research paper margins in latex

LaTeX/Page Layout

LaTeX and the document class will normally take care of page layout issues for you. For submission to an academic publication, this entire topic will be out of your hands, as the publishers want to control the presentation. However, for your own documents, there are some obvious settings that you may wish to change: margins, page orientation and columns, to name but three. The purpose of this tutorial is to show you how to configure your pages.

We will often have to deal with TeX lengths in this chapter. You should have a look at Lengths for comprehensive details on the topic.

• 1 Two-sided documents
• 2 Page dimensions
• 3.1 More size options with geometry
• 3.2 Page size issues
• 3.3 Page size for tablets
• 4.1 Odd and even margins
• 4.2 Top margin above Chapter
• 5.1 Change orientation of the whole document
• 5.2 Change orientation of specific part
• 5.3 Change orientation of floating environment
• 6 Margins, page size and rotation of a specific page
• 7 Page background
• 8.1 Using the twocolumn optional class argument
• 8.2 Using multicol package
• 9 Manual page formatting
• 10 Widows and orphans
• 11 Troubleshooting / Debugging
• 12 Notes and References

Two-sided documents

Documents can be either one- or two-sided. Articles are by default one-sided, books are two-sided. Two-sided documents differentiate the left (even) and right (odd) pages, whereas one-sided do not. The most notable effect can be seen in page margins. If you want to make the article class two-sided , use \documentclass [twoside] { article } .

Many commands and variables in LaTeX take this concept into account. They are referred to as even and odd . For one-sided document, only the odd commands and variables will be in effect.

Page dimensions

A page in LaTeX is defined by many internal parameters. Each parameter corresponds to the length of an element of the page, for example, \paperheight is the physical height of the page. Here you can see a diagram showing all the variables defining the page. All sizes are given in TeX points (pt), there are 72.27pt in an inch or 1pt ≈ 0.3515mm.

• one inch + \hoffset
• one inch + \voffset
• \oddsidemargin = 31pt
• \topmargin = 20pt
• \headheight = 12pt
• \headsep = 25pt
• \textheight = 592pt
• \textwidth = 390pt
• \marginparsep = 10pt
• \marginparwidth = 35pt
• \footskip = 30pt
• \marginparpush = 7pt (not shown)
• \hoffset = 0pt
• \voffset = 0pt
• \paperwidth = 597pt
• \paperheight = 845pt

The current details plus the layout shape can be printed from a LaTeX document itself. Use the layout package and the command of the same name: \usepackage { layout } ... \layout {}

To render a frame marking the margins of a document you are currently working on, add

to the document.

It will not have been immediately obvious - because it doesn't really cause any serious problems - that the default page size for all standard document classes is US letter . This is shorter by 18 mm (about 3/4 inch), and slightly wider by 8 mm (about 1/4 inch), compared to A4 (which is the standard in almost all the rest of the world). While this is not a serious issue (most printers will print the document without any problems), it is possible to specify alternative sizes as class option . For A4 format:

More size options with geometry

One of the most versatile packages for page layout is the geometry package . The immediate advantage of this package is that it lets you customize the page size even with classes that do not support the options. For instance, to set the page size, add the following to your preamble:

The geometry package has many pre-defined page sizes, like a4paper , built in. Others include:

• a0paper , a1paper , ..., a6paper ,
• b0paper , b1paper , ..., b6paper ,
• letterpaper ,
• legalpaper ,
• executivepaper .

To explicitly change the paper dimensions using the geometry package, the paperwidth and paperheight options can be used. For example:

Package provides many flexibility on setting the page layout, including specifying specific layout of each page using the:

While very flexible, this package also comes with limitations. For instance, page size cannot be provided to individual pages, which requires different approaches for the workaround.

Page size issues

If you intend to get a PDF in the end, there are basically three ways:

• TeX → DVI → PDF
• TeX → DVI → PS → PDF

Sadly the PDF output page size may not be completely respectful of your settings. Some of these tools do not have the same interpretation of the DVI, PS and PDF specifications, and you may end up with a PDF which has not exactly the right size. Thankfully there is a solution to that: the \special command lets the user pass PostScript or PDF parameters, which can be used here to set the page size appropriately.

• For pdflatex to work fine, using the package geometry usually works.
• For the DVI and PS ways, the safest way to always get the right paper size in the end is to add

to the tex file, and to append the appropriate parameters to the processors used during output generation:

If you want US Letter instead, replace 210mm,297mm by 8.5in,11in and a4paper by letter . Also replace a4 by letter in command-line parameters.

Page size for tablets

Those who want to read on tablets or other handheld digital devices need to create documents without the extra whitespace. In order to create PDF documents with optimal handheld viewing, not only must the text field and margins be adjusted, so must the page size. If you are looking for a sensible dimension, consider following the paper size used by the Supreme Court of the United States, 441pt by 666pt (or 6.125 inches by 9.25 inches), which looks great on tablets. You could also use the Supreme Court's text field size of 297 pt by 513 pt, but this is too wide for fonts other than Century Schoolbook, the font required by the Supreme Court.

Readers used to perusing typical physical literature are probably wondering why there is so much white space surrounding the text. For example, on A4 paper a document will typically have 44 mm margin widths on the left and right of the page, leaving about 60% of the page width for text. The reason is improved readability. Studies have shown [2] [3] that it's easier to read text when there are 60–70 characters per line—and it would seem that 66 is the optimal number. Therefore, the page margins are set to ensure optimal readability, and excessive margin white space is tolerated as a consequence. Sometimes, this white space is left in the inner margin with the assumption that the document will be bound.

If you wish to avoid excessive white space, rather than changing the margins, consider instead using a two-column (or more) layout . This approach is the one usually taken by print magazines because it provides both readable line lengths and good use of the page. Another option for reducing the amount of whitespace on the page without changing the margins is to increase the font size using the 12pt option to the document class.

