[Tex/LaTex] Strict \titlespacing without glue

sectioningspacingtitlesec

Problem Description

TeX seems to adjust the vertical space in a 2-column document, even though I have specified that no stretching or shrinking is to occur using \titlespacing. A short visualization is given under (a) in the Figure below:

(a) Minimal Working Example showing that \titlespacing..{12pt}{0pt} is not applied (b) Real case in which this occurs, not included as source.

Even though I specify e.g. \titlespacing{\section}{0pt}{**12pt**}{**0pt**}, there seems to be a vertical layout that will stretch out the spacing between headings, which is unacceptable, at least for the specific conference style I have to fulfill.

Question

Can I get rid of this "vertical justification"? Any possible explanations are more than welcome. Here is my MWE that reproduces the behaviour (Note: I am using xelatex, but using latex yields the same behaviour):

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\makeatletter
\usepackage{multicol}
% ----important----
\usepackage[noindentafter]{titlesec}
\titlespacing{\section}{0pt}{12pt}{0pt} 
\titlespacing{\subsection}{0pt}{10pt}{0pt}
\titlespacing{\subsubsection}{0pt}{3pt}{0pt}
% -----------------
\makeatother
\begin{document}
  \title{Foo Bar 2013: A personal journey through a typographic nightmare.}
  \author{Waldorf A. and Stattler B.}
  \maketitle
  \begin{abstract}
  this would in fact be longer, thus we make a space here
  \vspace{10cm}
  \end{abstract}
  \begin{multicols}{2}
  \section*{first order heading}
  All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost. The old that is     
  strong does not wither.
  \section*{first order heading}
  \subsection*{second order heading}
  Deep roots are not reached by the frost.  
  \section*{first order heading}
  \subsection*{second order heading}
  From the ashes a fire shall be woken. A light from the shadows shall spring. Renewed 
  shall be blade that was broken. The crownless again shall be king.
  \section*{first order heading}
  \subsection*{second order heading}
  \subsubsection*{third order heading}
  Not all that have fallen are vanquished. A king may yet be without crown. A blade 
  that was broken be brandished. 
  \end{multicols}
\end{document}

References

I have seen questions that deal with the topic, but none that really helped:

  • What is Glue Stretching says that "any glue is composed by a fixed part, a stretchable part and a shrinkable part. Each of these parts can be zero … expressed via <fixed part> plus <stretchable part> minus <shrinkable part>. Tried that, but no luck – problem persists.

  • Read somewhere (I don't exactly recall where, to my shame!) that you should try specifying e.g. -0 as "space after", i.e. \titlespacing{\section}{0pt}{12pt}{-0}. No luck.

Best Answer

Thanks to Steven B. Segletes and his pointers in the comments above, I have found a way and want to share it here:

\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}

and maybe also

\setlength{\textfloatsep}{0pt}

yielded the intended (and arguably boring) layout:

no glue, yipee

thank you!

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