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I'm writing a report which needs to be bound, and as such I'd like to use the twoside option. However, the first few pages of the report are causing some issues with the ordering. In the MWE below, the title page has no displayed page number, and is a verso page. The pages for the abstract and table of contents switch to roman numbering, and as a result the title page and abstract page are both verso. The page numbers for the actual report have arabic numbering, and this results in pages 4 and 5 both being verso.

What is the best way to keep the correct margins across these numbering switches? Perhaps something like using a hidden counter for the page numbers used by twoside to determine the margins would work, but I don't know how to do that.

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,twoside]{article}

\author{A Name}
\title{A Title}

\begin{document}
\maketitle
\thispagestyle{empty}
\newpage
\pagenumbering{roman}

\begin{abstract}
  We discuss the joys of \LaTeX
\end{abstract}
\newpage
\tableofcontents
\newpage
\mbox{}
\newpage

\pagenumbering{arabic}
\section{One}
\section{Two}

\end{document}
heuristicus
  • 625
  • \cleardoublepage before the \pagenumbering would keep things on the right side or use book class and \frontmatter \mainmatter (which basically just do \cleardoublepage\pagenumbering{..} – David Carlisle Apr 11 '13 at 22:08
  • \cleardoublepage adds an additional page to the document - is it possible to do it without this happening? – heuristicus Apr 11 '13 at 22:15
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    anything is possible but that is by far the most common convention, it would be very strange to have numbered pages with odd numbers on the left. – David Carlisle Apr 11 '13 at 22:21
  • 1
    similarly note that \newpage\mbox{}\newpage will get the wrong parity if your table of contents gets more than a page long. You need \cleardoublepage or \cleartoevenpage http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/62033/figures-on-left-pages-text-on-right-pages/62065#62065 – David Carlisle Apr 11 '13 at 22:30
  • I put the \mbox{} in to illustrate the structure of my document, which has two pages for the table of contents. There is a very strict page limit, which is why I'd rather not add more pages unless absolutely necessary. – heuristicus Apr 12 '13 at 09:33
  • I would not put numbered pages on the "wrong side" so if you don't want blank pages I'd put \pagenumbering{roman} before the title then that is page 1 (not shown as page style empty) and your abstract comes on page 2 shown as ii and they'll have different parity for the page counter and so get the correct margins. – David Carlisle Apr 12 '13 at 09:43

1 Answers1

4

I would move the \pagenumbering{roman} so that the parity of the printed numbers always matches that of the physical sheet (so the abstract is on page ii)

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,twoside]{article}

\author{A Name}
\title{A Title}

\begin{document}
\pagenumbering{roman}
\maketitle
\thispagestyle{empty}
\newpage


\begin{abstract}
  We discuss the joys of \LaTeX
\end{abstract}
\newpage
\tableofcontents
\newpage
\mbox{}
\newpage

\pagenumbering{arabic}
\section{One}
\section{Two}

\end{document}
David Carlisle
  • 757,742