If you wish to change the margins of your document, there are many ways to do so:

• One older approach is to use the fullpage package for somewhat standardized smaller margins (around an inch), but it creates lines of more than 100 characters per line with the 10pt default font size (and about 90 if the 12pt documentclass option is used):

For even narrower margins, the fullpage package has a cm option (around 1.5cm), which results in about 120 characters per line at the 10pt default font size, about double what is considered readable:

• A more modern and flexible approach is to use the geometry package. This package allows you to specify the 4 margins without needing to remember the particular page dimensions commands. You can enter the measures in centimeters and inches as well. Use cm for centimeters and in for inches after each value ( e.g. 1.0in or 2.54cm). Note that by default ( i.e. without any options) this package already reduces the margins, so for a 'standard layout' you may not need to specify anything. These values are relative to the edge of paper (0in) and go inward. For example, this command provides more conventional margins, better using the vertical space of the page, without creating the dramatically long lines of the fullpage package (if the 11pt documentclass option is used, the line lengths are about 88 characters for letter-sized paper and slightly less when using a4paper ).

It can also recreate the behavior of the fullpage package using

You can combine the margin options with the page size options seen in this paragraph .

• If the page size is A4, you can use the layaureo package. The big option further narrows the margins.
• You should not use the a4wide package for a page with A4 document size with smaller margins. It is obsolete and buggy. Use geometry package instead like this:

• Edit individual page dimension variables described above, using the \addtolength and \setlength commands. See the Lengths chapter. For instance,

Odd and even margins

Using the geometry package, the options left and right are used for the inside and outside margins respectively. They also have aliases inner and outer. Thus, the easiest way to handle different margins for odd and even pages is to give the twoside option in the document class command and specify the margins as usually.

This will result in a value of 4cm on all inner margins (left margin for odd number pages and right margin for even pages) and 2cm margin on outer margins.

Setting the same value for the inner and outer for geometry will remove the difference between the margins. Another quick way to eliminate the difference in position between even and odd numbered pages would be setting the values to evensidemargin and oddsidemargin to the half of odd's default:

By default, the value of evensidemargin is larger than oddsidemargin in the two-sided layout, as one could wish to write notes on the side of the page. The side for the large margin is chosen opposite to the side where pages are joined together.

See the Lengths .

Top margin above Chapter

The top margin above a chapter can be changed using the titlesec package. Example: [1]

The command \titleformat must be used when the spacing of a chapter is changed. In case of a section this command can be omitted.

Page orientation

When you talk about changing page orientation, it usually means changing to landscape mode, since portrait is the default. We shall introduce two slightly different styles of changing orientation.

Change orientation of the whole document

The first is for when you want all of your document to be in landscape from the very beginning. There are various packages available to achieve this, but the one we prefer is the geometry package. All you need to do is call the package, with landscape as an option:

Although, if you intend to use geometry to set your paper size, don't add the \usepackage commands twice, simply string all the options together, separating with a comma:

Using standard LaTeX classes, you can use the same class options:

Change orientation of specific part

The second method is for when you are writing a document in portrait, but you have some contents, like a large diagram or table that would be displayed better on a landscape page. However, you still want the consistency of your headers and footers appearing the same place as the other pages.

The lscape package is for this very purpose. It supplies a landscape environment, and anything inside is basically rotated. No actual page dimensions are changed. This approach is more applicable to books or reports than to typical academic publications. Using pdflscape instead of lscape when generating a PDF document will make the page appear right side up when viewed: the single page that is in landscape format will be rotated, while the rest will be left in portrait orientation.

Also, to get a table to appear correctly centered on a landscaped page, one must place the tabular environment inside a table environment, which is itself inside the landscape environment. For instance it should look like this:

For books (and in general documents using the twoside option), the landscape -environment unfortunately does not pay attention to the different layout of even and odd pages. The macro can be fixed using a few lines of extra code in the preamble [4] .

Change orientation of floating environment

If you use the above code, you will see that the table is inserted where it is in the code. It will not be floated! To fix this you need the package rotating . See the Rotations chapter.

Margins, page size and rotation of a specific page

If you need to rotate the page so that the figure fits, the chances are good that you need to scale the margins and the font size too. Again, the geometry package comes in handy for specifying new margins for a single page only.

Note that order matters!

Page background

There are many ways on implementing background for a page. Below is most common packages used:

• eso-pic package will let you print content in the background of every page or individual pages.

The starred-version of the \AddToShipoutPicture command applies to the current page only.

• background package let users include watermarks and pictures in the background.

Multi-column pages

Using the twocolumn optional class argument.

Using a standard Latex document class, like article, you can simply pass the optional argument twocolumn to the document class: \documentclass [twocolumn] { article } which will give the desired effect.

While this approach is useful, it has limitations. The multicol package provides the following advantages:

• Can support up to ten columns.
• Implements a multicols environment, therefore, it is possible to mix the number of columns within a document.
• Additionally, the environment can be nested inside other environments, such as figure .
• multicol outputs balanced columns, whereby the columns on the final page will be of roughly equal length.
• Use multicols* environment for unbalanced columns, whereby each column is completely filled before starting with the next column.
• Vertical rules between columns can be customised.
• Column environments can be easily customised locally or globally.

Using multicol package

The multicol package overcomes some of the shortcomings of twocolumn and provides the multicol environment. To create a typical two-column layout:

Floats are not fully supported by this environment . It can only cope if you use the starred forms of the float commands (e.g., \begin { figure* } ) which makes the float span all columns. This is not hugely problematic, since floats of the same width as a column may be too small, and you would probably want to span them anyway. See this section for a more detailed discussion.

The multicol package has two important parameters which can be set using \setlength :

• \columnseprule , sets the width of the vertical rule between columns and defaults to 0pt
• \columnsep , sets the horizontal space between columns and the defaults to 10pt, which is quite narrow

To force a break in a column, the command \columnbreak is used.

Manual page formatting

There may be instances, especially in very long documents, such as books, that LaTeX will not get all page breaks looking as good as it could. It may, therefore, be necessary to manually tweak the page formatting. Of course, you should only do this at the very final stage of producing your document, once all the content is complete. LaTeX offers the following:

Widows and orphans

In professional books, it's not desirable to have single lines at the beginning or end of a page. In typesetting such situations are called 'widows' and 'orphans'. Normally it is possible that widows and orphans appear in LaTeX documents. You can try to deal with them using manual page formatting, but there's also an automatic solution.

