This seems to be a duplicate of Spurious [?] vertical space introduced by multicols, but the solution from there does not seen to work for me. Basically I want the case of using multicols to not change the vertical spacing between the intro text and the list. The output on the right is using multicols:
There is also additional space following the multicols environment.
Notes:
- The
minipageenvironment was used to illustrate the problem. I don not believe that that is affecting the additional vertical space issue. - The
tikzpackage is used only to highlight the spacing issue.
Code:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{multicol}
\raggedcolumns
%\setlength{\multicolbaselineskip}{0pt}% Seems to have no effect
\begin{document}
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.44\linewidth}
The following are examples of numbers:
\begin{itemize}
\item 0ne,
\item $\pi$,
\item $2+3i$,
and
\item $0$.
\end{itemize}%
Some text following.
\end{minipage}%
\hfill%-------------------------
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.44\linewidth}
%% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/161966/spurious-vertical-space-introduced-by-multicols
%\setlength{\topskip}{\fontcharht\font`B }% Seems to have no effect
The following are examples of numbers:
\begin{multicols}{2}
\begin{itemize}
\item 0ne,
\item $\pi$,
\item $2+3i$,
\item $0$.
\item Two,
\item $e$,
\item $2-3i$,
and
\item $-0$.
\end{itemize}%
\end{multicols}
Some text following.
\end{minipage}%
% Following manually tweaked to show the problem.
\begin{tikzpicture}[overlay, remember picture]
\draw [red] (-11.5cm,-1.16cm) -- ++(4.8in,0);
\draw [blue] (-11.5cm,-1.86cm) -- ++(4.8in,0);
\draw [orange] (-11.5cm,-3.95cm) -- ++(4.8in,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
Results (2014-08-25)
Here is the output I get from Frank Mittelbach's MWE (note that the spacing for the text following is not correct):
Output from \listfiles:
I just updated all packages from TeXLive2014 prior to running the test. So, is one of my packages out of date, or is there a problem with the TeXLive2014 release:
*File List*
article.cls 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
size10.clo 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX file (size option)
tikz.sty 2013/12/13 v3.0.0 (rcs-revision 1.142)
pgf.sty 2013/12/18 v3.0.0 (rcs-revision 1.14)
pgfrcs.sty 2013/12/20 v3.0.0 (rcs-revision 1.28)
everyshi.sty 2001/05/15 v3.00 EveryShipout Package (MS)
pgfrcs.code.tex
pgfcore.sty 2010/04/11 v3.0.0 (rcs-revision 1.7)
graphicx.sty 2014/04/25 v1.0g Enhanced LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR)
keyval.sty 2014/05/08 v1.15 key=value parser (DPC)
graphics.sty 2009/02/05 v1.0o Standard LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR)
trig.sty 1999/03/16 v1.09 sin cos tan (DPC)
graphics.cfg 2010/04/23 v1.9 graphics configuration of TeX Live
pdftex.def 2011/05/27 v0.06d Graphics/color for pdfTeX
infwarerr.sty 2010/04/08 v1.3 Providing info/warning/error messages (HO)
ltxcmds.sty 2011/11/09 v1.22 LaTeX kernel commands for general use (HO)
pgfsys.sty 2013/11/30 v3.0.0 (rcs-revision 1.47)
pgfsys.code.tex
pgfsyssoftpath.code.tex 2013/09/09 (rcs-revision 1.9)
pgfsysprotocol.code.tex 2006/10/16 (rcs-revision 1.4)
xcolor.sty 2007/01/21 v2.11 LaTeX color extensions (UK)
color.cfg 2007/01/18 v1.5 color configuration of teTeX/TeXLive
pgfcore.code.tex
pgfcomp-version-0-65.sty 2007/07/03 v3.0.0 (rcs-revision 1.7)
pgfcomp-version-1-18.sty 2007/07/23 v3.0.0 (rcs-revision 1.1)
pgffor.sty 2013/12/13 v3.0.0 (rcs-revision 1.25)
pgfkeys.sty
pgfkeys.code.tex
pgfmath.sty
pgfmath.code.tex
pgffor.code.tex
tikz.code.tex
enumitem.sty 2011/09/28 v3.5.2 Customized lists
multicol.sty 2014/04/23 v1.8e multicolumn formatting (FMi)
etoolbox.sty 2011/01/03 v2.1 e-TeX tools for LaTeX
etex.sty 1998/03/26 v2.0 eTeX basic definition package (PEB)
supp-pdf.mkii
pdftexcmds.sty 2011/11/29 v0.20 Utility functions of pdfTeX for LuaTeX (HO)
ifluatex.sty 2010/03/01 v1.3 Provides the ifluatex switch (HO)
ifpdf.sty 2011/01/30 v2.3 Provides the ifpdf switch (HO)
epstopdf-base.sty 2010/02/09 v2.5 Base part for package epstopdf
grfext.sty 2010/08/19 v1.1 Manage graphics extensions (HO)
kvdefinekeys.sty 2011/04/07 v1.3 Define keys (HO)
kvoptions.sty 2011/06/30 v3.11 Key value format for package options (HO)
kvsetkeys.sty 2012/04/25 v1.16 Key value parser (HO)
etexcmds.sty 2011/02/16 v1.5 Avoid name clashes with e-TeX commands (HO)
epstopdf-sys.cfg 2010/07/13 v1.3 Configuration of (r)epstopdf for TeX Live
omscmr.fd 1999/05/25 v2.5h Standard LaTeX font definitions
Best Answer
If a list such as
itemizeis placed at the start of a minipage its usual vertical spacing before the list is omitted.Adding
multicolsthe way you did it is producing a box around theitemizelist just like a minipage and thus the\topsepis not added. Instead what you see is the\multicolsepwhich is added before and after themulticolenvironment.In article class (10pt)
\topsephas the value 8pt plus 2pt minus 4pt while\multicolsepis something like 12pt which accounts for (most) of the differences experienced. Thusshould in theory fix your problem.
However, your example also showed a glitch in multicols handling of
\prevdepthwhich accounts for 1.9994pt misalignment after the environment (happens happens only in "boxed" mode i.e. if the environment appears within a minipage or similar).So additionally you need patch one of the multicol internals for now:
With those two adjustements you should see the following:
As requested here is the full MWE, if that doesn't work at your end you may have an older version of
multicolperhaps, this was run with version 2014/06/19 v1.8f.Upate
A fix for this issue was added to
multicol1.8g. The new version is now on CTAN and should show up on distributions with update capabilities in a few days (once Heiko gets around providing the tls package).Note that a suitable setting for
\multicolsepis still necessary (and will always be).