[Tex/LaTex] from A4 paper to A5 and keeping the number of characters per line

marginspaper-size

I have written my thesis for A4 paper using the memoir class. I would like to print one version on A5 paper. Is there a way to reduce margins automatically in order to keep the same layout for the text?

I mean, I have for instance 70 characters per line, I would like to keep this number of characters per line by decreasing the size of the margin.

Thanks for your help.

edit: here is a picture of what I want to do (copy/paste in gimp):

original A4 paper

A5 paper (of course I want larger vecrtical margin, but the horizontal margins are perfect).

Best Answer

With geometry

a5paper

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{kantlipsum}
\usepackage[a5paper,textwidth=5in,textheight=7in]{geometry}
\begin{document}
  \kant[1-40]
\end{document}

enter image description here

a4paper

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{kantlipsum}
\usepackage[a4paper,textwidth=5in,textheight=7in]{geometry}
\begin{document}
  \kant[1-40]
\end{document}

enter image description here

I have just fixed the textwidth to be same for both versions. Adjust the textwidth and textheight as suitable to you and keep them same for both papers.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Margins and text size change when printing from external viewer (using Texmaker 3.1)

I tested it and everything is working perfect.

Probably Adobe Reader is causing your problem. Disable the scale to page feature in print settings and try again.

Next rime please reduce your MWE so that only the packages that are causing the error are represent.

[Tex/LaTex] Nicely force 66 characters per line

The statement about 2.5 times the length of the lowercase alphabet is just an indication. However you can play with geometry:

\documentclass{book}

%%\usepackage{newtxtext}
\newlength{\alphabet}
\settowidth{\alphabet}{\normalfont abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz}

\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{textwidth=2.5\alphabet,hmarginratio={2:3}}

\begin{document}
\the\textwidth
\end{document}

This will use a ratio for the margins as indicated (2:3 is actually the default, in twoside mode). Well behaved font packages should work correctly.

With the default fonts I get a textwidth of 318.96pt, while with newtxtext I get 298.58pt (with mathptmx the result is 298.57pt).

Notice that pslatex is a very obsolete package and that its descendant mathptmx is rather inadequate for serious typesetting involving math. If you don't need mathematics, other choices based on (Linotype) Times Roman are

newtxtext (based on txfonts, but with corrected metrics)
tgtermes

The former has the companion math package newtxmath.

You can choose whatever ratio you prefer for the margins. It's customary, in twoside printing, to have the outer margin wider than the inner one. If you want to automatize the choice between oneside printing (equal margins) and twoside, then

\geometry{textwidth=2.5\alphabet}
\makeatletter
\if@twoside
  \geometry{hmarginratio={2:3}}
\else
  \geometry{hmarginratio={1:1}}
\fi
\makeatother

could be used. The options for geometry can be given in distinct \geometry commands. Don't forget to specify the paper size (you can do it either in \geometry or as a class option).

You can also test the loaded class:

\makeatletter
\geometry{hmarginratio={1:1}} % fallback

\@ifclassloaded{book}
 {
  \if@twoside
    \geometry{hmarginratio={2:3}}
  \else
    \geometry{hmarginratio={1:1}}
  \fi
 }{}

\@ifclassloaded{article}
 {
  \if@twoside
    \geometry{hmarginratio={4:2}}
  \else
    \geometry{hmarginratio={1:1}}
  \fi
 }{}
\makeatletter

(the setting 4:2 is just by way of example).

However there's no "catch all" format: what you finally choose for a document depends on the document itself.

How to set the horizontal margin ratio to be equal to that fixed by the class? This is a bit difficult, because the standard setting uses a different model than geometry.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{newtxtext}
\usepackage{geometry}

\newlength{\alphabet}
\sbox0{\normalfont abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz}
\setlength{\alphabet}{\wd0}

\makeatletter
\begingroup
\dimendef\innermargin=\z@
\dimendef\outermargin=\tw@
\innermargin=\dimexpr\oddsidemargin+1in+\hoffset\relax
\outermargin=\dimexpr\paperwidth-\innermargin-\textwidth\relax
\outermargin=.002\outermargin
\innermargin=2\innermargin
\count@=\innermargin
\divide\count@ \outermargin
\xdef\standardhmarginratio{\number\count@:1000}
\endgroup

\geometry{textwidth=2.5\alphabet,hmarginratio=\standardhmarginratio}

\begin{document}

text width = \the\textwidth

horizontal margin ratio = \standardhmarginratio

\end{document}

With the article class we get 1000:1000, with book (twoside mode) the result is 667:1000 that's, for all practical purposes, 2:3.