LaTeX has a parameter for 'penalty' for widows and orphans ('club lines' in LaTeX terminology). With the greater penalty LaTeX will try more to avoid widows and orphans. You can try to increase these penalties by putting following commands in your document preamble:

If this does not help, you can try increasing these values even more, to a maximum of 10000. However, it is not recommended to set this value too high, as setting it to 10000 forbids LaTeX from doing this altogether, which might result in strange behavior.

It also helps to have rubber band values for the space between paragraphs:

Alternatively, you can use the needspace package to reserve some lines and thus to prevent page breaking for those lines.

Troubleshooting / Debugging

A very useful troubleshooting and designing technique is to turn on the showframe option in the geometry package (which has the same effect as the showframe package described above). It draws bounding boxes around the major page elements, which can be helpful because the boundaries of various regions are usually invisible, and complicated by padding whitespace.

Examining log of the tex could be helpful as well - it should provide many useful information. In addition, following packages can help on visual debugging layout:

Which will print layout and frames. The statements could be on top of the source file and uncommented when required.

Notes and References

• ↑ How to use Ghostscript
• ↑ http://webtypography.net/2.1.2
• ↑ http://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability
• ↑ https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4982219/how-to-make-landscape-mode-rotate-properly-in-a-twoside-book/5320962#5320962

• Pages using deprecated enclose attributes

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LaTeX-Tutorial.com

How to change the margins of a latex document.

We can change the margins of a LaTeX document fine-tuning different lengths that are defined inside the system. In this tutorial, however, we will see how to more conveniently change the margins and other page-related lengths using the geometry package.

Geometry package: simple method for customizing page layout

\usepackage[key=val]{geometry}

where key=val is a list of keys and values separated by commas, every value being a valid TeX dimension, and every key is one of the following:

1. textwidth

Sets the width that the text will take up on the page.

2. textheight

Sets the height that the text will take up on the page.

3. left, lmargin, inner

These three parameters change the length of the left margin.

4. right, rmargin, outer

These three parameters change the length of the right margin.

5. top, tmargin

These two parameters determine the height of the top margin.

6. bottom, bmargin

These two parameters set the distance from the bottom edge of the document to its baseline.

7. headheight

Determines the height of the header.

Determines the separation between the baseline of the head and the text body.

9. footnotesep

This option corresponds to the separation between the baseline of the last line of text and the top of the footnote text.

10. footskip

This corresponds to the distance separation between the baseline of the last line of text and the baseline of the footer.

11. marginparwidth,marginpar

These two parameters determine the width of the right margin left for notes.

12. papersize

Determines the size of the paper. This parameter, unlike the previous ones, has to be set to a couple of TeX dimensions separated with a comma, and between braces, for example:

papersize= {597pt,845pt}

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Frequently Asked Question List for TeX

Changing the margins in LaTeX

Changing the layout of a document’s text on the page involves several subtleties not often realised by the beginner. There are interactions between fundamental TeX constraints, constraints related to the design of LaTeX, and good typesetting and design practice, that mean that any change must be very carefully considered, both to ensure that it “works” and to ensure that the result is pleasing to the eye.

LaTeX’s defaults sometimes seem excessively conservative, but there are sound reasons behind how Lamport designed the layouts themselves, whatever one may feel about his overall design. For example, the common request for “one-inch margins all round on A4 paper” is fine for 10- or 12-pitch typewriters, but not for 10pt (or even 11pt or 12pt) type because readers find such wide, dense, lines difficult to read. There should ideally be no more than 75 characters per line (though the constraints change for two-column text).

So Lamport’s warning to beginners in his section on “Customizing the Style” — “don’t do it” — should not lightly be ignored.

This set of FAQs recommends that you use a package to establish consistent settings of the parameters: the interrelationships are taken care of in the established packages, without you needing to think about them, but remember — the packages only provide consistent, working, mechanisms: they don’t analyse the quality of what you propose to do.

The following answers deal with the ways one may choose to proceed:

• Choose which package to use .
• Find advice on setting up page layout by hand .

There is a related question — how to change the layout temporarily — and there’s an answer that covers that, too:

• Change the margins on the fly .

FAQ ID: Q-changemargin Tags:  layout

home | writing | TIL | now | about

Writing a thesis in latex.

This article is a guide to constructing a decent parent file for a thesis or dissertation compiled in Latex. The specific details implemented here, and included in the example files, are those set out by the guidelines for submission to the University of Nottingham, but can be easily amended to suit any sensible requirements.

Considerable attention has been paid to presenting the final document as a PDF file, which keeps the file size manageable (compared to postscript) and allows groovy add-ons such as hyperlinks and back-referencing. However, several hacks are required to attain good functionality from your PDF file and these can give the latex code a mysterious (and messy) appearance in places. While I highly recommend the inclusion of the PDF-related commands, they are not strictly necessary and can be ignored especially if you are new to Latex.

Note for Windows users

The code outlined below was designed and implemented on the unix system at Nottingham. For those of you unfortunate enough to be running a Windows box, a number of problems may arise when using the below code:

First off, not all the packages used will be present and will need to be installed. Probably the easiest way to do this is to google the package name with the extension .sty and save this file in the C:\VTEX\l2e\\ directory of your machine. Note that for the natbib package, you will also need to download the relevant .bst file, which in this case is unsrtnat.bst .

Also, many of the packages that are installed locally may need updating. For instance, the computers I have tested on both have old versions of the geometry and caption packages, which cause Latex to return errors. To resolve these problems, either download the latest versions, or remove the includefoot option from the geometry package and set the bottom margin to 1.4in.

Also, the code for compiling to PDF does not work so well in Windows, and so it is recommended that Windows users use the template without PDF code.

Requirements

The guidelines for theses to be submitted to the University of Nottingham specify that:

• the document should be presented on single-sided a4 paper and typeset in a double-spaced size 10-12 font;
• the left-hand margin should be at least 1.5 inches (4cm) to allow for binding;
• the other three margins should be at least 1 inch (2.5cm).

