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authorKarl Berry <karl@freefriends.org>2005-12-29 00:31:48 +0000
committerKarl Berry <karl@freefriends.org>2005-12-29 00:31:48 +0000
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+<head>
+<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label changemargin</title>
+</head><body>
+<h3>Changing the margins in LaTeX</h3>
+<p>Changing the layout of a document's text on the page involves several
+subtleties not often realised by the beginner. There are interactions
+between fundamental TeX constraints, constraints related to the
+design of LaTeX, and good typesetting and design practice, that
+mean that any change must be very carefully considered, both to ensure
+that it "works" and to ensure that the result is pleasing to the
+eye.
+<p>Lamport's warning to beginners in his section on 'Customizing the
+Style' - "don't do it" - needs to be taken seriously. One-inch
+margins on A4 paper are fine for 10- or 12-pitch typewriters, but not
+for 10pt (or even 11pt or 12pt) type because readers find such wide,
+dense, lines difficult to read: there should ideally be no more than
+75 characters per line (though the constraints change for two-column
+text).
+<p>The 'ultimate' tool for adjusting the dimensions and position of the
+printed material on the page is the <i>geometry</i> package; a very
+wide range of adjustments of the layout may be relatively
+straightforwardly programmed, and package documentation is good and
+comprehensive.
+<p>Somewhat simpler to use is the <i>vmargin</i> package, which has a
+canned set of paper sizes (a superset of that provided in LaTeX2e),
+provision for custom paper, margin adjustments and provision for
+two-sided printing.
+<p>LaTeX controls the page layout with a number of parameters, which
+allow you to change the distance from the edges of a page to the left
+and top edges of your typeset text, the width and height of the text,
+and the placement of other text on the page. However, they are
+somewhat complex, and it is easy to get their interrelationships wrong
+when redefining the page layout. The layout package defines a
+<code>\</code><code>layout</code> command which draws a diagram of your existing page
+layout, with the dimensions (but not their interrelationships) shown.
+This FAQ recommends that you use a package to establish
+consistent settings of the parameters: the interrelationships are
+taken care of in the established packages, without you needing to
+think about them.
+<p>If you're still eager to "do it yourself", start by familiarising yourself
+with LaTeX's page layout parameters. For example, see section C.5.3 of the
+LaTeX manual (pp. 181-182), or corresponding sections in many of the other
+good LaTeX manuals (see <a href="FAQ-books.html">LaTeX books</a>).
+<p>The text height and width, <code>\</code><code>textheight</code> and <code>\</code><code>textwidth</code>,
+require more care than you might expect: the height should be set to
+fit an integral number of text lines, and the width should be
+constrained by the number of characters per line, as mentioned above.
+<p>Margins are controlled by three parameters. The pair
+<code>\</code><code>oddsidemargin</code> and <code>\</code><code>evensidemargin</code> are so-called because it
+is conventionally taken that odd-numbered pages appear on the
+right-hand side of a two-page spread ('recto') and even-numbered pages
+on the left-hand side ('verso'). Both parameters refer to the
+left-hand margin; the right-hand margin is specified by implication,
+from the size of <code>\</code><code>textwidth</code> and the width of the paper. The
+"origin" (the zero position) on the page is one inch from the top of
+the paper and one inch from the left side; positive horizontal
+measurements extend right across the page, and positive vertical
+measurements extend down the page. Thus, the parameters
+<code>\</code><code>evensidemargin</code>, <code>\</code><code>oddsidemargin</code> and <code>\</code><code>topmargin</code>, should
+be set to be 1 inch less than the true margin; for margins closer to
+the left and top edges of the page than 1 inch, the margin parameters
+must be set to negative values.
+<p>Another surprise is that you cannot change the width or height of the
+text within the document, simply by modifying the text size
+parameters. The simple rule is that the parameters should only be
+changed in the preamble of the document, i.e., before the
+<code>\</code><code>begin{document}</code> statement. To adjust text width within a
+document we define an environment:
+<blockquote>
+<pre>
+\newenvironment{changemargin}[2]{%
+ \begin{list}{}{%
+ \setlength{\topsep}{0pt}%
+ \setlength{\leftmargin}{#1}%
+ \setlength{\rightmargin}{#2}%
+ \setlength{\listparindent}{\parindent}%
+ \setlength{\itemindent}{\parindent}%
+ \setlength{\parsep}{\parskip}%
+ }%
+ \item[]}{\end{list}}
+</pre>
+</blockquote>
+This environment takes two arguments, and will indent the left and
+right margins, respectively, by the parameters' values. Negative
+values will cause the margins to be narrowed, so
+<code>\</code><code>begin{changemargin}{-1cm}</code>{-1cm} narrows the left and right
+margins by 1cm.
+<p>The <i>chngpage</i> package provides ready-built commands to do the
+above; it includes provision for changing the shifts applied to your
+text according to whether you're on an odd or an even page of a
+two-sided document. The package's documentation (in the file itself)
+suggests a strategy for changing text dimensions between pages - as
+mentioned above, changing the text dimensions within the body of a
+page may lead to unpredictable results.
+<dl>
+<dt><tt><i>chngpage.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/misc/chngpage.sty">macros/latex/contrib/misc/chngpage.sty</a>
+<dt><tt><i>geometry.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/geometry.zip">macros/latex/contrib/geometry</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/geometry.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/geometry/">browse</a>)
+<dt><tt><i>layout.sty</i></tt><dd>Distributed as part of <a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/required/tools.zip">macros/latex/required/tools</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/required/tools.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/required/tools/">browse</a>)
+<dt><tt><i>vmargin.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/vmargin.zip">macros/latex/contrib/vmargin</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/vmargin.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/vmargin/">browse</a>)
+</dl>
+<p><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=changemargin">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=changemargin</a>
+</body>