Per its definition in the article
document class, if the titlepage
option is not set, the \maketitle
macro eventually calls the \@maketitle
macro which, in turn, is defined as follows:
\def\@maketitle{%
\newpage
\null
\vskip 2em%
\begin{center}%
\let \footnote \thanks
{\LARGE \@title \par}%
\vskip 1.5em%
{\large
\lineskip .5em%
\begin{tabular}[t]{c}%
\@author
\end{tabular}\par}%
\vskip 1em%
{\large \@date}%
\end{center}%
\par
\vskip 1.5em}
Note, in particular, the instructions \@title
, \@author
, and \@date
instructions, and observe that they're contained in TeX groups for which \LARGE
, \large
, and \large
are in effect.
To force LaTeX to typeset the author-related information before the title
-related information, you could redefine \@maketitle
as follows:
\makeatletter
\renewcommand\@maketitle{%
\newpage
\null
\vskip 2em%
\begin{center}%
\let \footnote \thanks
{\large
\lineskip .5em%
\begin{tabular}[t]{c}%
\@author
\end{tabular}\par}%
\vskip 1.5em%
{\LARGE \@title \par}%
\vskip 2.5em%
{\large \@date}%
\end{center}%
\par
\vskip 1.5em}
\makeatother
Note the four \vskip
directives. Naturally, you're free to change their arguments to suit your tastes.
A full MWE -- screenshot not necessary, I believe:
\documentclass{article}
\makeatletter
\renewcommand\@maketitle{%
\newpage
\null
\vskip 2em%
\begin{center}%
\let \footnote \thanks
{\large
\lineskip .5em%
\begin{tabular}[t]{c}%
\@author
\end{tabular}\par}%
\vskip 1.5em%
{\LARGE \@title \par}%
\vskip 2.5em%
{\large \@date}%
\end{center}%
\par
\vskip 1.5em}
\makeatother
\author{Author}
\title{Title}
\date{Date}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}
If, on the other hand, the titlepage
option is set, the \maketitle
macro does not invoke a subsidiary macro called \@maketitle
. In that case, it's necessary to redefine the \maketitle
macro directly, say as follows:
\makeatletter
\renewcommand\maketitle{\begin{titlepage}%
\let\footnotesize\small
\let\footnoterule\relax
\let \footnote \thanks
\null\vfil
\vskip 60\p@
\begin{center}%
{\large
\lineskip .75em%
\begin{tabular}[t]{c}%
\@author
\end{tabular}\par}%
\vskip 3em%
{\LARGE \@title \par}%
\vskip 3em%
{\large \@date \par}%
\end{center}\par
\@thanks
\vfil\null
\end{titlepage}%
\setcounter{footnote}{0}%
\global\let\thanks\relax
\global\let\maketitle\relax
\global\let\@thanks\@empty
\global\let\@author\@empty
\global\let\@date\@empty
\global\let\@title\@empty
\global\let\title\relax
\global\let\author\relax
\global\let\date\relax
\global\let\and\relax
}
\makeatother
titlepage
environment?