General ⇒ margin sizes

[psutton]

I am producing a newletter for the Open university students association, so far I have got 1 big block of text, and the rest is 2 column, what do find is that my margins are huge, just under 2 inches, while the top margin is at least 2 inches, I am using kile, the kde editor which is great,

Just wondered how do I change the margin size,

I am using the following site to help me, http://www.andy-roberts.net/misc/latex/ ... rial8.html
but am unsure from the information given how to alter the margin sizes, I am not even sure if I am using the right document class, really for a newsletter using columns.

thanks for any help

first part of my code is below ( i have removed some of the text, but replaced with other text to say what is going in that section, the document does compile get a few non serious errors which I am not worried about for the moment/



% multicol.tex - using the multicol package to handle multiple columns

%
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{multicol}
\setlength{\columnseprule}{1pt}

\begin{document}
\paragraph{}


\begin{center}
\textbf{Open University Students Association. \\Devon South Branch, Newsletter}\end{center}

\textsf{

big block of text
}

% By default, \columnseprule is 0pt, which means they are invisible, to
% change:
\setlength{\columnseprule}{1pt}

% If you feel the columns are too close together (default: 10pt), then
% redefine:
\setlength{\columnsep}{15pt}

\begin{multicols}{2}
\textbf{Committee}\\
\textsf{
my text as a list
}
\\
\textsf{
more text

[gmedina]

To change the margins, you can use the geometry package (read the package documentation). An example: add in the preamble

Code: Select all

\usepackage[lmargin=2cm,rmargin=2.5cm,tmargin=3cm,bmargin=2cm]{geometry}

You can, of course, use the values that you need.

[psutton]

I get geometry.sty not found, will look at settings though

[pfjorgeo]

Hello. If you can't make it with the geometry package, you can try this LaTeX primitive commands:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[...]{...}
\setlength{\textwidth}{15cm}           %Sets the width of the printable area of the page to 15cm
\setlength{\topmargin}{0cm}            %Space from the toprule to the top of the text (first line) to 0 cm.
\setlength{\footskip}{0cm}               %Space from the bottom of the text to the footnote (or footrule) to 0 cm.
\setlength{\marginparwidth}{0cm}     %Set the margin (marginal notes aside) width to 0 cm (no marginal notes).
\voffset-1cm                                  %Eliminates unnecesary vertical space.
\hoffset-1cm                                  %Eliminates unnecesary horizontal space.
     .
     .
     .
\begin{document}
     .
     .
     .
\end{document}

Remember you can use other unit of meassure such as inches (inch), points (pt), etc.

[psutton]

Thanks that, got it working the way I want, the document needs some fine tuning but I am getting there.

thanks again
Paul

[gmedina]

psutton, maybe you could take a look at the paperTeX class.

paperTEX class is a LATEX2" class that allows you to create a paperTEX newspaper. The output document has a front page and as many inner pages as desired. News appear one after another, telling the type, number of columns, heading,
subheading, images, author and so forth. It is possible to change the aspect of (almost) everything therefore it is highly customizable. Commands to add different titles, headings and footers are also provided.

The author is Ignacio Llopis. The package is Copyright © 2007 Ignacio Llopis.

Take a look at this example.

You can search the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN) for other useful classes.

Regarding the suggestion made by pfjorgeo, I already recommended you to read the l2tabu document.

[dimarcom]

Hi,

I read in l2tabu that the default LaTeX margins shouldn't be modified because they are good, and to use KOMA-scrbook if we use A4 paper.

Well... scrbook gives a huge bottom margin. How should i proceed to make it the same size as the header margin ?

thanks
marie.

[balf]

Basic LaTeX has large left and right margins because it takes into account the space required for marginal notes.

As for scrbook, it is quite normal that it has huge bottom margin: it's designed for producing book with a beautiful typography, not a newsletter. You really should install geometry if you don't have it: modifying layout parameters is not very simple, unless you know exactly what you're doing, as there are many parameters that are interdependent. With geometry you have a rather simple interface, you say what you want and the package computes the necessary parameters.

You also could take a look at the flowfram package, designed for typesetting 'posters, brochures and magazines'. There are several examples that demonstrate the possibilities of the package.

B.A.

[dimarcom]

Hi Balf,

Thanks for your advice. I've been reading the geometry documentation (http://www.tug.org/teTeX/tetex-texmfdis ... ometry.pdf) and tried many things. If i don't try to modify any of the parameters, the result is nice. I got the header/footer sizes i like just by defining \textheight.

Now the problem is that i'd like the outer margin to be 0.5 or 1cm smaller than the default. But any option i try doesn't respect the assymetry of the twoside anymore !? Here i put the bits of code i've been trying:

\usepackage[a4paper,twoside]{geometry}
%\usepackage[a4paper,twoside,outer=1cm]{geometry}
\textheight 23.5cm
%\textwidth 15.5cm
%\oddsidemargin -0.5cm
\evensidemargin -1cm

The attached image was obtained with \evensidemargin -1cm

Any advice ?
Thanks again,
Marie.

[localghost]

It would be much easier to give specific help if you tell us which margins or type area you want to have and which document class you are currently using.


Best regards
Thorsten¹