56

My document should be letterpaper and my attachments should be a4paper. I had high hopes for the \newgeometry command from the geometry package, but the documentation says

\newgeometry is almost similar to \geometry except that \newgeometry disables all the options specified in the preamble and skips the papersize-related options: landscape, portrait and paper size options (such as papersize, paper=a4paper and so forth).

Any help is appreciated!

1
  • In case someone is looking for a similar solution for ConTeXt, the ConTeXt wiki shows how to change paper size mid document
    – Aditya
    Jun 22, 2011 at 21:18

3 Answers 3

49

The following works in PDFLaTeX:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Normal page
\eject \pdfpagewidth=3in \pdfpageheight=10in
Tall page
\eject \pdfpagewidth=10in \pdfpageheight=3in
Wide page
\end{document}

That should work with Xelatex. See the SO qn, Change paper size in the middle of a latex document?, for more.

12
  • 3
    When I use that, how can I reset everything to the page dimension of the document class for the next page? Feb 18, 2011 at 14:28
  • 3
    @Warren: These are normal dimension variables, so you can save the current values of the pages in the usual way using, say, \classpageheight=\pdfpageheight at the beginning and restore using \pdfpageheight=\classpageheight. Feb 19, 2011 at 21:33
  • 5
    @CharlesStewart : do you mean "\newlength{\classpageheight} \setlength{\classpageheight}{\pdfpageheight}" instead of "\pdfpageheight=\classpageheight"? (as I cannot get the stanza with the = to work)... Thanks!
    – sdaau
    May 11, 2012 at 10:08
  • 2
    @sdaau: Yes, you need to tell Tex that \classpageheight is a dimension using \newdim or \newlength, or as you have found, the assignment (using = or \setlength) won't work. May 14, 2012 at 18:45
  • 1
    Anything that works with lualatex?
    – MaxNoe
    Feb 19, 2018 at 14:56
20

You can use the typearea package (KOMA-Script bundle) to change the paper size and also recalculate all dependent margins, header and footer positions etc. The following code demonstrates the technique but generates some warnings related to offended typesetting rules (placing 10pt font on A3 is not recommended). You might need to adjust some further typearea settings for better results.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[paper=A4]{typearea}
\usepackage{lipsum}% dummy code

\begin{document}
\lipsum% Placed on A4

\KOMAoptions{paper=A3}
\recalctypearea
\lipsum% Placed on A3

\KOMAoptions{paper=A4}
\recalctypearea
\lipsum% Placed on A4 again

\end{document}

Some KOMA-Script options trigger a recalculation of the type area and the “page setup” automatically, but paper does not. Nevertheless, a recalculation mid-document results in a new page, so no \clearpage, \newpage or \eject is necessary here.

3
  • 2
    if anyone else got wondering what's the package name responsible for this code, it is koma-scripts Jan 9, 2016 at 0:12
  • 2
    Checkout this answer to use custom sizes pages Feb 13, 2020 at 9:27
  • If you do not need specific margins simply use: ""\KOMAoptions{paper=250mm:500mm, paper = landscape, DIV=15} \recalctypearea"" -- DIV sets roughly the margins based on the font. -- paper = landscape or portrait sets the larger length as the width/height respectively Apr 12 at 23:31
6

Here is an abridged example which switches between two custom page sizes with corresponding layouts (margins), which can compile with pdflatex - for more details, see my answer in Problem with setting correct custom page size with 'geometry' in xelatex:

\documentclass{article}


% reminder: US letter: 596pt x 795pt

\newlength{\pagewidthA}
\newlength{\pageheightA}
\setlength{\pagewidthA}{300bp}
\setlength{\pageheightA}{400bp}

\newlength{\pagewidthB}
\newlength{\pageheightB}
\setlength{\pagewidthB}{400bp}
\setlength{\pageheightB}{500bp}

% stockwidth and stockheight - from memoir,
% here just for cheating `layouts` warnings
\newlength{\stockwidth}
\newlength{\stockheight}


\usepackage{geometry}

% this command will take effect into L1 layout just after \begin{document}
% but the L1 geometry will otherwise be ignored
\geometry{twoside,inner=50bp,outer=30bp,top=50bp,bottom=50bp}

\usepackage{tikz,enumitem}
\usepackage{fix-cm}

\usepackage{layouts}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\patchcmd{\drawpage}{\ifdrawparameters}{\iftrue}%
  {\typeout{^^J*******\string\drawpage fixed*******^^J}}%
  {\typeout{^^J*******\string\drawpage not fixed*******^^J}}

\usepackage{lipsum}



\makeatletter
\newcommand{\printpagevalues}{%
  % from geometry.sty:
  * paper: \ifx\Gm@paper\@undefined<default>\else\Gm@paper\fi \\%
  * layout: \ifGm@layout<custom>\else<same size as paper>\fi \\%
  \@ifundefined{ifGm@layout}{}{%
  \ifGm@layout
  * layout(width,height): (\the\Gm@layoutwidth,\the\Gm@layoutheight) \\%
  \fi
  * layoutoffset:(h,v)=(\the\Gm@layouthoffset,\the\Gm@layoutvoffset) \\%
  }%
  \pagevalues % from package layouts
}
\makeatother


\newcommand{\generatePageLayouts}{%
  \newgeometry{layoutwidth=\pagewidthA,layoutheight=\pageheightA,left=1mm,right=5mm,bottom=1mm,top=1mm}
  \savegeometry{LayoutPageA}

  \newgeometry{layoutwidth=\pagewidthB,layoutheight=\pageheightB,twoside,inner=2.5cm,outer=0.5cm,top=1.5cm,bottom=1.5cm}
  \savegeometry{LayoutPageB}
}


\newcommand{\switchToLayoutPageA}{%
  % switch page size first:
  \pdfpagewidth=\pagewidthA \pdfpageheight=\pageheightA % for PDF output
  \paperwidth=\pagewidthA \paperheight=\pageheightA     % for TikZ
  \stockwidth=\pagewidthA \stockheight=\pageheightA % hyperref (memoir)?!
  \loadgeometry{LayoutPageA} % note; \loadgeometry may reset paperwidth/h!
}

\newcommand{\switchToLayoutPageB}{%
  % switch page size first:
  \pdfpagewidth=\pagewidthB \pdfpageheight=\pageheightB % for PDF output
  \paperwidth=\pagewidthB \paperheight=\pageheightB     % for TikZ
  \stockwidth=\pagewidthB \stockheight=\pageheightB % hyperref (memoir)?!
  \loadgeometry{LayoutPageB} % note; \loadgeometry may reset paperwidth/h!
}



\begin{document}
  % here geometry layout L1 is instantiated;
  % without anything else, paper size defaults to US letter!
  % \restoregeometry command restores L1!!

  \fontsize{8}{9}\selectfont % this nowork in preamble!


  % generate page layouts first based on layoutwidth as page size;
  % don't switch actual page sizes yet:
  \generatePageLayouts{}


  %%% start with content

  % start with LayoutPageA (includes switching page size)
  \switchToLayoutPageA{}


    \pagestyle{empty} % no page numbers here
    \\
     \the\paperwidth
    \lipsum[1]
    \printpagevalues{}
    \clearpage

  % switch to LayoutPageB (includes switching page size)
  \switchToLayoutPageB{}


    % start page numbering here ("this will reset the page number"):
    \pagenumbering{arabic}
    % make page numbers visible
    \pagestyle{plain}


    \the\paperwidth
    \lipsum[1]

    Trying

    some

    text

    \printpagevalues{}
\end{document}
0

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