I found this lovely formatting code for thesis chapter epigraphs posted by @Pluton. I REALLY like how this appears, but it is rather `chunky' and takes up a lot of white space. I also don't like the black bar located below each of the epigraphs. I mean, visually it's just okay but I want everything tighter and cleaner and taking up less space.
Edit: I forgot to mention that I suspected the quotes are so large because of
\doublespace
I tried wrapping the fancy quotes code in a
\begin{singlespacing}
\end{singlespacing}
This didn't work.
Here is a link to the MWE but I've also provided most of the code below.
As you can see, lots of white space used by 2 relatively short epigraphs. Code follows screen shots. Title is deliberate taking 2 lines because most of the thesis chapter titles are this long. Help!?!?
Packages:
\documentclass[12pt,twoside]{report}
\usepackage{appendix}
\graphicspath{ {Images/} }
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{txfonts}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{tocloft}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage[backend=bibtex,style=verbose,
bibencoding=ascii,
citestyle=authoryear,doi=false,url=false,isbn=false]{biblatex}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage{stackengine}
\usepackage[bottom]{footmisc}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\usepackage{epigraph}
\usepackage{times}
\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\makeatletter
\usepackage{hyperref}
Next comes code defining the thesis page style and layout. I don't think it's relevant to this question so I've omitted. It's in the MWE linked above.
%%%%%%Begin fancy quotes code below from @Pluton%%%%%%
\definecolor{quotemark}{gray}{0.7}
\makeatletter
\def\fquote{%
\@ifnextchar[{\fquote@i}{\fquote@i[]}%]
}%
\def\fquote@i[#1]{%
\def\tempa{#1}%
\@ifnextchar[{\fquote@ii}{\fquote@ii[]}%]
}%
\def\fquote@ii[#1]{%
\def\tempb{#1}%
\@ifnextchar[{\fquote@iii}{\fquote@iii[]}%]
}%
\def\fquote@iii[#1]{%
\def\tempc{#1}%
\vspace{1em}%
\noindent%
\begin{list}{}{%
\setlength{\leftmargin}{0.1\textwidth}%
\setlength{\rightmargin}{0.1\textwidth}%
}%
\item[]%
\begin{picture}(0,0)%
\put(-15,-5){\makebox(0,0){\scalebox{3}{\textcolor{quotemark}{``}}}}%
\end{picture}%
\begingroup\itshape}%
%%%%********************************************************************
\def\endfquote{%
\endgroup\par%
\makebox[0pt][l]{%
\hspace{0.8\textwidth}%
\begin{picture}(0,0)(0,0)%
\put(15,15){\makebox(0,0){%
\scalebox{3}{\color{quotemark}''}}}%
\end{picture}}%
\ifx\tempa\empty%
\else%
\ifx\tempc\empty%
\hfill\rule{100pt}{0.5pt}\\\mbox{}\hfill\tempa,\ \emph{\tempb}%
\else%
\hfill\rule{100pt}{0.5pt}\\\mbox{}\hfill\tempa,\ \emph{\tempb},\ \tempc%
\fi\fi\par%
\vspace{0.5em}%
\end{list}%
}%
\makeatother
And here is the rest of the document:
\begin{document}
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Certificate of Examination}
\newpage
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Co-Authorship Statement}
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Abstract}
\Large\begin{center}\textbf{Abstract}\end{center}\normalsize
This is a really silly abstract.
\vfill
\textbf{Keywords:} Time series analysis, data mining
\newpage
\tableofcontents\newpage
\newpage
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{List of Figures}
\listoffigures
\newpage
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{List of Tables}
\listoftables\newpage
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{List of Appendices}
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{List of Abbreviations, Symbols, and Nomenclature}
\large List of Abbreviations, Symbols, and Nomenclature \normalsize
\newpage
%Code for making the chapter headings look nice
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
{\normalfont\Large\raggedleft}
{\MakeUppercase{\chaptertitlename}%
\rlap{ \resizebox{!}{1.5cm}{\thechapter} \rule{5cm}{1.5cm}}}
{10pt}{\Huge}
\titlespacing*{\chapter}{0pt}{30pt}{20pt}
\doublespace
\raggedbottom
% Actual chapter content below
\chapter[Short version of the title]{Longer version of the title that I want to make long enough to fit on two lines}
\begin{fquote}[Sarah Jones][Terminal cardiac failure][1901]Lorum ipsum arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna.Donec vehicula augue eu neque. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristiquesenectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Mauris ut leo. Crasviverra metus rhoncus sem. Nulla et lectus vestibulum urna fringilla ultrices. \nocite{Jones1995}
\end{fquote}
\begin{fquote}[Smith][The Grim Reaper Service][1901] Lorum ipsum arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna.Donec vehicula augue eu neque. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristiquesenectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Mauris ut leo. Crasviverra metus rhoncus sem. Nulla et lectus vestibulum urna fringilla ultrices.
\end{fquote}
\section{Background}
\lipsum
\begin{center}
\end{center}
\printbibliography
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Bibliography}
\begin{appendices}
\input{AppendixA}
\end{appendices}
\end{document}
txfontsand thentimes. ;-) – egreg Nov 05 '15 at 21:33