[Tex/LaTex] Reducing chapter and section spacing for scrbook

chapterskoma-scriptsectioningsections-paragraphsspacing

I'm using scrbook document class and using chapters and sections. The spacing between chapters and sections is quite large, too large for my taste (before and after the chapter and section). So my question is how can this spacing be reduced? (saw a few variants for non-KOMA document classes but those don't seem to work for this class).

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,BCOR10mm,DIV11,toc=listof,parskip=full]{scrbook}

\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{booktabs}            
\usepackage{multicol}      

\twocolumn
\raggedright
\Chapter{chap1}
\Section{sec1}
blaahblah
\Section{sec2}
Blah
\Chapter{chap2}
BlahBlah
\Chapter{chap3}
Blah

Edit:
After applying the changes that Werner mentioned I have the following phenomenon (the code excerpts and the screenshot are to show what I tried to describe in the comments):

"Species" is a chapter, "Applying" is a section, Advantages and Disadvantages are subsections each.

Code excerpt for the disadvantages (1 enter is before and after the subsection):

all perception rolls.

\subsection{Disadvantages}

\noindent\textbf{Bestial psychology and territorial instincts}: Dragons despite their intellect are part beast. This means that they have strong territo

Code excerpt for the chapter part:

\chapter{Species template}

\section{Applying the template}

\subsection{Advantages}

\noindent\textbf{Dragons bodies}: +5.....

enter image description here

Best Answer

In scrbook/scrreport, the skip before/at the end of a chapter is given by

\renewcommand*{\chapterheadstartvskip}{%
  \vspace*{2.3\baselineskip}%
}%
\renewcommand*{\chapterheadendvskip}{%
  \vspace{1.725\baselineskip
    \@plus .115\baselineskip \@minus .192\baselineskip}%
}%

Adjust them to your liking. In terms of \sections, the KOMA-script bundle still uses \@startsection (see Where can I find help files or documentation for commands like \@startsection for LaTeX?). Here's the definition for \section:

\newcommand\section{%
  \@startsection{section}{\sectionnumdepth}{\z@}%
  {-3.5ex \@plus -1ex \@minus -.2ex}%
  {2.3ex \@plus.2ex}%
  {\ifnum \scr@compatibility>\@nameuse{scr@v@2.96}\relax
    \setlength{\parfillskip}{\z@ plus 1fil}\fi
    \raggedsection\normalfont\sectfont\nobreak\size@section}%
}

Adjust the two rubber lengths (arguments #4 and #5 to \@startsection) to suit your needs.

Here is a minimal example where the mentioned lengths have been adjusted:

enter image description here

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,BCOR10mm,DIV11,toc=listof,parskip=full,twocolumn]{scrbook}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\chapterheadstartvskip}{\vspace{0pt}}
\renewcommand{\chapterheadendvskip}{\vspace{\baselineskip}}
% \patchcmd{<cmd>}{<search>}{<replace>}{<success>}{<failure>}
\patchcmd{\section}{-3.5ex \@plus -1ex \@minus -.2ex}{-\baselineskip}{}{}
\patchcmd{\section}{2.3ex \@plus .2ex}{.5\baselineskip}{}{}
\makeatother
\begin{document}

\raggedright
\chapter{chap1}
\section{sec1}
blaahblah
\section{sec2}
Blah
\chapter{chap2}
BlahBlah
\chapter{chap3}
Blah

\end{document}

Of course the above only references changes to \chapter and \section. You'd have to adjust lower-level sectional units in an analogous way. For example, here's an option to remove even more spacing around the sectional units, this time including that of \subsection:

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\chapterheadstartvskip}{\vspace{0pt}}
\renewcommand{\chapterheadendvskip}{\vspace{\baselineskip}}
% \patchcmd{<cmd>}{<search>}{<replace>}{<success>}{<failure>}
\patchcmd{\section}{-3.5ex \@plus -1ex \@minus -.2ex}{-\z@}{}{}
\patchcmd{\section}{2.3ex \@plus .2ex}{1sp}{}{}
\patchcmd{\subsection}{-3.25ex\@plus -1ex \@minus -.2ex}{-\z@}{}{}
\patchcmd{\subsection}{1.5ex \@plus .2ex}{1sp}{}{}
\patchcmd{\@xsect}{\ignorespaces}{\vspace*{-.5\baselineskip}\ignorespaces}{}{}
\makeatother

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] KOMA-Script scrbook: How to change V-space between chapter prefix and title

The scrbook class introduces an additional \vskip of .5\baselineskip between the heading "Chapter" and the title; unfortunately this skip is hard-coded, so you will have to redefine \@@makechapterhead to suppress it:

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper,oneside,chapterprefix=on]{scrbook}

%Margins
\usepackage[letterpaper,left=1.5in,top=1in,right=1in,bottom=1in]{geometry}

%Type
\usepackage{fontspec}
%\setmainfont{Times New Roman}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmathfont{xits-math.otf}
\usepackage[doublespacing]{setspace}
\setlength\parindent{0.5in}

\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{lipsum}

%Remove vertical space above/below chapter headings:
%http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/43087/remove-space-before-chapter-title-with-koma-      script-scrbook
\renewcommand*{\chapterheadstartvskip}{\vspace*{-\baselineskip}}
\renewcommand*{\chapterheadendvskip}{\vspace*{0in}}
\renewcommand*{\chapterformat}{\chapappifchapterprefix{\nobreakspace}\thechapter}

\setkomafont{disposition}{\normalcolor\rmfamily}
\setkomafont{chapter}{\centering\MakeUppercase}

