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I am currently trying to align the baseline of the last line of a footnote with the bottom margin of the page. In other words, the last line of a footnote should sit on the bottom margin. I also want to retain my other footnote formatting settings. I have tried multiple solutions, but each fails in a significant way. I demonstrate my solution attempts in my provided MWE.

In version 1, the last line of the footnote crosses the bottom margin.

enter image description here

In version 2, the last line of the footnote rests on the bottom margin (good!), but the position of \@fnmark is placed in the wrong position (bad!).

enter image description here

In version 3, there is too much white space after the footnote.

enter image description here

I am aware of the \maxdepth parameter (the max allowed distance the last box can stick into the bottom margin), but it unfortunately treats the descenders of the letters/glyphs as part of the vertical distance. \maxdepth=0pt would fix the issue if there was a way to ignore the descenders (the parts of the letters that stick below the baseline).

The code:

\documentclass{article}
\linespread{1.2}%Needed to test vertical spacing between footnotes.
\raggedbottom
%\maxdepth=0pt
\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{stix2}
\usepackage[showframe,lmargin=1.75in,rmargin=1.75in]{geometry}
\usepackage[bottom]{footmisc}
%
\newlength{\fntextwidth}
\newlength{\fnleftmargin}\newlength{\fnrightmargin}
\setlength{\fnleftmargin}{0.1\textwidth}
\setlength{\fnrightmargin}{\fnleftmargin}
\setlength{\fntextwidth}{\textwidth-\fnleftmargin-\fnrightmargin}
%
%VERSION 1; footnote text sticks into bottom margin
%
%\setlength{\footnotesep}{1.2\footnotesep}%See: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/463542/spacing-between-footnotes-similar-to-spacing-in-footnote
%\makeatletter
%\renewcommand{\@makefntext}[1]{%
%   \makebox[\fnleftmargin][r]{%
%       \@thefnmark.%
%       \hspace{0.5em}%
%   }%
%   \parbox[t]{\fntextwidth}{%
%       \noindent%
%       #1%
%   }%
%}
%\makeatother
%
%VERSION 2; fixes issue, but misplaces \@thefnmark

%\setlength{\footnotesep}{1.2\footnotesep}%See: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/463542/spacing-between-footnotes-similar-to-spacing-in-footnote
%\makeatletter
%\renewcommand{\@makefntext}[1]{%
%   \makebox[\fnleftmargin][r]{%
%       \@thefnmark.%
%       \hspace{0.5em}%
%   }%
%   \parbox[b]{\fntextwidth}{%
%       \noindent%
%       #1%
%   }%
%}
%\makeatother
%
%VERSION 3; adds unnecessary vertical space at bottom of footnote text, also produces vfill warnings and errors in my other documents

\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\@makefntext}[1]{%
    \list{\@thefnmark.}{%
        \leftmargin=\fnleftmargin%
        \rightmargin=\fnrightmargin%
        \labelsep=0.5em%
        \topsep=1.2pt%
        \partopsep=0pt%
    }%
    \item%
    #1%
    \endlist%
}%
\makeatother
%
\begin{document}
\blindtext
\par
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.%
\footnote{%
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
}
%
\par
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.%
\footnote{%
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
}
%
\par
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.%
\footnote{%
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
}
\par
\Blindtext
\end{document}
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  • Normally LaTeX places the last baseline at the bottom of the text area (whether footnote or regular text). You could try adding \hrule height0pt to the last footnote to lower the baseline. Mar 26 at 15:20
  • Thanks for the suggestion. Using \hrule height0pt is not quite what I would like here. It produces the same output as \maxdepth=0pt. Mar 26 at 22:15

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