[Tex/LaTex] How to reclaim space from removing headers and footers

fancyhdrheader-footermargins

I'm using the fancyhdr for headers and footers in most of my document, however there are some pages, such as the title page, for which headers and footers aren't wanted, and for these pages I've set

\pagestyle{empty}

However LaTeX still sets aside space for the nonexistent header and nonexistent footer on these pages, meaning that I can't use that space for title page elements, or for example text on the imprint page that I want to be allowed to extend down closer to the bottom of the page.

How can I reduce the header and footer to zero, but only locally on selected pages (preferably a range of pages) where a header and footer aren't required, and without affecting the other pages where a header and footer are used?

Best Answer

You should probably use \thispagestyle{empty} rather than \pagestyle. To overprint the header space you can use

\vspace*{-20pt}%
\enlargethispage{40pt}%

where the first line moves everything up overprinting the top, and the second line increases the page body. Choose lengths to suit your requirements.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Fancyhdr adding multiline header causes footer margin to be inconsistent

With the second example, I get the warning

Package Fancyhdr Warning: \headheight is too small (12.0pt): 
 Make it at least 46.54448pt.
 We now make it that large for the rest of the document.
 This may cause the page layout to be inconsistent, however.

Solution:

\usepackage[height=9in,width=7in,headheight=48pt,heightrounded]{geometry}

(or 46.6pt, I prefer a multiple of \baselineskip. The addition of heightrounded is not related to the problem, but it's better to always use it.

When the document class is article (one sided), geometry applies some heuristics for setting the unspecified lengths. Since you just specify the text height to 9in, it will divide the space at the top and bottom according to a 2:3 ratio; thus the space above is 0.8in.

The default value of \headsep is 25pt; it's the distance from the baseline of the header to the top of the text block. With a \headheight of 48pt, it makes 73pt, which is slightly more than 1 inch, so part of the header will disappear above the top of the paper.

Since you need 48pt for the header, you have to adjust also other parameters. Let's say you want 18pt (1/4 in) above the header and also a reduced \headsep, say 12pt. Then adding

top=78in,

will do, because 18+48+12=78. Of course, the text block will be shifted down.

Complete example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[
  height=9in,      % height of the text block
  width=7in,       % width of the text block
  top=78pt,        % distance of the text block from the top of the page
  headheight=48pt, % height for the header block
  headsep=12pt,    % distance from the header block to the text block
  heightrounded,   % ensure an integer number of lines
  showframe,       % show the main blocks
  verbose,         % show the values of the parameters in the log file
]{geometry}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhf{} % clear all fields

\fancyhead[L]{Left Header \\ 2nd left header \\ 3rd left header \\ 4th left header}
\fancyhead[R]{Right Header \\ 2nd right header \\ \  \\ Skipped 3rd}
\fancyfoot[C]{\thepage}
\fancyfoot[R]{\textit{Left footer}}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}

\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-20]
\end{document}

With showframe some hairlines will outline the main blocks, with verbose the computations will be shown in the log file.

enter image description here

The documentation of the geometry package is very extensive. Here is a link, but you can surely find it on your system (texdoc geometry from a command line).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Fancyhdr adding multiline header causes footer margin to be inconsistent

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