Vertically center (contents of) environment on page

Question

Consider the following example:

\documentclass[
  12pt,
  landscape
]{article}

\usepackage[
  a6paper,
  margin = 0cm
]{geometry}
\usepackage{lmodern}

\newenvironment{horse}
{
 \topskip0pt
 \vspace*{\fill}
 \begin{center}
 \fontsize{50}{56}\selectfont
 }
{
 \end{center}
 \vspace*{\fill}
 %
}

\pagestyle{empty}


\begin{document}

\begin{horse}
  Alle lande\\[0.5ex] og\\[0.5ex] deres hovedst{\ae}der
\end{horse}

\end{document}

I would like the contents of the horse environment to be placed vertically centered on the page. As can be seen if the code is compiled, this doesn't happen; how do I fix this?

P.S. I just "stole" the code from https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/2327/15874 and modified it a bit.

@HeikoOberdiek When I compile the code, the text is well below the center of the page. :-( (See added screenshot.) — Svend Tveskæg, Nov 14 '16 at 19:04

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 14 '16 at 19:48

A little simplified example (\centering instead of environment center and line ends commented):

\documentclass[
  12pt,
  landscape
]{article}

\usepackage[
  a6paper,
  margin = 0cm
]{geometry}
\usepackage{lmodern}

\newenvironment{horse}{%
  \setlength{\topskip}{0pt}%
  \centering
  \vspace*{\fill}%
  % \nointerlineskip
  \fontsize{50}{56}\selectfont
  % \sbox0{Alle lande}%
  % \showthe\ht0
}{%
  \par
  \vspace{\fill}%
  % \setlength{\showboxdepth}{\maxdimen}%
  % \setlength{\showboxbreadth}{\maxdimen}%
  % \tracingonline=1 %
  % \showlists
}

\pagestyle{empty}


\begin{document}

\begin{horse}
  Alle lande\\[0.5ex] og\\[0.5ex] deres hovedst{\ae}der
\end{horse}

\end{document}

Enabling the four lines with \showlists reveals:

### current page:
\write-{}
\glue(\topskip) 0.0
\rule(0.0+0.0)x*
\penalty 10000
\glue 0.0 plus 1.0fill
\glue 0.0
\glue(\parskip) 0.0 plus 1.0
\glue(\baselineskip) 21.83911
\hbox(34.16089+0.0)x421.10078, glue set 109.61919fil
.\glue(\leftskip) 0.0 plus 1.0fil
.\hbox(0.0+0.0)x0.0
.\OT1/lmr/m/n/50 A
.\OT1/lmr/m/n/50 l
.\OT1/lmr/m/n/50 l
.\OT1/lmr/m/n/50 e

All is fine except for the large contribution of the \baselineskip. The height of the first line is 34.16089pt, but the line spacing is 56pt. The difference is added on top of the first row:

\glue(\baselineskip) 21.83911

This can be turned off by \nointerlineskip. After enabling it in the code above, the result is:

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 14 '16 at 19:09

0

try

\newcommand\HUGE{\fontsize{50}{56}\selectfont}

\newenvironment{horse}
  {\vspace*{\fill}
   \centering\HUGE}
  {\vfill~\newpage}

answered Nov 14 '16 at 19:09

That is above the center of the page. – Svend Tveskæg Nov 14 '16 at 19:13
use for example a character "g" in the last line and you'll see that the baselines are right. – Nov 14 '16 at 19:15
I see your point, but then how do I vertically centered the actual text on the page, and not the text if I use a character with the lowest point as low as possible on the line? – Svend Tveskæg Nov 14 '16 at 19:31

Vertically center (contents of) environment on page

2 Answers2