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I prefer to write documents with paragraph spacing rather than indents to distinguish different paragraphs, but my problem is that if a paragraph ends in display maths then this leaves a double spacing (since I also have display maths set with 1em above and below)is there a way of avoiding this annoying double spacing?

\documentclass[a4paper, 12pt]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{bm}
\setlength{\parskip}{1em}

\begin{document}

\setlength{\abovedisplayskip}{1em}
\setlength{\belowdisplayskip}{1em}
\setlength{\jot}{0.5em}

\section{Section 1}
When I have text like this bit here, shortly followed by an equation such as
$$E = mc^2$$

\section{Section 2}
And a new section is started afterward, there is a double spacing between the end of the Maths and the start of section 2.

\end{document}
diatomicDisaster
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    If you add a section 3, you will see that the space allocated after the math closing out section 1 is no different than the space allocated after the text closing out section 2. Also, in LaTeX, use \[...\] delimiters for unnumbered math, rather than $$...$$ – Steven B. Segletes May 30 '17 at 14:39
  • Welcome to TeX.SE. It can be tricky to reset a low-level parameter such as \parskip directly. Don't do it. Instead, load the parskip package first, and then (if you must) modify the \parskip length parameter. Whatever you do, don't make \parskip a rigid length; do give it some stretchability (in the TeX-related sense of the word). – Mico May 30 '17 at 14:47
  • @Mico I have never considered \parskip a low-level parameter. Just sayin'. However, the OP needs to understand that that \parskip gets wrapped up in the spacing before section headers. – Steven B. Segletes May 30 '17 at 14:50
  • Perhaps this question can help: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/108684/spacing-before-and-after-section-titles – Steven B. Segletes May 30 '17 at 14:51
  • @StevenB.Segletes - See the documentation of the parskip package for why it can be tricky to set \parskip naively (to a nonzero length, that is). – Mico May 30 '17 at 15:16
  • @Mico I suppose you are talking about list skips and such? – Steven B. Segletes May 30 '17 at 15:46
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    @StevenB.Segletes - Indeed, a non-zero value of \parskip can wreak havoc on the appearance of lists. – Mico May 30 '17 at 16:14
  • Yet another reason to use indents to indicate the start of a paragraph, not a blank line. Indentation has been the preferred way since the late 15th century. – Peter Wilson May 30 '17 at 17:57
  • Thanks for the help, all - makes more sense now. Is there a particular reason that $$ shoudn't be used as a delimiter? – diatomicDisaster May 31 '17 at 11:03

0 Answers0