[Tex/LaTex] Different textwidths on first and following pages with scrlttr2

marginsscrlttr2

Is it possible to have diverging values for \textwidth on the first page and all other pages.

On the first page I would like to set the width of the text to 12cm, on the following pages to 16cm.

\documentclass[ngerman,12pt]{scrlttr2}
\usepackage{babel,blindtext}

\setlength{\textwidth}{12cm}

\setkomavar{fromname}{Just me}
\setkomavar{fromaddress}{Just some place}

\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{Some one \\ Some Place}
\opening{fsdfsdafs}

\blindtext[5]

\closing{Best wishes}
\end{letter}
\end{document}

Best Answer

The basic technique is like this:

enter image description here

\documentclass[ngerman,12pt]{scrlttr2}
\usepackage{babel,blindtext}

\setlength{\textwidth}{16cm}

\setkomavar{fromname}{Just me}
\setkomavar{fromaddress}{Just some place}

\def\pshape#1{%
\parshape #1 \pshapexiicm{#1} 0pt 16cm }

\def\pshapexiicm#1{%
 \ifnum#1>1 0pt 12cm \expandafter
  \pshapexiicm\expandafter{\the\numexpr#1-1\expandafter\relax\expandafter}\fi}

\begin{document}



\begin{letter}{Some one \\ Some Place}
\opening{fsdfsdafs}

\pshape{26}
aaa\blindtext[5]

\closing{Best wishes}
\end{letter}
\end{document}

To make it more general you need to trap paragraph breaks and restart the new paragraph with a \parshape that has a reduced number of short lines, depending on how many lines you just did. (code could be stolen from the wrapfig package for that:-)

If however you have stretch parskip or anything else complicated on the page working out exactly how many short lines you need can be challenging.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Change page layout after first page

In the model that TeX uses there is no way to achieve your goal other than manually or in very very restricted contexts. As TeX is first generating paragraphs and only at the end of a paragraph checking whether or not to cut a page you will always end up on the second page with some part of the paragraph already been typeset (and thus to the width of the previous page).

You can achieve your goal by manually splitting the paragraph yourself (and effectively restarting a new one (with different settings afterwards)). I.e., if you know what the last word on the first page is you can put special command at this point, say, \EndOfFirstPage. The define this command in the preamble or in your class file as follows:

\newcommand\EndOfFirstPage{%
  \setlength\parfillskip{0pt}%  line should end at the right
  \par                       %  finish paragraph for now
  \setlength\parfillskip{0pt plus 1fil}% default again
  \pagebreak
   ...                        % <--- change your geometry settings here
  \noindent                   % new paragraph on the new page that claims to be
                              % a continuation
}

Of course, whenever you later change the text of the first page you may need to move the split point around. Or you could combine the above with your approach using the atbegshi package for setting the geometry and the \EndOfFirstPage only to produce the split. This has the advantage that the geometry would be nearly correct even if the command is not there to indicate the split (only the par at the page break wrong) and you could delay adding \EndOfFirstPage to a time when you are mostly done with the editing.

Automatic methods would involve keeping track of where you are on the page (how many more lines would fit) somehow capturing each paragraph untypeset, trial typesetting it to find out how long it would be, then if necessary generating a complex \parshape so that the lines of the last paragraph on the page change width on the page boundary.

Bottom line, such thing doesn't exist and it is not something that is in any way easy or even possible to be worked out reliably (non of the experts in the last 20 years overcame that limitation). We now think that we do have code for it in the LaTeX3 project but so far only an idea (and one that wouldn't work with current 2e's output routine, so this isn't going to help easily).

[Tex/LaTex] Change \textwidth after first page in scrlttr2

Here is now a working example. It still requires a manual \pagebreak in the main text of the letter, but according to explanations by @DavidCarlisle, see above, this is at good as it can get without resorting to more powerful systems like luatex.

\documentclass{scrlttr2}%
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{lipsum,afterpage}%
\setlength{\textwidth}{125mm}%
\firstfoot{%
  \afterpage{%
    \global\setlength{\textwidth}{17cm}%
    \global\setlength{\columnwidth}{\textwidth}%
    \global\setlength{\hsize}{\columnwidth}%
    \global\setlength{\linewidth}{\hsize}}%
}

\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{Receipient}
  \opening{Dear receipient,}
  \lipsum[1-2]
  \pagebreak % enfore the page break, otherwise afterpage will take
  % effect too late, i.e. after first broken paragraph on page 2.
  \lipsum[3-12]
  \closing{Yours}
\end{letter}
\end{document}

In this example the text body on the first page has a width of 12.5cm and on of 17cm on all following pages. If you want this to work in documents containing multiple letters, you should reset \textwidth on every "first page," e.g. using

\firsthead{%
    \global\setlength{\textwidth}{12.5cm}%
    \global\setlength{\columnwidth}{\textwidth}%
    \global\setlength{\hsize}{\columnwidth}%
    \global\setlength{\linewidth}{\hsize}%
}

in the preamble.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Change page layout after first page

[Tex/LaTex] Change \textwidth after first page in scrlttr2

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