Other settings such as the way chapter headings are formatted, and whether headers are included, are not specified and are up to the user. In this case, we’ll install headers and tinker with the chapter formatting.

Template files

Here are the template files which this page explains:

• thesis_without_pdfcode.tex
• thesis_with_pdfcode.tex

The appearance of both these files on the printed page will be identical; however after compilation into PDF (see the section below) and opening in Adobe Acrobat (or a similar PDF reader), the advantages that come with the PDF format will be apparent.

• thesis_without_pdfcode.pdf
• thesis_with_pdfcode.pdf

The rest of this page is devoted to explaining the code in these files.

Document structure

The document begins in a standard and entirely self-explanatory manner.

Preamble: essential packages

Next, the essential packages are loaded:

where the geometry package has been loaded to allow the margins to be set in a neat and consistent way. The non-obvious option includefoot ensures that the footer (which only contains the pagenumber) is included in the page and is thus 1 inch above the bottom of the page. Note that this option is only available in recent versions of the package: if you’re using an old version and can’t/won’t upgrade, then remove the offending option and extend the bottom margin to 1.4in. headheight=13.6pt is included due to to ensure compatibility with the fancyhdr package (and is not required if you don’t use the fancyhdr package). Also quite essential is the natbib package:

where the various options ensure that references appear in the document as:

…boiled dog can do maths claims experimenter [10,12,15-18].

Alternative referencing styles are easily implemented, see the natbib help file for more details. In fact, to use the natbib package, you’ll have to read at least a few lines of the help file so you understand the difference between \citet and \citep , and I insist you do that now.

Preamble: custom captions (optional)

We now set the figure captions to be elegant and dignified:

Note that early versions of this package don’t support the margin= and tableposition= options; in this case, these trimmings will have to be ignored.

Preamble: custom fonts (optional)

You can also choose an alternative font for both the text and the mathematical characters. This can be achieved by:

Aside from mathpazo , there are several other fonts available, such as chancery , palatino and times (all loaded in the same way).

Preamble: fancy headers (optional)

Feeling a little devil-may-care? If so, you’ll probably want to install some elegant headers along each page. This is easily achieved through the fancyhdr package:

The final complicated-looking three lines simply ensure that the headings for appendices are formatted correctly. (Without these lines, what should read “Appendix A” is set as “Chapter A”.)

Preamble: customised chapter/section headings (optional)

We now make use of several customisation options that are bundled with the sectsty package.

These alter the appearance of the first page of each chapter to have a centred title, with the word “chapter” set in small capitals immediately above. Feel free to employ your own individual and highly refined tastes here in choosing your own chapter/section settings.

Preamble: pdf options (optional)

If you want to publish your thesis on the internet, or even just to email it to someone, then you’ll want to store it in the ubiquitous PDF format. Doing so offers some neat facilities, such as hyperlinking, which are implemented by the hyperref package:

There are various other options you can pass to your favourite PDF reader via the \hypersetup command, such as pdftitle , pdfauthor and pdfsubject ; however, they’re not really essential. Note that the hyperlink colours have all been set to black for consistent printing. Should you want to distribute your thesis over the web, then it would be advisable to set these colours to red or something similarly vibrant and exciting.

Things get a little messy now as a hack is required to ensure the hyperlinks actually jump to the right place.

No need to worry about this code, let’s just move straight on.

Preamble: page layout

We now set various parameters to alter the general page layout:

The first two of these commands alter the paragraph formatting so that new paragraphs are not indented but separated from the previous one by a small amount of whitespace; the third sets the line spacing. The sharp-eyed among you will notice the discrepancy between our chosen line-spacing and that dictated by the university guidelines. However, no matter how poor your eyesight is, you’ll quickly appreciate that true double line-spacing (set with \renewcommand(\baselinestretch}{2} ) looks rubbish. In addition, Nottingham University are perfectly happy to accept theses set with the above line-spacing, which is more pleasing to the eye.

Some final settings:

Set which chapters to include when Latex is next run. The advantage of this method is that all your cross-references are remembered and Latex does not spit out loads of warnings.

Main matter

We now begin the document in earnest and define a suitable title:

followed by a dedication:

We now construct an abstract:

some acknowledgements:

and a contents page:

Now, we alter the pagenumbering to arabic and point to the relevant chapter files:

All your chapter files should be included here; to save time when editing, use the \includeonly command to specify which chapters to compile.

Finally, we make sure there is a link to the references section in the table of contents and reference the correct bibiography file (which in this case is called bibliography.bib ).

And there we have it: a complete thesis parent file that not only looks good on the printed page, but is fully functional and hyperlinked in PDF format.

Compiling to PDF

Whether you’ve included all the red PDF commands or not, you can convert your TEX file to PDF by running (in unix):

The additional argument to ps2pdf is required as the default paper size is US Letter. Note that you will probably need to bibtex your thesis file before running latex for the final time.

For Windows, first open a command window by going Start->Run and entering cmd . Provided MiKTeX and GhostScript are correctly installed then the necessary commands are:

The syntax for ps2pdf is slightly different in Windows compared to Unix - and note that the output pdf filename MUST be specified, else the ps file is overwritten and corrupted.

Something wrong? Suggest an improvement or add a comment (see article history ) Tagged with: latex Filed in: guides

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Best margins for master thesis written in LaTeX

I'm writing my Master's Thesis with LaTeX and I'd like to know what are the best margins I should use.

My university doesn't force any template. LaTeX default margins seems to me too large. Do you have any recommendation?

In addition, I would like to know if I should keep two different margins for even and odd pages. I'm using the book class.

• The manual for the "memoir" document class has a long introduction to typography and design, while still being relatively accessible. texdoc.net/texmf-dist/doc/latex/memoir/memman.pdf –  Oswald Veblen Commented Dec 31, 2014 at 14:11
• The best one is the one in the latex class template provided by your university. –  eykanal Commented Dec 31, 2014 at 14:51

2 Answers 2

Your question may not be completely appropriate for academia.sx but probably not for TeX.sx either.