\makeatletter
\renewcommand*{\@@makechapterhead}[1]{\chapterheadstartvskip
  {%
    \setlength{\parindent}{\z@}\setlength{\parfillskip}{\fill}%
    \normalfont\sectfont\nobreak\size@chapter{}%
    \if@chapterprefix
      \let\@tempa\raggedsection
    \else
      \let\@tempa\@hangfrom
    \fi
    \@tempa{\ifnum \c@secnumdepth >\m@ne%
        \if@mainmatter
          \if@chapterprefix
            \expandafter\size@chapterprefix
          \else
            \expandafter\size@chapter
          \fi
          {\chapterformat}%
          \if@chapterprefix
            \size@chapterprefix{}\endgraf\nobreak%\vskip\baselineskip
          \fi
        \fi
      \fi
    }%
    {\raggedsection \interlinepenalty\@M\size@chapter{#1}\par}}%
  \nobreak\chapterheadendvskip
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\frontmatter

\chapter*{Abstract Title Page}
\chapter*{Abstract}
\chapter*{Copright Page}
\chapter*{Title Page}

\tableofcontents
\listoffigures

\mainmatter

\chapter{Introduction}
\lipsum[1-2]
\appendix
\backmatter

\end{document}

enter image description here

With the etoolbox package, one can do this in one-line patching \@@makechapterhead:

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper,oneside,chapterprefix=on]{scrbook}

%Margins
\usepackage[letterpaper,left=1.5in,top=1in,right=1in,bottom=1in]{geometry}

%Type
\usepackage{fontspec}
%\setmainfont{Times New Roman}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmathfont{xits-math.otf}
\usepackage[doublespacing]{setspace}
\setlength\parindent{0.5in}

\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}

%Remove vertical space above/below chapter headings:
%http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/43087/remove-space-before-chapter-title-with-koma-      script-scrbook
\renewcommand*{\chapterheadstartvskip}{\vspace*{-\baselineskip}}
\renewcommand*{\chapterheadendvskip}{\vspace*{0in}}
\renewcommand*{\chapterformat}{\chapappifchapterprefix{\nobreakspace}\thechapter}

\setkomafont{disposition}{\normalcolor\rmfamily}
\setkomafont{chapter}{\centering\MakeUppercase}

\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@@makechapterhead}{\vskip.5\baselineskip}{}{}{}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\frontmatter

\chapter*{Abstract Title Page}
\chapter*{Abstract}
\chapter*{Copright Page}
\chapter*{Title Page}

\tableofcontents
\listoffigures

\mainmatter

\chapter{Introduction}
\lipsum[1-2]
\appendix
\backmatter

\end{document}

I commented out the line \setmainfont{Times New Roman} since I don't have that font in my system.

As egreg noticed in a comment, with the settings of the question, the heading "Chapter #" is slightly shifted to the left; to correct this, the following additional redefinition had to be added:

\renewcommand*{\chapterformat}{\chapappifchapterprefix{\nobreakspace}\thechapter}

[Tex/LaTex] Chapter and section number in margin and align chapter prefix with text in scrbook

Add the following definition for sections and alike

\renewcommand*\othersectionlevelsformat[3]{%
  \llap{#3\autodot\enskip}%
}

and change the definition of \chapterformat to

\renewcommand*{\chapterformat}{%
  {\fontsize{20}{30}\scshape\chapappifchapterprefix{}}%
  \fontsize{120}{30}\selectfont\rlap{\thechapter\autodot}%
}

MWE:

\documentclass[
  fontsize=12pt,
  BCOR=15mm,
  DIV=15,
  twoside=true,
  open=right,
  chapterprefix = true,
  headings=twolinechapter,
  headings=big,
]{scrbook}


\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Numbers = OldStyle,Ligatures = TeX,SmallCapsFeatures = {Renderer=Basic}]{Minion Pro}

\usepackage{anyfontsize}
\setkomafont{chapter}{\normalfont\Huge}
\renewcommand*{\chapterheadstartvskip}{\vspace*{5\baselineskip}}
\renewcommand*{\chapterheadendvskip}{\vspace*{2\baselineskip}}
\renewcommand*{\chapterformat}{%
  {\fontsize{20}{30}\scshape\chapappifchapterprefix{}}%
  \fontsize{120}{30}\selectfont\rlap{\thechapter\autodot}%
}
\renewcommand*{\raggedchapter}{\raggedleft}

\renewcommand*\othersectionlevelsformat[3]{%
  \llap{#3\autodot\enskip}%
}

\setkomafont{section}{\Large\rmfamily}

\usepackage{blindtext}

\begin{document}

\chapter{Hello World!}
\section{Section 1}
\blindmathpaper

\end{document}

Output:

enter image description here

UPDATE (KOMA-Script v3.17)

Starting with KOMA-Script v3.17, \othersectionlevelsformat doesn't work as before, so, instead of using

\renewcommand*\othersectionlevelsformat[3]{%
  \llap{#3\autodot\enskip}%
}

you will have to use

\renewcommand*{\sectionformat}{%
  \llap{\thesection\autodot\enskip}%
}

instead. If you also want that behavior for subsections, use

\renewcommand*{\subsectionformat}{%
  \llap{\thesubsection\autodot\enskip}%
}

and so on.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] KOMA-Script scrbook: How to change V-space between chapter prefix and title

[Tex/LaTex] Chapter and section number in margin and align chapter prefix with text in scrbook

UPDATE (KOMA-Script v3.17)

Related Question