Latex and two-sided page margins

mintcoffee · 2008-05-27 06:05:22

Hi all, I'm using the Texlive distribution and I'm having a strange problem where the odd pages have a larger margin on the right side, when they should be larger on the left side when using the 'twoside' option.

Anyone have any clues? Maybe I'm not expecting the correct behaviour...

Here is a skeleton example..

\documentclass[titlepage,twoside,openright,final]{report}
\begin{document}
\begin{titlepage} \centering \Huge Title Page \end{titlepage}
%
\cleardoublepage
%
\centering\Huge \fbox{\begin{minipage}{1\textwidth}Odd page\\[40pt]Should be
  a right page, so the margin should be larger on the left?\end{minipage}}
  \cleardoublepage
%
\centering\Huge \fbox{\begin{minipage}{1\textwidth}Odd page\\[40pt]Should be
  a right page, so the margin should be larger on the left?\end{minipage}}
  \newpage

\centering\Huge \fbox{\begin{minipage}{1\textwidth}Even page\\[40pt]Should be
  a left page, so the margin should be larger on the right?\end{minipage}}
\end{document}

hennes · 2008-05-27 07:09:52

mintcoffee wrote:

Maybe I'm not expecting the correct behaviour...

No, I guess normally it's intended that way. The margin should be larger on the inner side to give enough space for binding. I checked some of my old protocols and noticed that I used the geometry package there to adjust the margins.

\usepackage[a4paper,inner=3.5cm,outer=2.5cm,top=2.5cm,bottom=2.5cm,pdftex]{geometry}

Abelian · 2008-05-27 08:59:33

There was definitely a simple option, but i cant remember what it was I will have a scout around some of my old latex documents and see what it was.

Ramses de Norre · 2008-05-27 11:10:13

It's all modifiable, example (put it in your preamble):

\topmargin -10mm
\textwidth 16truecm
\textheight 24truecm
\oddsidemargin 0mm
\evensidemargin 0mm

No need to load additional packages, this is basic stuff

mintcoffee · 2008-05-27 21:14:20

Thanks for all the tips . Indeed, the solution lies in modifying the margins of the page.

I've "solved' my problem by specifying a rmargin (outer margin when using twoside) with the geometry package.

\geometry{
rmargin=1in
}

However, I still don't understand why the right-facing page has a larger margin on the right with the default settings.

My reasoning is this: A right-facing page will be bound on the left... thus the gutter margin is on the left of a right-facing page, and right of a left-facing page. The margin should be larger on the gutter margin since the binding will remove some of the space.

bender02 · 2008-05-27 21:35:40

I've read somewhere that the wide margin is meant to be on the side opposite to gutter - the space is there for authors to make notes.

mintcoffee · 2008-05-27 22:22:20

bender02 wrote:

I've read somewhere that the wide margin is meant to be on the side opposite to gutter - the space is there for authors to make notes.

That makes a lot of sense. Now examining some of textbooks, it does indeed have a smaller gutter margin than the outer margins.

Stefan Husmann · 2008-05-28 19:46:01

Ramses de Norre wrote:

It's all modifiable, example (put it in your preamble):
\topmargin -10mm
\textwidth 16truecm
\textheight 24truecm
\oddsidemargin 0mm
\evensidemargin 0mm
No need to load additional packages, this is basic stuff

That is plain TeX. It is not advisable to use that in LaTeX. Using geometry is better.

If the inner margin is too wide, try koma-script with its class scrreprt and give an option like

\documentclass[...BCOR1cm...]{scrreprt}

Last edited by Stefan Husmann (2008-05-28 19:50:14)

bender02 · 2008-05-28 21:05:10

Stefan Husmann wrote:

That is plain TeX. It is not advisable to use that in LaTeX. Using geometry is better.

I think it's OK to use it; except there's about 10 of various length "variables" that depend on each other in a way that I never cared to understand properly. Geometry takes care of that for you, and moreover it has nice picture of what means what in its manual So my vote goes to geometry.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-05-27 06:05:22

Latex and two-sided page margins

#2 2008-05-27 07:09:52

Re: Latex and two-sided page margins

#3 2008-05-27 08:59:33

Re: Latex and two-sided page margins

#4 2008-05-27 11:10:13

Re: Latex and two-sided page margins

#5 2008-05-27 21:14:20

Re: Latex and two-sided page margins

#6 2008-05-27 21:35:40

Re: Latex and two-sided page margins

#7 2008-05-27 22:22:20

Re: Latex and two-sided page margins

#8 2008-05-28 19:46:01

Re: Latex and two-sided page margins

#9 2008-05-28 21:05:10

Re: Latex and two-sided page margins

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