ccoleman@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Chuck Coleman) (07/24/90)
I seem to be having a recurrent problem with LaTeX - I can't get decent margins on 8 1/2" x 11" paper. LaTeX gives me margins that are too wide on all sides. I tried the manual's commands and some Plain TeX tricks to no effect. I wish I remembered what I did 4 years ago. Anyway, I could use a preamble to produce 1" margins on all sides. I use the article documentstyle. My installation is an Ultrix VAX running LaTeX v 2.09, dated 25 Jan 88, documentstyle article dated 5 Feb 88 and TeX for Berkeley UNIX [sic] v. 2.9, dated 28 of something. I have had the same trouble with VAX/VMS and IBM-PC versions. Thanks in advance. Chuck Coleman "Sorry, no concluding witticism" School: Work: Center for Study of Public Choice NPA Data Services, Inc. George Mason University 1424 16th St. N.W. Suite 700 4400 University Drive Washington, DC 20036 Fairfax, VA 22030 (202) 265-7685 BITNET: ccoleman@GMUVAX Internet: ccoleman@gmuvax2.gmu.edu
dhosek@sif.claremont.edu (Hosek, Donald A.) (07/24/90)
In article <1905@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>, ccoleman@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Chuck Coleman) writes... >I seem to be having a recurrent problem with LaTeX - I can't get >decent margins on 8 1/2" x 11" paper. LaTeX gives me margins that are >too wide on all sides. I tried the manual's commands and some Plain >TeX tricks to no effect. I wish I remembered what I did 4 years ago. >Anyway, I could use a preamble to produce 1" margins on all sides. I >use the article documentstyle. My installation is an Ultrix VAX >running LaTeX v 2.09, dated 25 Jan 88, documentstyle article dated 5 >Feb 88 and TeX for Berkeley UNIX [sic] v. 2.9, dated 28 of something. >I have had the same trouble with VAX/VMS and IBM-PC versions. Thanks >in advance. Think really hard about whether you *really* want to do this or not. 6.5" lines are very hard to read in most text typesizes. 12pt is borderline and 11pt is only workable if the text is doublespaced. 10pt is out of the question at this size under all circumstances (standard practice for setting line widths is to go on the basis of word count (10-15 words per line) lines going longer than this can be made more readable by increasing interline spacing). If you have no binding reason to change the margins, don't do it. The default margins of LaTeX are designed for optimum readability. If you absolutely feel you *must* change the margins to standard 1 inch margins, the style option fullpage.sty in [anonymous.tex.inputs.latex-contrib] will do what you want, but I wash my hands of the matter. -dh --- Don Hosek TeX, LaTeX, and Metafont Consulting and dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu production work. Free Estimates. dhosek@ymir.bitnet uunet!jarthur!ymir Phone: 714-625-0147