[Tex/LaTex] Different margins for title page

geometrymarginstitles

My document class is article with a4paper. The margins that I want for the body are:

top: 1 inch
bottom: 1 inch
right: 0.5 inch
left: 1.5 inch

The title page should have a 1 inch margin on all four sides, but the body of my paper should have margins as specified above.

I tried using the geometry package to specify these margins. But it didn't come out as I wanted. How can I achieve this?

Best Answer

Using the geometry package it is possible to switch your layout mid-document using the \newgeometry{<settings>} macro. We first set up the initial layout of the title page (1in on all four sides) when the package is loaded

\usepackage[showframe,paper=a4paper,margin=1in]{geometry}% http://ctan.org/pkg/geometry

and then change this after the title page using

\newgeometry{top=1in,bottom=1in,right=0.5in,left=1.5in}

Here is the complete MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[showframe,paper=a4paper,margin=1in]{geometry}% http://ctan.org/pkg/geometry
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum
\begin{document}
\begin{titlepage}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\author{Somebody Important}
\title{Something just as important}
\maketitle
\lipsum[1-2]
\end{titlepage}

\newgeometry{top=1in,bottom=1in,right=0.5in,left=1.5in}

\section{First section} \lipsum[1-4]
\section{Second section} \lipsum[5-8]
\section{Third section} \lipsum[9-12]
\section{Last section} \lipsum[13-16]
\end{document}

enter image description here

lipsum provides dummy text, while the showframe option to geometry merely frames the page to highlight the layout of the text block and other areas.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to set up the left/right margin of the page to 1 inch, the top/bottom one to ½ inch

Because you overrode the default settings defined by the geometry package (such as \footskip) then the last settings will be applied to take effect. You set \footskip to 25pt and that is too small!

I recommend that you use geometry's settings only rather than mixing them with native length macros. The following native length macros should not be used if you have already loaded the geometry package.

\setlength{\headheight}{0.6in} 
\setlength{\headsep}{25pt}
\setlength{\topmargin}{0pt}
\setlength{\footskip}{25pt}
\setlength{\marginparsep}{11pt}

The link How to avoid getting cropped marginpar? and the following code snippet may help you to understand how to set up the page layout.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage
[
        a4paper,% other options: a3paper, a5paper, etc
        left=1cm,
        right=2cm,
        top=3cm,
        bottom=4cm,
        % use vmargin=2cm to make vertical margins equal to 2cm.
        % us  hmargin=3cm to make horizontal margins equal to 3cm.
        % use margin=3cm to make all margins  equal to 3cm.
]
{geometry}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\end{document}

If you need more, drop a comment.

[Tex/LaTex] Page Numbers and Margins

Add includefoot to the keywords for geometry:

\usepackage[paperwidth=8.5in,paperheight=11.0in,
  left=1.5in,right=1.0in,top=1.0in,bottom=1.0in,
  includefoot,heightrounded]{geometry}

Adding also heightrounded is better, although it could slightly modify the top or bottom margin, because it ensures that an integer number of lines fits the text block.

Not that having those margins makes for a good layout, of course. But I understand that you can have some requirements to satisfy.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to set up the left/right margin of the page to 1 inch, the top/bottom one to ½ inch

[Tex/LaTex] Page Numbers and Margins

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