How can I change the distance between abstract and section 1?

Question

My LaTeX format is as follows:

Abstract: Abstract goes here.

Section 1:

It should be noted that my abstract is one column and sections are two-column. Abstract and Section 1 are very close together. I want some space between abstract and Section 1. I tried \hfill but it only affects on one column but at the beginning of the second column the Abstract and Section 1 are close together. How can I fix it?

\documentclass[a4paper,twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[cmex10]{amsmath}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage[usenames]{color}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{multicol}

\renewenvironment{abstract}{%
  \noindent\bfseries\abstractname:\normalfont}{}
\begin{document}
\title{
\textbf{Title}
}

\setlength{\columnsep}{0.8cm}

\begin{abstract}
Abstract is here 
\end{abstract}

\section{Introduction}
\section{circuit}
Circuit is here
\subsection{Noise analysis}
Noise analysis is here
\section{Circuit Design}
Circuit Design is here
\section{Simulation Results}
Simulation Results is here
\section{Conclusion}
Conclusion is here.
\begin{thebibliography}{1}
\bibitem{}Friis, H. T.: 
\end{thebibliography}
\end{document}

This is my first experience with Latex and it's a real pain...

Answer 1

You could just insert a \bigskip between the abstract and your first section. If this is not enough, add some more \bigskips. One \bigskip is "worth" 12pt by default (plus/minus some stretch/shrink). If you want less space, issuing a \medskip is 1/2 a \bigskip at 6pt by default (plus/minus some stretch/shrink). And then there's \smallskip which is 1/2 a \medskip at 3pt by default (plus/minus some stretch/shrink).

Alternatively, issuing a \vspace{<len>} (with an optional *) should also do the trick, where <len> is some TeX length (like 1cm, say). More information on the \vspace command is available on TeXBlog.

The above additions to your code is manual, and therefore viable as a one-time use. However, it is also possible to (say) patch the abstract environment to automatically append a larger skip once it's done.

---

Edit: I assume your twocolumn document configuration stems from: How can I place a one-column-abstract in a two-column document? In this case the use of \vspace does not provide any effective solution (nor does \...skip which is defined in terms of \vspace). I would suggest using the multicols environment provided by the multicol package, and use in your document in the following way:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[margin=2cm]{geometry}% http://ctan.org/pkg/geometry
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum
\usepackage{multicol}% http://ctan.org/pkg/multicol
\begin{document}
\begin{abstract}
\lipsum[1]
\end{abstract}
\vspace{2cm}% Additional space between abstract & rest of document
\begin{multicols}{2}
\section{First section}
\lipsum[2-4]
\section{Second section}
\lipsum[5-7]
\section{Last section}
\lipsum[8-10]
\end{multicols}
\end{document}

If you need more than two columns, modify the mandatory { } argument of \multicols. In the above example, the geometry package provides a means to modify the page layout/dimensions (I set the text margins to be 2cm from the page border using margin=2cm), while the lipsum package provides dummy text.

Answer 2

Rather than using multicol as others have suggested, you can just use the abstract package to control the formatting of the abstract. You can adjust the space between the abstract and the beginning of the text with a \vspace{} command.

If you want more control over the title elements, I recommend the titling package.

\documentclass[a4paper,twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{lipsum} % for dummy text (not needed for solution)
\usepackage[runin]{abstract}
\setlength{\abstitleskip}{-\parindent} % make abstract flushleft
\setlength{\absleftindent}{0pt} % make abstract non-indented
\setlength{\absrightindent}{0pt}
% adjust the next two commands to set the size/weight you need
\renewcommand{\abstractnamefont}{\normalfont\bfseries} 
\renewcommand{\abstracttextfont}{\normalfont} 
\abslabeldelim{:\quad} % add a colon to the abstract title
% uncomment this next line if you want more control
% over the titling elements (texdoc titling for the docs)
%\usepackage{titling} 
\begin{document}
\title{Title}
\author{Author}

\setlength{\columnsep}{0.8cm}
% now make the abstract span both columns
\twocolumn[
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}
{\lipsum[1]\vspace{1in}} % adjust the vspace as needed
\end{abstract}
]

\section{Introduction}
\lipsum[1-3]
\end{document}

Answer 3

This is what Werner is suggesting and works fine for me with the multicol package. I assumed that you have a two column document since you have the two-column tag.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage{lipsum}% for dummy text

\begin{document}
\begin{abstract}
\lipsum[1]
\end{abstract}
\bigskip
\begin{multicols}{2}
\lipsum[2]
\end{multicols}
\end{document}