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I would like to typeset a draft of my document with double linespacing so that my collaborators have space to write in their edits (with a pen). How do I do it?

lockstep
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Vebjorn Ljosa
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  • While for your case it doesn't seem to be crucial, this is a highly interesting question on the same topic: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/13742/what-does-double-spacing-mean – doncherry Jul 30 '11 at 09:22

5 Answers5

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Simple: put

\usepackage{setspace}
\doublespacing
% or:
%\onehalfspacing

into your preamble. (TeX-FAQ advises for setspace and against doublespace.)

David Carlisle
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Konrad Rudolph
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    Provide additionally the option doublespacing: \usepackage[doublespacing]{setspace}. – Stefan Kottwitz Aug 02 '10 at 17:01
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    again, one needs to make sure he/she knows what he/she meant by "double linespacing", doublespacing, or anything that is called slightly different and means different things, or called identical and means different things, and read this topic on doublespacing. – YIchun Nov 01 '11 at 07:01
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    If somebody uses the memoir class, use \DisemulatePackage{setspace} before \usepackage{setspace}. Taken from: http://greengabbro.net/2009/02/15/line-spacing-with-the-latex-memoir-class-why-doesnt-setspacesty-work/ – Konstantinos May 15 '15 at 16:39
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    I found this to be the best answer. Here also a link to wikibooks on the topic of line spacing: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Text_Formatting#Line_Spacing – tommy.carstensen Nov 16 '17 at 16:28
179

The setspace package does it for you, but it turns doublespacing off within footnotes and floats like figure and table captions. That's usually desired.

But if you don't want to use setspace, perhaps because of the mentioned reason, you could use the command \linespread, for instance:

\linespread{1.5}

A package may be preferred over such a command though.

Stefan Kottwitz
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    \linespread is also useful for fonts with large x-height (large lower case letters) to avoid the visual appearance of cramped pages. E.g. when using the Palatino font (\usepackage{mathpazo}), \linespread{1.05} is appropriate. – lockstep Aug 08 '10 at 22:59
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    Why would a package be preferred over \linespread? – brita_ Jan 22 '14 at 21:02
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    According to this: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=linespace "setspace switches off double-spacing at places where even the most die-hard official would doubt its utility (footnotes, figure captions, and so on); it’s very difficult to do this consistently if you’re manipulating \baselinestretch yourself." – brita_ Jan 23 '14 at 00:32
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    Also, as explained in http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/30114/7262, setspace package adjusts the factors correctly for 10pt/11pt/12pt documents, which would be messier and easy forget if you use \linespread directly. – Beni Cherniavsky-Paskin Nov 04 '15 at 07:53
  • In my case, \linespread worked for some elements, but to change spacing in the document body I had to use \linespacing. – Waldir Leoncio Aug 25 '19 at 10:21
  • Can I use linespread just for two lines but not as default for the entire document? – stefanbschneider Nov 11 '21 at 12:26
  • @CGFoX I remember \linespread is for the entire document. – Stefan Kottwitz Nov 11 '21 at 19:45
22

The simplest possible way is probably by using the plain TeX macro \openup

E.g. if you want double line spacing, add a single line-height to the line spacing (1em) using:

\openup 1em

(don't use any braces around the argument, the macro takes its argument as if you had written \openup=1em, i.e. an assignment of a dimension).j

Following that macro's invocation all lines will have a single line's height extra to separate them, later on you can revert this effect by giving the negative argument:

\openup -1em

This macro works by increasing (\advance) the three parameters (\lineskip, \baselineskip and \lineskiplimit) that govern line spacing by the given amount. It's defined in plain.tex if you want to have a look at it.

Giel
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5

How can I change the spacing in my LaTeX document?

To double space a LaTeX document, you should include the line

\usepackage{setspace}

after your \documentclass line.

Before your \begin{document} command.

\doublespacing

will make the text of the whole document double spaced, but footnotes, figures, and tables will still be single-spaced.

For one-and-a-half spacing, use the command

\onehalfspacing

To make a target part of the text single-spaced, you can place the text inside the following commands

\begin{singlespace}

\end{singlespace}

You can also set the spacing to be something other than double-spaced. For example, if you wanted to have one-and-a-quarter spacing between lines, use the line

\setstretch{1.25}

before your \begin{document} command, and after the \usepackage{setspace} line.

SOURCE - http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=3907092

I did not write this, but this helped me.

Tonia Sanzo
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2

Maybe you want to try

\setstretch{2}
TPArrow
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