipage must have width 0.2\textwidth. You could write:

\noindent
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.2\textwidth}
\null  % or: "\phantom{abc}"
\end{minipage}%  <-- this "%" symbol is important
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.8\textwidth}
\centering
... % text to be centered
\end{minipage}
\par


Note that this solution method includes x=0.5 as a special case: The first minipage would then be as wide as the full text block, making it redundant to place the material that's to be centered in a minipage of its own.

• What if the OP wants 3/4 of the actual page? I mean, not the “type area/block” but the actual page itself. – Ruixi Zhang Jun 30 '18 at 2:03
• @RuixiZhang - That's a very good question. Let's see if the OP speaks up and clarifies his/her objective. – Mico Jun 30 '18 at 2:11
• I have in mind the actual page indeed. But your solutions still works well for my purposes – Capublanca Jul 1 '18 at 23:16