Anyway. rather than focussing on the width of margins you can consider the width of the text area. Research (I do not have references at hand at the moment) has shown that around 65 (within the range 45-75) characters per line is optimal. This means that if you switch type face or size, the number of characters will change. Hence the same text area may not be optimal for 10, 11 and 12 pt or conversely your text optimal area will change with type face and size. To some extent, this is built into LaTeX which is at least partly why the margins may seem less than optimal.

So to approach the question of margins, try to select the type face and the type size you want to use and then check the resulting text area size for line lengths between 45 and 75 focussing around 65 characters.

The question of right and left page margins is a matter of simplicity. If you centre the text area on the page the areas will appear the same on all pages. When viewed as a pdf the text will not move around from page to page which can be slightly annoying, particularly if inside and outside margins have widely different widths. So will your text be read frequently in digital format use simple margins, if the print is important differing in- and outside margins may be preferable. Just make sure any printer does not screw up the margins by removing or missing printing blank pages that will result in a shift of left and right hand pages.

You can find a good and easy-to-read resource on changing margins with the typearea package here: http://www.khirevich.com/latex/page_layout/ A more detailed discussion of margins, text density and binding corrections is found in the manual for the KOMA-script bundle (which, incidentally, is a good alternative to book if you want a class that guides you more directly in the formatting of a long document).

Asymmetric margins can be obtained with the twoside option to book .

• 1 I am sorry, but i cannot recommend a page that talks about page margins and screws up left and right hand pages in all screenshots. +1 for the KOMA mention, though. –  Johannes_B Commented Dec 28, 2015 at 17:39

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LaTeX forum ⇒ Page Layout ⇒ Setup margins of the paper

Setup margins of the paper.

Post by Lumy » Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:00 pm

Recommended reading 2024:

Post by Keta » Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:08 pm

Post by Lumy » Thu Feb 05, 2009 2:38 pm

Re: Setup margins of the paper

Post by phi » Thu Feb 05, 2009 4:12 pm

Post by Goicetty » Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:15 pm

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Recommended page layout settings for latex [closed]

I would appreciate input and thoughts on what a good page layout for a mathematical article looks like in latex. What would you consider good practice? What is your own personal preference? Which page layouts annoy you as a reader? 11pt or 12pt? Standard latex fonts, or do you prefer another (commonly available) choice? What's a good compromise between traditional typographic rules (no more than 60 characters per line) and not wasting too much empty space on a page?

To make it really concrete, let's say I am specifically asking for guidance for articles to be posted on the arXiv, i.e. the article will be printed both on letter and A4 paper. And unlike journals, you don't have the luxury of choosing your page size appropriately.

(P.S.: What are good examples of layout for math content on A4-sized pages done by professionals?)

• 12 $\begingroup$ hi, do you think tex.stackexchange.com could help? $\endgroup$ –  Suvrit Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 16:11
• 3 $\begingroup$ This does not strike me as appropriate for MO. At the very least, it should be CW. $\endgroup$ –  Thierry Zell Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 16:21
• 4 $\begingroup$ I would prefer to ask the question here, as good layout is very context-sensitive, and I am (as, I would have thought, other MO readers) specifically interested in recommendations for mathematical research articles. $\endgroup$ –  Arend Bayer Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 16:44
• 1 $\begingroup$ @AByer: there are plenty of mathematicians on tex.stackexchange.com who would be happy to give you advice. And I don't see a reason why a mathematician's answer would be more pertinent than a physicist or engineer's answer: all of us are interested in ensuring that our documents are clear and readable. $\endgroup$ –  Andrew Stacey Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 18:00
• 7 $\begingroup$ I'm not convinced that tex.stackexchange.com is more appropriate, since this is a stylistic question and not about TeX or LaTeX per se. Also, a mathematician's answer is more pertinent, because there are definitely different conventions for the different fields. $\endgroup$ –  Deane Yang Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 18:21

2 Answers 2

From arXiv, it is possible to download the source of any paper. You could check the page layout from a paper you like.

This is undoubtedly not the answer you want, but I just use the amsart style with 12 point type. I see no reason to trust my own typographical taste above that of the people who created the style file. Journals will apply their own styles anyway, and any fancy stuff I did in my preprints would just interfere with this re-styling.

• 6 $\begingroup$ The default margins are too wide for my taste, so I always add "\usepackage{fullpage}". $\endgroup$ –  Deane Yang Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 16:29
• $\begingroup$ I agree: \documentclass{amsart} \usepackage{fullpage} $\endgroup$ –  Neil Strickland Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 17:09
• 1 $\begingroup$ Thanks Deane, that's one example of the kind of advice I was looking for! $\endgroup$ –  Arend Bayer Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 17:09
• 4 $\begingroup$ Yuk! No! Do not use "fullpage". It makes it almost unreadable (now I understand why I never understood any of Neil's lecture notes). If you want to save paper, print it 2-up and remove the margins at that stage (use pstops if on unix). If you really must change the margins, use the geometry package. If you want to know any more, visit tex.stackexchange.com $\endgroup$ –  Andrew Stacey Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 17:59
• 1 $\begingroup$ Fullpage is not readable I just use it for longer calculations but not for communication. Standard Latex Geometry is optimized on readability. For printing I zoom around 125% (try and error) in Acrobat Reader killing some of the margins and print two pages on one. $\endgroup$ –  Marcel Bischoff Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 10:32

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How to Write a Thesis in LaTeX (Part 5): Customising Your Title Page and Abstract

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Author: Josh Cassidy (August 2013)

This five-part series of articles uses a combination of video and textual descriptions to teach the basics of writing a thesis using LaTeX. These tutorials were first published on the original ShareLateX blog site during August 2013; consequently, today's editor interface (Overleaf) has changed considerably due to the development of ShareLaTeX and the subsequent merger of ShareLaTeX and Overleaf. However, much of the content is still relevant and teaches you some basic LaTeX—skills and expertise that will apply across all platforms.

In the previous post we looked at adding a bibliography to our thesis using the biblatex package . In this, the final post of the series, we're going to look at customising some of the opening pages. In the first video we made a rather makeshift title page using the \maketitle command and by using an \includegraphics command in the \title command. Although this works, it doesn't give us as much flexibility as we may want.

