[Tex/LaTex] vertical space after algorithm

algorithmsspacing

I am using the usual algorithm package for a paper. However, LaTeX puts too much vspace below algorithms. I have already reduced \floatsep, \textfloatsep and \intextsep but it does not seem to help. For figures, I can use negative \vspaces after the figure to get less space after it. However, this does not work for algorithms as there is a line displayed below the algorithm. If I use a negative vspace in the algorithm environment, the line gets pulled into the pseudocode.

Thus, both answers which were posted for this question:

How to remove/change the vertical spacing before and after an \algorithm environment?

do not work.

How to fix this?

Best Answer

The layouts documentation (section 6.2 Detailed float layout, p 25) describes the possible lengths influencing the vertical space between floats and text body elements:

  • \textfloatsep - between top and bottom-aligned float and text body (default is 20\p@ \@plus 2\p@ \@minus 4\p@); and
  • \intextsep - between float and text for other floats (default is 12\p@ \@plus 2\p@ \@minus 2\p@).

The defaults for these are set in latex.ltx. Both these lengths have glue (meaning they can stretch/shrink). Here's a graphic from layouts showing the lengths involved.

enter image description here

Here's an incidental view on a change in \textfloatsep from the default to 0pt with an example from the algorithmicx package:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum
\usepackage{algorithm}% http://ctan.org/pkg/algorithms
\usepackage{algpseudocode}% http://ctan.org/pkg/algorithmicx
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-2]
\begin{algorithm}[t]
  \begin{algorithmic}[1]
    \Procedure{Euclid}{$a,b$}\Comment{The g.c.d. of a and b}
    \State $r\gets a\bmod b$
    \While{$r\not=0$}\Comment{We have the answer if r is 0}
      \State $a\gets b$
      \State $b\gets r$
      \State $r\gets a\bmod b$
    \EndWhile\label{euclidendwhile}
    \State \textbf{return} $b$\Comment{The gcd is b}
    \EndProcedure
  \end{algorithmic}
  \caption{Euclid’s algorithm}\label{euclid}
\end{algorithm}
\lipsum[3-6]
\setlength{\textfloatsep}{0pt}% Remove \textfloatsep
\begin{algorithm}[t]
  \begin{algorithmic}[1]
    \Procedure{Euclid}{$a,b$}\Comment{The g.c.d. of a and b}
    \State $r\gets a\bmod b$
    \While{$r\not=0$}\Comment{We have the answer if r is 0}
      \State $a\gets b$
      \State $b\gets r$
      \State $r\gets a\bmod b$
    \EndWhile\label{euclidendwhile}
    \State \textbf{return} $b$\Comment{The gcd is b}
    \EndProcedure
  \end{algorithmic}
  \caption{Euclid’s algorithm}\label{euclid}
\end{algorithm}
\end{document}

Note the visible difference in the vertical space below algorithm.

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