Change margins for all, but the first page

Question

I've read Setting different margin sizes in different pages and Change \textwidth and \textheight in mid-document, but it doesn't work to well for my use case.

I'm using the geometry and fancyhdr package. I did some 'hacking' to accomplish what I have right now, which pretty much is just that the first page has a big top-margin of 2.5in so that my fancyhdr fits in there nicely.

I only want the header on the first page though, thus I set thispagestyle{fancy}. However, the margin still applies to the second page and I don't know how to change that.

newgeometry wouldn't work, because I don't know where exactly the first page will end. Of course I could do some more hacking and just do trial&error, but I thought maybe there is some better way.

In short: Is there a way to change the margin after the first page?

Here is a MWE:

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt,oneside]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[letterspace=150]{microtype}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage[top=2.5in,bottom=1.5in,right=1.5in,left=1.5in,headheight=95pt,headsep=2cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\thispagestyle{fancy}
\pagestyle{empty}

\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}

\fancyhead[C]{
    \fontsize{22}{22}\scshape{I am\\ a\\ title}\\
    \fontsize{12}{25}\scshape{Sub {\large\textperiodcentered} Title}
}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-2]
\lipsum[1-4]
\lipsum[1-2]
\end{document}

@DavidCarlisle I suppose TeX is not really the tool, when it comes to this type of specific fine-grained visual changes. Anyhow, so I solution would be to add a \pagebreak and then use \newgeometry I suppose? — cherrung, Nov 21 '13 at 16:24
Normally it's better (or at least safer) to just use an environment liq quote that changes teh effective margins rather than newgeometry which really changes the page size (unless you really need page head and foot to change as well, but either way if you do a forced page break it is much easier. — David Carlisle, Nov 21 '13 at 16:29
Oh sorry I misread (and will remove my close vote) if you only want to change the top margin rather than textwidth that is easy, just specify the general top margin and fix up the first page with explicit vspace — David Carlisle, Nov 21 '13 at 16:32

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 14 '17 at 14:40

If you want only the top margin of the first page to be modified, you can use \vspace*{1in}:

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt,oneside]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[letterspace=150]{microtype}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage[top=1.5in,bottom=1.5in,right=1.5in,left=1.5in,headheight=95pt,headsep=-0.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\pagestyle{empty}

\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}

\fancyhead[C]{
    \fontsize{22}{22}\scshape{I am\\ a\\ title}\\
    \fontsize{12}{25}\scshape{Sub {\large\textperiodcentered} Title}
}

\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{fancy}
\vspace*{1in}
\lipsum[1-2]
\lipsum[1-4]
\lipsum[1-2]
\end{document}

However, the page headers are not intended for typesetting the document title, you can do it in completely another (simpler, clearer) way:

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt,oneside]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[letterspace=150]{microtype}
\usepackage[top=1.5in,bottom=1.5in,right=1.5in,left=1.5in]{geometry}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}

\vspace*{-1.5in}

\begin{center}
    \fontsize{22}{22}\scshape{I am\\ a\\ title}\\
    \fontsize{12}{25}\scshape{Sub {\large\textperiodcentered} Title}
\end{center}

\vspace{0.5in}

\lipsum[1-2]
\lipsum[1-4]
\lipsum[1-2]
\end{document}

Much appreciated. And to reply to your already deleted comment (I think it was you, correct?). With fine-grained visual changes I meant like how you would not use TeX for a photo collage, if you know your way around with Photoshop/GIMP/Paint. And if it is typographically correct or not to do something is anyone's guess. — cherrung, Nov 21 '13 at 17:29

Change margins for all, but the first page

1 Answers1