Adding (not removing) blank pages onside

Question

There are tons of questions about removing blank pages from twoside documents, e.g. theses. However, there are a lot fewer about adding blank pages (or pages with a header only) that aren't simply solved by using twoside.

I'd like to add (numbered) pages at certain spots in a oneside document with class book - essentially, to emulate the same page numbering from twoside but without the change in margins which makes viewing such a document on a device a pain. (I would like to physically print the twoside version and want both versions to have the same numbering. I don't mind extra pages.) It seems that cleardoublepage is not what I want since according to any documentation I can find, it only adds the extra page in twoside mode. I'm okay with this not being automatic - I only have to add them at the end of chapters, after all. Does anyone know if this is possible without extreme hacking of things like the geometry package?

Possibly related questions that didn't seem to answer my question:

• After adding blank page, two sided option has confused (but this is in twoside)
• \cleardoublepage does not seem to work (self explanatory, and answer recommends twoside)
• How do I make the first page double sided in a single sided LaTeX document? (I don't want to switch the layout, just to have consistent page numbering)

Ironically, apparently this bug in one package is sort of exactly what I am looking for ... but I don't use that package and don't want to rely on a bug!

Final note, just in case it would make a difference: I am using xelatex and cannot easily switch to pdflatex.

Answer 1

\newpage\null will produce a blank page.

For example this code will produce a book twoside with, as expected, chapters starting in odd pages:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,twoside]{book}
\usepackage{kantlipsum} %dummy text
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\chapter{One}

\kant[1-3]

\chapter{Two}
5. \kant[5-9]
\chapter{Three}
11. \kant[11-15]
\end{document}

Adding blank pages in the appropriate places, this will produced the same TOC with oneside

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,oneside]{book}
\usepackage{kantlipsum} %dummy text
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\newpage\null % add a blank page
\chapter{One}

\kant[1-3]

\chapter{Two}
5. \kant[5-9]
\newpage\null   % add another blank page
\chapter{Three}
11. \kant[11-15]
\end{document}

Two side, chapter in odd pages, book margins

On side, some chapters in even pages, e.g. the first chapter starts immediately after the TOC, on page 2.

One side with 2 added pages. Now all chapters start on even pages, with equal margins.

It might be useful to add \newpage\null\thispagestyle{plain}, when creating a blank page, or \newpage\null\thispagestyle{empty} to suppress all the headers.

Notes

(1) With twoside it is easy to have the same margin on odd and even pages with \setlength{\evensidemargin}{\oddsidemargin} before \begin{document}

(2) Still, it is sometimes necessary to create blank pages in a book using \newpage\null\thispagestyle{empty}

(3) \null is the same as \hbox{}.

Answer 2

The following minimal example updates the default \cleardoublepage (only when not in twoside mode) to completely ignore the twoside option as part of its conditioning mechanism.

%\documentclass[twoside]{book}
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\makeatletter
% Update \cleardoublepage to be similar in oneside and twoside
\if@twoside\else
  \def\cleardoublepage{%
    \clearpage
    \ifodd\c@page\else
      \hbox{}\newpage
      \if@twocolumn
        \hbox{}\newpage
      \fi
    \fi
  }
\fi
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\sloppy
\chapter{First chapter}
\lipsum[1-45]
\chapter{Second chapter}
\lipsum[1-50]
\chapter{Third chapter}
\lipsum[1-50]
\end{document}

You could also try this (re)definition of \cleardoublepage:

\let\oldcleardoublepage\cleardoublepage
\renewcommand{\cleardoublepage}{{%
  \@twosidetrue% Force twoside mode temporarily
  \oldcleardoublepage
}}

Answer 3

You don't want to manually add blank pages, but rather to have the same margins on either side, which can be easily obtained with geometry.

With the same code as in Simon's answer,

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,twoside]{book}
\usepackage[hratio=1:1,textwidth=345pt]{geometry}
\usepackage{kantlipsum} %dummy text
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\chapter{One}

\kant[1-3]

\chapter{Two}
5. \kant[5-9]
\chapter{Three}
11. \kant[11-15]
\end{document}

you will see the blank page automatically generated. The magic dimension 345pt is the usual size in the book class. Change it to suit your taste.

If you want some gutter, you can do as follows:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,twoside]{book}
\usepackage{layout}
\usepackage{geometry}
\dimen0=\dimexpr(\paperwidth-345pt)/2\relax
\geometry{
  bindingoffset=7mm,
  inner=\dimexpr\dimen0-7mm\relax,
  textwidth=345pt,
}
\usepackage{kantlipsum} %dummy text
\begin{document}
\layout
\tableofcontents
\chapter{One}

\kant[1-3]

\chapter{Two}
5. \kant[5-9]
\chapter{Three}
11. \kant[11-15]
\end{document}

I added \layout to better show what's happening. Fix the lengths to suit your needs.