[Tex/LaTex] Squeezing scientific paper to fit within page limits

spacing

I am submitting a paper to a conference that has a limit of 10 pages. I have edited and edited the text, but the paper still fills 11 pages, and I am reluctant to remove anything. What tricks can I use to make the paper fit in 10 pages?

I know about \vspace{-1mm}, but are other and better tricks? How can I squeeze a little bit between lines, around the elements produced by \maketitle, around headlines, etc. in a way that is consistent and does not look too ugly? Is it possible to reduce the font size from 11 points to, say, 10.9?

(This should be community wiki, but I don't have enough rep yet.)

Best Answer

Keep in mind that by doing this you will be doing one or more of the following: annoying the reviewers, making your paper less readable, shooting yourself in the foot. I've been know to play these tricks when I need to reduce it by a line or two, but 10% is pushing the limits. Its even worse if its a grant proposal. It may just be rejected out of hand, with no recourse. Part of being a good researcher is knowing how to write concisely, and knowing what can be left out.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to fit the table of contents into a single page

Add the following code line in the main text immediately before the chapter/section entry that starts a new ToC page:

\addtocontents{toc}{\protect\enlargethispage{\baselineskip}}

This will enlarge the first ToC page by the value of \baselineskip (i.e. one line), which should make the last ToC entry fit on this page.

EDIT: For top-level-entries (e.g. chapters in books) that add some vertical space before their respective ToC entry, a larger value (say, 2\baselineskip) may be needed.

EDIT 2: I have no satisfying answer why the page number is still positioned the way it is, but a workaround. Ignore my first answer and instead add the following to your preamble:

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\l@chapter}{1.0em}{0.8em}{}{}
\makeatother

This will reduce the vertical space between chapter ToC entries from 1.0em to 0.8em, which hopefully is enough to make your ToC fit on one page.

EDIT 3: And here's a "satisfying" answer for the observed behaviour of my first solution -- quoting from source2e:

\enlargethispage{<dim>} [a]dds <dim> to the height of the current column only. On the printed page the bottom of this column is extended downwards by exactly <dim> without having any effect on the placement of the footer; this may result in an overprinting.

[Tex/LaTex] Stretching an \fbox horizontally to fit the page

{\setlength\parindent{0pt}
Komentar: \fbox{ %< there is a space here
 %< Doesn't introduce a space but never allocate a register inside a group
    \newlength\mylength 
    \setlength\mylength{\hsize - \widthof{Komentar: }} %< there is a space here
    \begin{minipage}[t]{\mylength}
        \hfill
        \vspace{8cm}
    \end{minipage} %< there is a space here
}

so on the line you have Komentar: and an fbox with content that is

\hsize - \widthof{Komentar: } + 2 word spaces

wide so the width of that box taking into account the rules and padding is

\hsize - \widthof{Komentar: } + 2 word spaces + 2\fboxsep + 2\fboxrule

Probably you want to comment out the ends of lines with % to avoid adding spurious space, and to account for 2\fboxsep + 2\fboxrule in the width of the box.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to fit the table of contents into a single page

[Tex/LaTex] Stretching an \fbox horizontally to fit the page

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