[Tex/LaTex] Vertically centering text

articlehorizontal alignmentvertical alignment

I have a block of text that I want to be in the center of the page, i.e. there is the same amount of space between the top of the paper and the start of the bock and between the bottom of the paper and the end of the block.
The block has to be centered regardless of other blocks on the page

To be more specific, I want to write a letter that consists of two paragraphs, centered vertically on the page. There also has to be an address on the top, but I do not want this to influence the centering.

I want to achieve the effect from this question, but not for Beamer.

Best Answer

Try this:

\documentclass{article}% or book, report, etc
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1] % some text
\clearpage % go to next page.
\mbox{}
\vfill
\lipsum[2] % more text, vertically centered
\vfill
\mbox{}
\clearpage % go to next page
\lipsum[3] % yet more text
\end{document}

Or if you want the middle text centered with respect to the before and after texts then delete the two \clearpage and \mbox{} macros.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Centering cells of a tabular column using m{}

use tabularx with a redefinition of the X columntype, then you do not need the calc package:

\documentclass[a4paper,div=calc]{scrartcl}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{booktabs,tabularx}
\renewcommand\tabularxcolumn[1]{m{#1}}   
\begin{document}

\begin{tabularx}{0.5\linewidth}{>{\raggedleft}m{2.5em} X m{5.5em}}%
    \toprule\textbf{\#}&\textbf{Name}&\textbf{Notes}\\\midrule%
    A & Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit&\\
    B & An\newline even\newline higher\newline 
        row\newline with\newline linebreaks &         \\
    2 & Short Entry & 
    \\\bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] Text block near image

Here is a macro version of the type of alignment you are looking for:

enter image description here

With this approach, the names block at the top will stay at the top and grow downward as you add more names, the address block grows from the center of the image, and the bottom block grows upwards are you add more lines.

Further Enhancements

You could define another macro to place the text on the right side as well. Personally, I would use the xparse package to define a starred variant \AddImage* which places the text on the right.

Code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{tikz}

\usetikzlibrary{backgrounds}

\pgfdeclarelayer{background layer} 
\pgfdeclarelayer{foreground layer} 
\pgfsetlayers{background layer,main,foreground layer}

\newcommand{\AddImage}[5][]{%
    % #1 = options for bounding box
    % #2 = \includegraphics command for image
    % #3 = Names
    % #4 = Address
    % #5 = Other Text
    %
    \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{pgfonlayer}{foreground layer}% default
    \node [inner sep=0pt] (MyPictureNode) {#2};
    \node [anchor=north east, align=right] at (MyPictureNode.north west) {#3};
    \node [anchor=east, align=right] at (MyPictureNode.west) {#4};
    \node [anchor=south east, align=right] at (MyPictureNode.south west) {#5};
    \end{pgfonlayer}
    %
    \begin{pgfonlayer}{background layer}
    \draw [fill=gray!20, draw=brown, thick, #1]
        ([shift={(-3pt,-3pt)}]current bounding box.south west) rectangle 
        ([shift={( 3pt, 3pt)}]current bounding box.north east);
    \end{pgfonlayer}
    \end{tikzpicture}
}
\begin{document}
\AddImage
    {\includegraphics[width=70mm,height=50mm,keepaspectratio]{../images/EiffelWide.jpg}}
    {Name 1 \\ Name 2 \\ Name 3}
    {123 Main Street \\ Anytown, Country \\ Phone}
    {Some Text \\ More Text}

\AddImage[draw=blue, ultra thick, fill=red!25]
    {\includegraphics[width=70mm,height=50mm,keepaspectratio]{../images/EiffelWide.jpg}}
    {Name 1 \\ Name 2 \\ Name 3}
    {123 Main Street \\ Anytown, Country \\ Phone}
    {Some Text \\ More Text}
\end{document}