The Title Page

A much better way to do this is to use the titlepage environment. We'll do this in a separate .tex file and then input it. The first thing we'll do is enclose everything in the title page within the center environment so it's all aligned to the centre. Next we need to instruct L a T e X to leave a gap between the top of the page and the first line of text. To do this we use the \vspace command followed by a length. We also need to add an asterisk into the command to make sure L a T e X doesn't decide to ignore the command. Next we'll add the thesis title in bold font using the \textbf command. To leave a gap between this and the next line of text we use the \vspace command again, this time without the asterisk. Next we'll add in a subtitle followed by some more vertical space and then the author name in bold font. This concludes what we want at the top of the title page—the rest of the content we'll add at the bottom of the title page.

To separate these two sections out we'll use the \vfill command which will automatically add in the amount of vertical space needed for the content to fill the page. Next we'll add in a line of text to specify what degree the thesis is being submitted for. The double backslash is used to create a new line. We'll then add more space before adding in the university logo specifying it's width as a fraction of the text width. Finally we'll add in some information about the university and the date.

Now in the main .tex file we can replace the \maketitle command with an input command linked to our new title page. If we now compile the code we can see all the items have been correctly processed:

However, the text is quite small so we'll go back and change the font sizes. To do this we'll use one of the simple font-sizing commands. There are ten of these to choose from, ranging from smallest to largest they are:

Let's make the title as big as it can be (using these simple commands) by choosing \Huge . We'll then make the subtitle two steps smaller using \large . When we use one of these commands they affect all the text in it's scope. Therefore in it's current state all the remaining text on the page will appear in the size of the subtitle. We'll keep it like this for the author name and degree title but we'll drop down one size for the university details and the date:

The abstract

We can also customise other pages, such as the abstract. Instead of using an unnumbered chapter, we'll create a new .tex file, customise the layout and then input it. At the top of this file we need to change the page style to plain in order to stop the headers being added in. Now in a similar way to the title page we'll add in some custom titles and then the abstract text.

This is what it will look like added in:

This concludes our series on writing a basic thesis. If you want to play around with the thesis we've created in this series you can open the project in Overleaf .

All articles in this series

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Health Insurer Financial Performance in 2023

Jared Ortaliza , Jeannie Fuglesten Biniek , Elizabeth Hinton , Tricia Neuman , Robin Rudowitz , and Cynthia Cox Published: Jul 02, 2024

The largest private health insurance companies often offer plans in multiple markets, including the Medicare Advantage, Medicaid managed care, individual (non-group), and fully insured group (employer) health insurance markets. Each market has unique features, including eligibility, payment, and coverage rules, which affect insurers’ overhead and potential profit. In recent years, private insurers are playing a growing role in public insurance programs, with more than half of eligible Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in a private Medicare Advantage plan and nearly three-quarters of Medicaid enrollees obtaining coverage through a managed care plan (typically a private insurer).

This brief examines two measures of financial performance – gross margins and medical loss ratios – in the Medicare Advantage, Medicaid managed care, individual, and fully insured group health insurance markets using data reported by insurance companies to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and compiled by Mark Farrah Associates, through the end 2023 (the most recent year of annual data).

In 2023, per enrollee gross margins were highest in the Medicare Advantage market, and medical loss ratios were lowest in the individual insurance market. While both gross margins and medical loss ratios are indicators of financial performance, higher margins and lower loss ratios do not necessarily translate into greater profitability since they do not account for administrative expenses or tax liabilities. Additionally, the increasingly complex structure of insurance companies, including the rise in consolidation and vertical integration, and role of subsidiaries, make it difficult to isolate the revenues and expenses associated with a particular insurance market. (A detailed description of each market is included in the Appendix).

Measures of Financial Performance in 2023

Gross margins.

The gross margin per enrollee is the amount by which total premium income exceeds total claims costs per person over a specified time period (i.e., per year).

At the end of 2023, gross margins per enrollee ranged from $753 in the Medicaid managed care market to $1,982 in the Medicare Advantage market. Gross margins per enrollee in the group and individual markets were $910 and $1,048, respectively, roughly half the level observed among Medicare Advantage plans on average. The level of margins reflect, in part, the overall health needs and spending in a market segment. A similar margin in percentage terms will translate to a higher margin in dollars per enrollee when average health expenses are higher.

Medical loss ratios

Another way to assess insurer financial performance is to look at medical loss ratios (MLRs), or the percent of premium income that insurers pay out in the form of medical claims. Generally, lower MLRs mean that insurers have a higher share of income remaining after paying medical costs to use for administrative costs or keep as profits. Each health insurance market has different administrative needs and costs, so a lower MLR in one market does not necessarily mean that market is more profitable than another market.

MLRs are used in state and federal insurance regulation in a variety of ways. In the commercial insurance (individual and group) markets, insurers must issue rebates to individuals and businesses if their MLRs fail to reach minimum standards set by the ACA. Medicare Advantage insurers are  required  to report MLRs at the contract level (which typically combines multiple plans) and are required to issue rebates to the federal government if their MLRs fall short of required levels and are subject to additional penalties if they fail to meet MLR requirements for multiple consecutive years. For Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs), CMS requires states to develop capitation rates for Medicaid to achieve an MLR of at least 85%. There is no federal requirement for Medicaid plans to pay remittances if they fail to meet their MLR threshold, but  a majority of states  that contract with MCOs require remittances in at least some cases. The 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act includes a financial incentive to encourage certain states to collect remittances from Medicaid MCOs that do not meet minimum MLR requirements.

The MLRs shown in this issue brief are simple loss ratios (claims as a share of premium income) and differ from the definition of MLR in the ACA  and in Medicaid managed care , which makes some adjustments for quality improvement and taxes, and do not account for reinsurance, risk corridors, or risk adjustment payments.

In 2023, MLRs were similar across the group, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid managed care markets and somewhat lower in the individual market. Simple loss ratios were around 84% in individual market, 86% in the fully insured (group) market, and 87% in the Medicaid managed care and Medicare Advantage markets.

