Problem with line spacing

Question

I Googled a bit but could not solve the following situation: Basically LaTeX for some reason decides to make spacing between lines bigger than usual in the first part of my text (between the main- and smaller-heading), as in the example below.

Just want to fix this as simply as possible.

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\linespread{1.3}
\begin{document}
\begin{LARGE}
\begin{center}
Topic
\end{center}
\end{LARGE}
wrong
\\
\\
spacing
\\
\\
here
\\
\\
wrong
\\
\\
spacing
\\
\\
here
\\
\\
\begin{Large}
\begin{center}
Introduction 
\end{center}
\end{Large}
normal
\\
\\
spacing
\\
\\
here
\\
\\
normal
\\
\\
spacing
\\
\\
here
\end{document}

Answer 1

by using \\ to go to new lines, and never putting in a blank line or \par, latex never gets out of horizontal mode. however, the second Large environment ("Introduction") implicitly contains \par within the \end processing.

(la)tex uses the baseline distance in effect at the end of the current paragraph (that is, everything up to the \par that is in horizontal mode) to set the paragraph just ended. thus, the lines between "Topic" and "Introduction" are set with the \baselineskip appropriate for 12pt type. there is no such resetting of size from "Introduction" (which ends with \par) to the end of the example, so the "normal" baselines are set.

there are many good reasons to insert blank lines or \par at intervals within a file, and this is one of them.

it would be a good idea to read some basic documentation on latex. "The Not So Short Introduction to Latex" is a good place to start. latex is not a totally intuitive system; starting by searching randomly for answers via google will not necessarily lead one to the best answers, or develop sound habits.

Answer 2

Use line breaks to tell LaTeX where the new paragraphs begin.

I would not recommend using \\: it will most likely not accomplish what you want and also send underfull box errors to you. If you want a list of some sort, there are three basic flavors: enumerate, itemize, and description. I've illustrated enumerate below.

Also, there's the enumitem package which allows you to pass various parameters to your list environment controlling a lot of the spacing (vertical and horizontal). I illustrated a rather drastic version of this below (I don't recommend my choices of values).

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\linespread{1.3}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}

\begin{center}\LARGE
Topic
\end{center}

\lipsum[1]

\begin{center}\Large
Introduction 
\end{center}

\lipsum[1-2]

\begin{enumerate}
\item first line
\item second line
\item third line
\end{enumerate}

\noindent%
Before an very scrunched up item list (probably not a good choice)
with a big indentation before each item:
\begin{itemize}[topsep=0ex,itemsep=0ex,parsep=0ex,leftmargin=4em]
\item apple
\item orange
\item peach
\end{itemize}
After list

Maybe a list is not what you desire; maybe you're trying to write
questions for an exam or quiz and want to leave spaces for answers.
You can force a prespecified vertical space by using
\verb=\vspace{...}= where \verb=...= is some length.

\noindent
\textbf{Question 1:}  What is the meaning of life?
\vspace{1in}

\noindent
\textbf{Question 2:}  Is this really a questions?

But there's not much space left here for an answer.

\end{document}

Note that the large line break in the image is due to a page break.