How to change margin of the document title?

Question

I want to move the title of my document up in order to save space. I can't figure out how to do this.

This is what I have in LyX

And this is how it shows up in PDF. I'd like to move it up.

Answer 1

Within the default Article (Standard Class) (see you Document > Settings... > Document Class tab), the Title (Author and Date) is set using a macro called \@maketitle (inside article.cls. This is what that macro looks like:

\def\@maketitle{%
  \newpage
  \null
  \vskip 2em%
  \begin{center}%
  \let \footnote \thanks
    {\LARGE \@title \par}%
    \vskip 1.5em%
    {\large
      \lineskip .5em%
      \begin{tabular}[t]{c}%
        \@author
      \end{tabular}\par}%
    \vskip 1em%
    {\large \@date}%
  \end{center}%
  \par
  \vskip 1.5em}

You'll note that it inserts a \newpage, then sets \null (consider it just something to "start the page") and inserts a vertical skip of 2em, before starting to set the actual title (inside a centered environment).

You can get rid of this vertical skip by adding the following to your Document > Settings... > LaTeX Preamble:

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@maketitle}% <cmd>
  {\newpage\null\vskip 2em}{}% <search><replace>
  {}{}% <success><failure>
\makeatother

The above patch uses etoolbox to remove the \newpage \null \vskip 2em construction from \@maketitle, thereby making the title start immediately where it's called. A similar thing can be added to remove the vertical skip at the end of the environment (given by \vskip 1.5em), if needed:

\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@maketitle}% <cmd>
  {\par\vskip 1.5em}{\par}% <search><replace>
  {}{}% <success><failure>
\makeatother

With only the first patch, your document should now resemble:

In the above output I've also added the showframe package to highlight the position of the text box just as an indication that there's no white space set before the actual title.

With both patches active there's a little less space (not much) below the title:

Of course, instead of removing it, one can insert a negative space.

Answer 2

The above solution has to be modified if using KOMA article class instead of the standard article class, because in the .cls, the command is not \newpage\null\vskip 2em, but \null\vskip 2em. Therefore

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@maketitle}% <cmd>
  {\newpage\null\vskip 2em}{}% <search><replace>
  {}{}% <success><failure>
\makeatother

had to be changed to

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@maketitle}% <cmd>
  {\null\vskip 2em}{}% <search><replace>
  {}{}% <success><failure>
\makeatother

to make it work (at least for me).

To reduce the space below the title without adding something to the preamble, I have found this solution Reducing the space below the title

which in the document looks like

using Evil Red Code. That may be easier for someone new to LyX. It doesn't work for pushing the title up the page, however, only for decreasing the space between the subtitle, the date and the text.

No adjustment with \vspace

With adjusted \vspace