Trends in Gross Margins

While gross margins are not equivalent to profitability, changes in gross margins can be indicative of changes in profitability (assuming administrative costs and tax liability are stable). Across most markets, gross margins have been relatively stable in recent years, though they have declined somewhat from spikes that occurred in 2020 during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Medicare Advantage : Through the end of 2023, gross margins in the Medicare Advantage market averaged $1,982 per enrollee, which was similar to 2022 ($1,977), despite reports by the largest Medicare Advantage insurers of higher-than-expected utilization at the end of 2023. Potentially spurred by the prospect of strong financial returns, the Medicare Advantage market has  grown substantially  in the last decade, with more than 50% of eligible beneficiaries enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan in 2023.

Group Market : Gross margins for fully insured group plans declined significantly from 2020 to 2021 (the lowest in the past decade) but have been increasing in subsequent years. In 2023, per enrollee gross margins in the group market were nearly the same as those in 2018.

Individual Market : Individual market gross margins were about 31% and 10% lower in 2023 than in 2018 and 2019, respectively. In 2018, following efforts to repeal the ACA and defunding of Cost Sharing Reduction subsidies, insurers raised individual market premiums substantially. These premium increases resulted in significantly higher margins than in earlier years (Figure 3).

Medicaid Managed Care : Per enrollee gross margins in the Medicaid managed care market decreased by 6% from 2022 to 2023 but remained higher than pre-pandemic levels. Starting in April 2023, pandemic-era policies that allowed for “continuous enrollment” in Medicaid ended and states began reviewing eligibility and disenrolling individuals who were no longer eligible or who did not complete the renewal process. National data show total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment declined by more than 9% (about 9 million people) from March 2023 to December 2023. Medicaid managed care plans expected the overall risk profile (or “acuity”) of its members to worsen during unwinding, as they anticipated “stayers” would be sicker than “leavers,” which may have contributed to the decrease in per enrollee gross margins seen from 2022 to 2023. States may use a variety of risk mitigation strategies to provide financial protection and limits on financial risk for states and plans that may not be accounted for in the data used in this analysis. Many states implemented COVID-19 related risk corridors (where states and health plans agree to share profit or losses) allowing for the recoupment of payments made for 2020, 2021, and 2022. Gross margins reported may not reflect recoupments of funds that may occur after the reporting period.

Trends in Medical Loss Ratios

Each health insurance market has different administrative needs and costs, so similar MLRs do not imply that the markets are similar to each other in profitability. Additionally, simple MLRs examined in this brief do not incorporate the effects of changes in tax law, such as the health insurer tax, which has been permanently repealed starting in 2021, was in effect in 2018 and 2020, but was not in 2019. While MLRs alone cannot convey whether a market is profitable in a particular year, if administrative costs hold mostly constant from one year to the next, a change in the MLR could imply a change in profitability.

Individual Market : The average individual market MLR in 2023 was lower than in 2021 and 2022 but higher than those seen in the years leading up to the pandemic. As mentioned earlier, 2018 and 2019 were exceptionally lucrative years for the individual market. Many plans fell short of the ACA’s MLR requirements and were therefore required to issue large rebates to consumers based on their 2018 and 2019 experience.

Group Market : The average MLR for group plans was stable between 2022 and 2023 at 86%, and slightly below the average of 88% in 2021. These are all higher than previous years, when MLRs ranged from 83% in 2018 and 2020 to 85% in 2019.

Medicaid Managed Care : Relative to 2022, the average MLR in 2023 for the Medicaid managed care market increased slightly from 86% to 87% (implying a potential decrease in profitability) but remained lower than in 2018 and 2019. State Medicaid programs and managed care plans continue to be in a period of heightened uncertainty as unwinding continues. States and plans will be closely monitoring disenrollments and “churn” (off and on the program) as well as new utilization and acuity trends.

Medicare Advantage : Average MLRs in the Medicare Advantage market have been relatively stable over the last few years, averaging 87% in 2021 and 2023 and 86% in 2022. That is somewhat higher than before and during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The slight increase of the MLR in the Medicare Advantage market could imply decreased profitability. It is also possible that some Medicare Advantage insurers opted to offer new or more generous extra benefits, such as over-the-counter allowances, meals following hospital stays, or transportation, in addition to gym memberships, dental, vision and hearing benefits that are offered nearly universally to help retain and attract new enrollees, while also ensuring that those at risk of falling below the required thresholds would have sufficient costs to avoid triggering any rebates to the federal government. At the same time, it may be difficult to interpret changes in MLRs with increasing consolidation, driven in part by insurers purchasing related businesses, such as pharmacy benefit managers, physician groups, and post-acute care providers, because it is not entirely clear how insurers allocate expenses across different lines of business.

Medicare Advantage plans have both higher average costs and higher premiums (largely paid by the federal government), because Medicare covers an older, sicker population. So, while Medicare Advantage insurers spend a similar share of their premiums on benefits as other insurers in other markets, the gross margins described above—which include profits and administrative costs—tend to be higher in Medicare Advantage plans.

This work was supported in part by Arnold Ventures. KFF maintains full editorial control over all of its policy analysis, polling, and journalism activities.

We analyzed insurer-reported financial data from Health Coverage Portal TM , a market database maintained by Mark Farrah Associates, which includes information from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). We used the “Exhibit of Premiums, Enrollment, and Utilization” report (accessed May 28, 2024) for this analysis. The dataset analyzed in this report does not include California HMOs regulated by California’s Department of Managed Health Care. Additionally, for Medicaid, there are five states (Arizona, California, Delaware, New York, and Oregon) that have different reporting practices and therefore consistently only have partial or no NAIC data available.

We excluded plans that were not present in the NAIC demographics file, filed negative values in any of the segments of interest, or have negative or zero dollars in premiums or claims. We also excluded plans reporting at least 1,000 hospital patient days incurred per 1,000 member months. We only included plans that were categorized as having a “medical” focus in our analysis and exclude “specialty” plans which are categorized as “ancillary or supplemental benefit plans.” We also excluded any plans from the U.S. territories. We corrected for plans that did not file “member months” or filed a zero “member month” value in the annual statement but did file current year membership by imputing these values. If, after imputing, plans still did not have “member months,” they were excluded.

