Reducing spacing after headings

Question

I've searched many sites but I couldn't get any answer. Here is this mystical question:

How can i reduce the spacing after headings?

Here is my code.

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[turkish]{babel}
\usepackage[left=3.50cm, right=2.50cm, top=3.00cm, bottom=3.00cm,nohead,nofoot]{geometry}
 \usepackage[overload]{textcase} 
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{pslatex}
\usepackage[explicit]{titlesec}
\linespread{1.5}

\usepackage{setspace}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\setlength{\parskip}{\baselineskip}

\addto\extrasturkish{\uccode`i=\string"9D \lccode`I=\string"19 }
\addto\noextrasturkish{\uccode`i=`I \lccode`I=`i }

\titleformat{\section}
  {\normalfont\normalsize\bfseries}{\thesection}{1em}{\MakeTextUppercase{#1}}
\titleformat{\subsection}
  {\normalfont\normalsize\bfseries}{\thesubsection}{1em}{#1}
\titleformat{\subsubsection}
  {\normalfont\normalsize\bfseries\itshape}{\thesubsubsection}{1em}{#1}

\usepackage{chngcntr}

My actual purpose is to set line spacing 1.5 lines. This is a MS Word template that I must use for my project report. When I use \setlength{\parskip}{\baselineskip} with \linespread{1.5} the gap between section headings and paragraphs are huge, so huge it is funny. If I don't use \linespread{1.5} the lines are not spreading as expected. If I don't use \setlength{\parskip}{\baselineskip} this time there is no spacing between paragraphs.

Answer 1

You've loaded the titlesec package- it provides the command \titlespacing which has the format

\titlespacing{command}{left spacing}{before spacing}{after spacing}[right]

From the titlesec package

% Spacing: how to read {12pt plus 4pt minus 2pt}
% 12pt is what we would like the spacing to be.
% plus 4pt means that TeX can stretch it by at most 4pt.
% minus 2pt means that TeX can shrink it by at most 2pt.
% This is one example of the concept of, 'glue', in TeX.

A complete MWE follows

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\titlespacing\section{0pt}{12pt plus 4pt minus 2pt}{0pt plus 2pt minus 2pt}
\titlespacing\subsection{0pt}{12pt plus 4pt minus 2pt}{0pt plus 2pt minus 2pt}
\titlespacing\subsubsection{0pt}{12pt plus 4pt minus 2pt}{0pt plus 2pt minus 2pt}
\begin{document}
\section{Section}
\lipsum[1]
\end{document}

Answer 2

You can use the \titlespacing command from the titlesec package. For example:

\titlespacing{\section}{0pt}{\parskip}{-\parskip}
\titlespacing{\subsection}{0pt}{\parskip}{-\parskip}
\titlespacing{\subsubsection}{0pt}{\parskip}{-\parskip}

See titlesec.pdf for more options.

Answer 3

If you are using setspace, then mixing it with your own \linespread{1.5} is probably not a good idea.

Try to delete the line about \linespread and use instead

\usepackage{setspace}
\onehalfspacing

The package documentation says that it does more than just change line spread: it also take care of skips before and after headings, displays, etc. - the things you say you need.

Answer 4

To control each space individually, it is possible to use \vspace{-5mm} or \vspace{-1em} or \vspace{-1cm}.

Follow a working example:

    \documentclass{article}
    \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
    \usepackage{geometry}
     \geometry{a4paper,
     total={170mm,257mm},
     left=20mm, top=20mm, }
\title{Space handling in \LaTeX}
\author{Yuri Gelsleichter}
\date{December 2020}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\section{\huge Increase \Large space between headings and text}

\subsection{Using (\texttt{\textbackslash vspace\{5mm\}})}
\vspace{5mm}


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt.
\subsection{Using (\texttt{\textbackslash vspace\{1em\}})}
\vspace{1em}


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt.
\subsection{Using (\texttt{\textbackslash vspace\{0.7cm\}})}
\vspace{0.7cm}


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt.
\vspace{2cm}
\hrulefill
\vspace{2cm}

\section{\huge Decrease \Large space between headings and text}

\subsection{Using (\texttt{\textbackslash vspace\{-4mm\}})}
\vspace{-4mm}


Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
\subsection{Using (\texttt{\textbackslash vspace\{-1em\}})}
\vspace{-1em} 


Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
\subsection{Using (\texttt{\textbackslash vspace\{-0.4cm\}})}
\vspace{-0.4cm}


Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
\end{document}

Answer 5

In case you are using a KOMA-Script based document class (e.g. scrartcl), you can't (or rather: shouldn't) use the titlesec package as it is incompatible with KOMA-Script.

Instead, you can follow the approach given here, which suggests to use the \RedeclareSectionCommand macro. A minimal example of this could look like this (copied from the linked answer):

\documentclass[
  parskip=half% inserts additional space after \section
]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{multicol}
\RedeclareSectionCommand[afterskip=1sp]{section}
\begin{document}
    \rule{\textwidth}{15cm}
\begin{multicols}{2}
    \section*{Section 1}
    \lipsum[1-2]
\end{multicols}

\end{document}