Problem with \maketitle: "there's no line here to end"

Question

I'm using MiKTeX 2.9 and i'm new to TeX.

Simplified, I have this code:

\newcommand{\aone}{Anna}
\newcommand{\atwo}{Bob}
\newcommand{\topic}{Tpoic}
\subject{University \\ Paper}
\title{ \\topic\\ suubtitle}
\author{\aone\and \atwo}
\begin{document}
\begin{titlepage}
\maketitle
\end{titlepage}
\end{document}

Error:

There's no line here to end. \end (at \end{titlepage})

Log:

l.7 \end{titlepage}

What can be the problem? I have exclude the titlepage, all seems ok. I have no idea.

Commonly when using \maketitle you do not need to enclose it in a titlepage-environment. just writing \maktitle should do the trick — Martin H, Mar 08 '13 at 10:25
If you want to hack your way into a vertically shifted title, you can put a \vskip1em at the beginning of your title instead of a newline \\. (Optionally, replace the 1em part with the amount by which you want the title to be shifted downwards). — bencarabelli, Mar 08 '13 at 10:42
please post it as answer, so i can accept. the problem was indeed the "\". Thanks alot — MemLeak, Mar 08 '13 at 11:13
The titlepage environment is misleadingly useless imho: What does the titlepage environment do and what are its benefits? — doncherry, Apr 07 '13 at 16:19
Check out this page about titlepage in KOMA script. It's in german but it covers most of your ideas and should also be applicable to other documentclasses (maybe with some minor tweeks). — Oliver, Mar 08 '13 at 11:06

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

The first \\ in \title is the source of the error. Remove it and your code becomes compilable. You should check this out for more insight into how \\ is used.

I understand that you used \\ in \title as an attempt to customise the formatting of the title on the title page. However, it's good practice to do most of the formatting of the title page by either redefining the \maketitle command "manually" (the original definition is usually found in the .cls file) or using the titling package.

Final note: as pointed out by @MartinH in his comment, a titlepage environment is already used in the definition of the \maketitle command ; therefore, there is no need to enclose \maketitle inside another titlepage environment, as you did in your code.

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\newcommand{\aone}{Anna}
\newcommand{\atwo}{Bob}
\newcommand{\topic}{Tpoic}
\subject{University \\ Paper}
\title{topic\\ suubtitle}
\author{\aone\and \atwo}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}

enter image description here

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 24 '19 at 11:45

3

This is not directly related to the OPs question, but I had a similar issue while invoking a template file to make the cover page of my document.

If the error is generated on the line that invokes the template file, it probably means that you haven't specified/used all the fields that are specified by the template.

So when you use the file, the undefined parameters would be blank lines and their associated // line termination characters will generate a no line here to end error.

answered Mar 24 '19 at 11:45

ijuneja

267
2
13

1

Nice general answer. I'm using the apa6 document style, and had a field blank in the \twoauthors environment. You solved my problem. – FredrikH-R Nov 19 '19 at 20:40
@DJHellduck Glad I could help – ijuneja Nov 19 '19 at 20:56
1

This helped me too. I'm using wiley-article.cls and I was getting this error upon \end{frontmatter} which had nothing to do with the problem. As this solution states, the problem was that I had removed an earlier field (specifically, \corraddress{...}), and putting it back in fixed the problem! – MD004 Jul 26 '22 at 19:03

Problem with \maketitle: "there's no line here to end"

2 Answers2