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I am writing a document for which I need the margin to be exactly as follows: left, right, top and bottom text margin all equal to 1in, distance from bottom of the paper to page number equal to 0.75in (I don't have any footnote or header to set).

I tried to use the fullpage package in LaTeX but it does not give me the 0.75in to the page number. Is there a way to force that? I tried to set manually the margins for a 8.5x11 paper but I am not succeeding.

I tried but after writing:

\documentclass[PhD]{class_file}
\usepackage[margin=1in,footskip=0.25in]{geometry}

I get the error message \paperwidth (0.0pt) too short.

I don't see the \paperwidth is set to 0.0pt anywhere though..

Also it seems to me that depending on which machine I use to compile my tex file, I get different margins, even when I set them up manually (without using geometry). Is it possible?

Using the geometry package things seem to work a bit better now (I changed machine and the problem with the paper width previously mentioned disappeared). 

\usepackage[margin=1in,footskip=0.25in]{geometry}

gives me without problem upper, right and left margin of 1in. But the lower margin is 1.2in and I can't change it to be 1in even by using bottom=1in or bottom=0.8in. I really don't see how this can happen. Maybe a problem with the spacing between lines? The class files I am using can be fund at http://www.math.ucla.edu/help/tex/uclathes/

I erased the margin settings of uclath12.clo as the margin I need are different from the ones that this file gives. Thank you.

Martin Scharrer
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David
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  • 16
    You should try the geometry package. For example \usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry} provides a left/right/top/bottom margin of 1in. – Werner Feb 29 '12 at 00:19
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    Please provide class_file.cls if you're allowed. – Chel Feb 29 '12 at 17:05
  • @David I realize this is a fairly old post but I'm facing the exact same problem. Would you mind sharing the uclath12.clo that you changed (or the way you changed it) so I don't have to figure it out all myself? Much appreciated! – jan Mar 29 '16 at 08:02
  • Please note that you should not mix usepackage fullpage with usepackage geometry. Using fullpage will force the margins. – Blake Aug 14 '22 at 11:44

5 Answers5

132

You can use geometry package.

\documentclass[12pt,english]{article}

\usepackage[a4paper,
            bindingoffset=0.2in,
            left=1in,
            right=1in,
            top=1in,
            bottom=1in,
            footskip=.25in]{geometry}


\usepackage{blindtext}


%================================


\begin{document}


\blindtext


\blindtext


\blindtext


\blindtext


\blindtext


\blindtext


\blindtext


\blindtext


% In the middle if you want to change the margins use
\newgeometry{left=0.8in,right=0.8in,top=1in,bottom=1in}


\blindtext


\blindtext


\blindtext


\blindtext


%to restore old margins, use
\restoregeometry


\blindtext


%===============================


\end{document}
psygo
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24

The problem is that, in your TeX file, there is no indication of paper size. So you can add the a4paper option for instance to your geometry package option list like this:

\usepackage[a4paper,margin=1in,footskip=0.25in]{geometry}

or you can specify it in your document class options.

Olivier
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teymourlouie
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  • If anyone has this issue with a custom, university-provided document class, one can reasonably question what they were thinking when designing the document class without providing a somewhat more reasonable default paper width... – Egor Hans Feb 18 '20 at 18:51
18

Expanding on Werner's comment, to get the page number's baseline 0.75 in above the page's bottom edge, use footskip:

\documentclass[letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage[margin=1in,footskip=0.25in]{geometry}

\begin{document}
Lipsum
\end{document}
Chel
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10

With geometry package:

\usepackage[nohead, nomarginpar, margin=1in, foot=.25in]{geometry}

Or without a package:

\pdfpagewidth 8.5in
\pdfpageheight 11in
\headheight 0pt
\headsep 0pt
\footskip .25in
\marginparwidth 0pt
\marginparsep 0pt
\oddsidemargin \dimexpr 1in -1in
\topmargin \dimexpr 1in -1in
\textwidth \dimexpr \pdfpagewidth -2\oddsidemargin -2in
\textheight \dimexpr \pdfpageheight -2\topmargin -2in
Zombo
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2

Don't know if this is the most efficient way but this worked for me

\setlength{\voffset}{-0.5in}
\setlength{\textheight}{710pt}

In short \voffset is the distance from top of the page to the bottom of header portion \textheight is the total height of main text.

See this page for full understanding of above variables.

0xC0000022L
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Anirudh
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