Some times I see the use of \usepackage{showframe}, but other times I see the use of \usepackage[showframe]{geometry}. What is the difference between using one or the other? i.e., When I should use \usepackage{showframe} instead of \usepackage[showframe]{geometry}?
[Tex/LaTex] the difference between \usepackage{showframe} and \usepackage[showframe]{geometry}
geometrymargins
Related Solutions
The best way to check all the page parameters is to use the layouts package (written by Peter Wilson the same author of memoir) and used by the class to illustrate them in the manual.
There is no notion of top, bottom, left or right as defined by geometry (they are just convenience lengths for calculations and for author inputs). Similarly memoir offers some lengths that are not available clearly in geometry, such as \trimtop etc.
top is equivalent to \uppermargin in memoir, \headsep is a LaTeX length and available in both.
The page layout parameters can all be changed using the LaTeX \setlength command.
For example, to set the headsep=0pt, put this into the preamble:
\makeatletter
\setlength{\headsep}{0pt}
\makeatother
To view any dimension in a document just use the \showthe or \the macros. For example
to view the headsep values use \showthe\headsep or simply \the\headsep to print it.
See Page geometry discrepancies for a short macro to print all the lengths.
It does restore. But you haven't given the margin values earlier (hence default are chosen). Consider the following code:
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{xltxtra}
\usepackage{xgreek}
\usepackage[a4paper,margin=1in,showframe]{geometry}
\setsansfont{Arial}
\setmonofont{Courier New}
\setmainfont[Mapping=tex-text]{Times New Roman}
\begin{document}
\newgeometry{top=5.1cm} %% I increased for demo
\tableofcontents
\restoregeometry
\clearpage %% old habits die hard ;-)
\newpage %% just to show a second page
Some text
\end{document}
BTW don't load packages two times (e.g. graphicx).
Best Answer
If you run
framelines around the text-, header-, and footer-blocks will be drawn, and the text output will be
That's roughly 4.77" and 7.61", or 12.1cm and 19.3cm. The same dimensions would obtain if the
showframepackage weren't loaded at all.If, on the other hand, you run
you'll still get the framelines, but the textblock parameters are given by
That's roughly 5.95" and 7.70", or 15.1cm and 19.6cm.
There may also be differences in terms of the heights and widths of the header, footer, and margin blocks, but I haven't checked.