Absolute Positioning of Date in Front Page

Question

I'm trying to fix the layout of the font page of my Master Thesis. As you can see in the uploaded image the date is not put at the bottom of the page.

I've tried to move it down with the \vspace or \vfill commands, but the result was either no movement, or moving it to next page.

Is there some instruction for putting it at the very bottom of page?And what are the commands for doing it if I tried to set the absolute positioning of the text?

Note that I put the date with sample text and not by using the \date command and make title one. This is the code for the front page:

\documentclass[12pt,oneside,a4paper]{book}

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{setspace}


\begin{document}

\frontmatter

\begin{titlepage}

\begin{figure}[t]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[scale=0.35]{./images/Logo_Unisi_2012.jpg}
\end{figure}    


\begin{center}
    {\large UNIVERSITY OF SIENA} \medskip \\
    {\large DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING} \vspace*{0.5cm} \\
    {\Large Master Thesis in Computer Science Engineering} \vspace*{2.0cm} \\
    \doublespacing
    {\huge \textbf{This is the long title of my Master thesis}} \vspace*{2.3cm}
\end{center}

\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
    \begin{flushleft}
        {\large \textit{Author}:\vspace*{0.5cm} \\ Me
        }
    \end{flushleft}
\end{minipage}%
%
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
    \begin{flushright}
        {\large \textit{Supervisor}:\vspace*{0.5cm} \\ Him \\
        }
        \vspace*{0.5cm}
        {\large \textit{Advisors}:\vspace*{0.5cm}\\First\vspace*{0.1cm}\\Second\vspace*{0.1cm}\\Third\\
        }
    \end{flushright}    
\end{minipage}%

\begin{center}
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.5\textwidth}
    \vfill
    \begin{center}
        {\large 10 December 2012}
    \end{center}    
    \begin{center}
        {\large Academic Year 2011/2012}
    \end{center}
\end{minipage}%
\end{center}    

\thispagestyle{empty}

\end{titlepage}

\end{document}

Answer 1

There are many ways to move the bottom lines:

• Removing \begin{center}...\end{center} around the minipage to avoid the additional space added by environment center. Change the width of the minipage to full text width.

• \vspace{\fill} fills the available space without guessing the amount.

• Using \enlargethispage to get a larger height of the text body.

• \vspace at the end of the minipage with negative value.

Example:

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{showframe}

\begin{document}

\begin{titlepage}
\enlargethispage{\footskip}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

\begin{center}
    \onehalfspacing
    \large
    UNIVERSITY OF SIENA\\
    DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING

    \vspace{5mm}

    \Large
    Master Thesis in Computer Science Engineering

    \vspace{20mm}

    \huge
    \textbf{This is the long title of my Master thesis}
\end{center}

\vspace{23mm}

\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
    \raggedright
    \onehalfspacing
    \large
    \textit{Author}:\\[.5\baselineskip]
    Me
\end{minipage}%
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
    \raggedleft
    \onehalfspacing
    \large
    \textit{Supervisor}:\\[.5\baselineskip]
    Him

    \vspace{5mm}

    \textit{Advisors}:\\[.5\baselineskip]
    First\\
    Second\\
    Third
\end{minipage}%

\vspace{\fill}

\begin{minipage}[b]{\textwidth}
    \centering
    \onehalfspacing
    \large   
    10 December 2012\\
    Academic Year 2011/2012

    \vspace{-20mm} 
\end{minipage}%

\end{titlepage}
\end{document}