How to reduce the margins and spacings in this document

Question

I'm using the res.cls to create a one-page CV (I know, res.cls is old, but I prefer its layout). Since the CV is one-page only, I need to squeeze some more space for its content. This is what I have now:

\documentclass[line, margin]{res}

\usepackage{url}
\oddsidemargin -.5in
\evensidemargin -.5in
\textwidth=6.0in
\itemsep=0in
\parsep=0in
\newcommand{\sbt}{\,\begin{picture}(-1,1)(-1,-3)\circle*{2.6}\end{picture}\ }
% if using pdflatex:
\setlength{\pdfpagewidth}{\paperwidth}
\setlength{\pdfpageheight}{\paperheight} 

\newenvironment{list1}{
  \begin{list}{\ding{113}}{%
      \setlength{\itemsep}{0in}
      \setlength{\parsep}{0in} \setlength{\parskip}{0in}
      \setlength{\topsep}{0in} \setlength{\partopsep}{0in} 
      \setlength{\leftmargin}{0.17in}}}{\end{list}}
\newenvironment{list2}{
  \begin{list}{$\bullet$}{%
      \setlength{\itemsep}{0in}
      \setlength{\parsep}{0in} \setlength{\parskip}{0in}
      \setlength{\topsep}{0in} \setlength{\partopsep}{0in} 
      \setlength{\leftmargin}{0.2in}}}{\end{list}}


\begin{document}

\name{SURNAME, Forename \vspace*{.1in}}

\begin{resume}
\section{\sc {\bf Contact}}
\vspace*{.05in}
\begin{tabular}{@{}p{2.6in}p{4in}}
Address line 1 & Phone:  0123456789\\           
Address line 2 & E-mail:  someone@somewhere.com\\
Address line 3\\
Address line 4
\end{tabular}

\section{\sc {\bf Education}}
School Name\\ 
\vspace*{-.1in}
\begin{list1}
\item[] Degree Name
\begin{list2}
\vspace*{.05in}
\item[\sbt] Note 1: blah blah
\item[\sbt] Note 2: blah blah blah
\end{list2}
\vspace*{.05in}
\end{list1}

\end{resume}
\end{document}

I specifically want to change the margins and spacings of the current layout as the following:

Reduce the top margin (the space between the top-edge of the page and the name) to roughly 1/2 of what it is now. Correspondingly, reduce the bottom margin to be equal to the top margin, and get rid of the page number.
Reduce the right margin (the space between the right-end of the horizontal line and the right-edge of the page) slightly, so that the left and right margins are equal.

I've tried using the geometry package, but it seems to mess up the layout completely and many of the margin settings do not seem to have any effect too. How should I configure my document to achieve both requirements above?

Have you tried anysize? The spacing between the sections might be changed using simply \vspace*{-<height>}, or look at http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/4999/change-whitespace-above-and-below-a-section-heading. — Betohaku, Apr 22 '13 at 16:40
@Betohaku, thanks for the suggestions. indeed, i can tweak them individually using \vspace*, so i've updated the question. — Skyork, Apr 22 '13 at 18:28
Try \pagestyle{empty} for the page number btw. And really, you should try the anysize package, just put \marginsize{<top>}{<bottom>}{<left>}{<right>} in the preamble. — Betohaku, Apr 22 '13 at 20:10
In res.cls it's clearly written not to use \textwidth. However it's not written how to modify the parameters, either. — egreg, Apr 22 '13 at 22:06
@Betohaku, just tried anysize package, it worked! it does require some trial-and-error with the individual parameters, especially that i had to use different amounts for the left and right margins to make the the page body centered but that's probably due to some conflict with the res.cls. Could you make your comments into an answer and I will approve it. Thanks! — Skyork, Apr 22 '13 at 22:25
@Skyork I have also included the topic on spacing around section headers etc, just to make it more complete. — Betohaku, Apr 23 '13 at 06:24

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Two often used packages to tweak the margins of a page are anysize and geometry, and since geometry seems to have some conflicts with your document class, I would like to suggest the use of anysize as follows:

\usepackage{anysize}
\marginsize{left}{right}{top}{bottom}

As Wikipedia explains in more detail, you can also use things like \pagewidth, \paperwidth etc instead of \textwidth to make the sizes relative.

To add some (negative) space at random places in your document, you could use \vspace*{-<height>}, play with \addtolength, or look at Change whitespace above and below a section heading.

Finally, to get rid of the page number, try \pagestyle{empty}.

EDIT: You can use the package layout with the command \layout{} (preferably just below the \begin{document}) to check your dimensions - it will add an extra page with a detailed example page.

How to reduce the margins and spacings in this document

1 Answers1