The group market in this analysis only includes fully insured plans. NAIC defines “Medicaid” as “business where the reporting entity charges a premium and agrees to cover the full medical costs of Medicaid subscribers.” This explicitly excludes Administrative Services Only (ASO) plans. We only use “medical” focused plans to help exclude any specialty plans; however, prepaid ambulatory health plans (PAHPs), prepaid inpatient health plans (PIHPs), or Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) plans may be included in the analysis due to NAIC’s definition of Medicaid.

Gross margins per enrollee were calculated by subtracting the sum of total incurred claims from the sum of unadjusted health premiums earned and dividing by the total number of members.

Premiums for Medicare Advantage plans primarily consist of federal payments made to plans and any additional amounts plans may choose to charge their enrollees. Premiums for Medicare Advantage plans do not include payments for Medicare Part D benefits. Premiums for Medicaid do not reflect contractual adjustments related to risk corridors or other risk-sharing adjustments.

To calculate medical loss ratios, we divided the market-wide sum of total incurred claims by the sum of all unadjusted health premiums earned. MLRs in this analysis are simple loss ratios and do not adjust for quality improvement expenses, taxes, or risk program payments. It should be noted that other organizations and agencies use claims and premiums reported in the “Statement of Revenues & Expenses” for their medical loss ratio calculations.

Individual Market :The individual market, which accounted for about 18 million people in the first quarter of 2023, includes coverage purchased by individuals and families through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges (Marketplaces) as well as coverage purchased directly off-exchange, which includes both plans complying with the ACA’s rules and non-compliant coverage (e.g., grandfathered policies purchased before the ACA went into effect and some short-term plans). The federal government provides subsidies for low and middle-income people in the Marketplace and includes measures, such as risk adjustment, to help limit the financial liability of insurers. Insurers in the individual market receive premium payments from enrollees, plus any federal subsidies for people in the Marketplaces.

Some plans submitting data on the Exhibit of Premiums Enrollment and Utilization appear to be including some Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) data in their Individual market filings. In a previous version of this analysis, we used the Supplemental Health Care Exhibit to address this. However, in this analysis, we opted to use the EPEU to ensure comparability.

Group Market :The fully insured group market serves employers, their employees and dependents who are enrolled in fully insured health plans. This market includes both small and large group plans but excludes employer-sponsored insurance plans that are self-funded, which account for  65%  of workers with employer-sponsored insurance in 2023. Roughly 30 million people were enrolled in fully insured group market plans in 2023. Plans typically receive premium payments from both employers and their employees.

Medicaid Managed Care :The Medicaid managed care market includes managed care organizations (MCOs) that contract with state Medicaid programs to deliver comprehensive acute care (i.e., most physician and hospital services) to enrollees. As of July 2021, about three-fourths (just over 66 million people) of all Medicaid beneficiaries nationally received most or all of their care from comprehensive risk-based MCOs. There is significant  variation  across states with respect to services that are covered by MCOs.

In this analysis, the NAIC data we use defines “Medicaid” as “business where the reporting entity charges a premium and agrees to cover the full medical costs of Medicaid subscribers” and only explicitly excludes Administrative Services Only (ASO) plans from their reporting. While we only use “medically” focused plans to help exclude any specialty plans, PAHPs, PIHPs and PACE plans may not be excluded due to NAIC’s definition of Medicaid. Additionally, for Medicaid, there are five states (Arizona, California, Delaware, New York, and Oregon) that have different reporting practices and therefore consistently only have partial or no NAIC data available. In other work, KFF defines comprehensive MCOs as managed care plans that provide comprehensive Medicaid acute care services and, in some cases, long-term services and supports as well. This excludes “limited benefit plans” including prepaid ambulatory health plans (PAHPs), prepaid inpatient health plans (PIHPs), and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) that may be included in this analysis.

Mark Farrah Associates Health Coverage Portal TM  includes data from fully capitated risk-based MCOs as well as non-comprehensive Primary Care Case Management (PCCM) plans and some specialty plans. PCCM plans have lower capitated payments than comprehensive MCO agreements because a primary care physician is paid a smaller flat fee for case management and care coordination responsibilities, but the remainder of services an enrollee receives are delivered on a Fee-For-Service agreement.

Medicare Advantage :The Medicare Advantage market provides Medicare-covered benefits through private plans to more than 30 million Medicare beneficiaries in 2023, which is just over half of all Medicare beneficiaries in 2023. The federal government makes risk-adjusted payments (higher payments for sicker enrollees and lower payments for healthier enrollees) to plans (averaging nearly  $14,380 p er enrollee in 2023) to cover the cost of benefits covered under Medicare Parts A and B and supplemental benefits, such as dental, vision, hearing, and others, with additional payments for costs associated with prescription drug coverage. Some plans charge enrollees an additional premium.

• Affordable Care Act
• Private Insurance
• Medicare Advantage
• Administrative Costs
• Health System Performance
• Managed Care
• Individual Market
• Large Group
• Small Group

Also of Interest

• 2024 Medical Loss Ratio Rebates
• Medicare Advantage in 2023: Enrollment Update and Key Trends
• Strategies to Manage Unwinding Uncertainty for Medicaid Managed Care Plans: Medical Loss Ratios, Risk Corridors, and Rate Amendments

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Side Margin of a Paper

In many journals it is said to maintain "81/2-by-11 double-spaced typed pages". This means how many inch margin? That is what is the value of x in \usepackage[margin=xin]{geometry} ?

• 1 One would assume here that they don't mean to cover the entire 8.5 x 11in page in text. Using \usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry} is mostly sufficient, since they may eventually change it to conform to their publication standards anyway. –  Werner ♦ Commented Jul 10, 2013 at 20:56

if a journal requires "double-spaced typed pages" it is a certainty that they will reformat it for publication. as Werner says in his comment, 1in margins should be satisfactory in that situation. if they want something closer to their published format, they should provide an author package.

however, be careful to keep any display math narrower than the published page width, using multi-line display environments if necessary (cf. amsmath ).

reformatting math to fit within "smaller" journal page dimensions can end up introducing errors, never mind causing real headaches for production editors, even if the final conversion is tex-to-tex.

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