<h1>Papersize/Layout Problems: Margins are Different and/or Text is Truncated</h1> <p> There are many possible reasons for a papersize/layout problem. It may be due to differences in style files used, variations in layout parameters of the TeX installation, badly adjusted printer offsets, etc. </p> <p> The most common cause, however, is due to the differences in <b>papersize</b>. The standard papersize in the US is <b>US letter</b>, which is shorter and wider than <b>(European) DIN A4</b> paper, as shown in the table below: </p> <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="center"> <tr><th rowspan="2"></th><th colspan="2">inches</th><th colspan="2">cm</th></tr> <tr><th>x</th><th>y</th><th>x</th><th>y</th></tr> <tr> <th>US letter</th> <td>8.5</td> <td>11</td> <td>21.59</td> <td>27.94</td> </tr> <tr> <th>Din A4</th> <td>8.26</td> <td>11.69</td> <td>20.99</td> <td>29.70</td> </tr> </table> <p> In order for your submission to print well for most interested readers, you need to tune the layout to fit on both papersizes. This mainly affects the margins you choose and the style file options. </p> <h3>Solution</h3> <p> The easiest way to adjust margins without changing page or line breaks is to use the (La)TeX commands <code>\voffset</code> and <code>\hoffset</code> in the document header. For example, for a shift of 0.8 inches upwards use: </p> <pre> \voffset=-0.8in </pre> <p> somewhere before <code>\begin{document}</code>. </p> <p> Moreover, if the style file or documentclass allow for papersize selection, you should always use the letter option for submission to arXiv; e.g., </p> <pre> \documentclass[letterpaper]{article} </pre> <p> For a more general solution, see the <a href="arXiv-texsize.ps.gz">geometry package</a>. </p> <p> If you suspect style file differences to be responsible for layout and/or margin variations, you should bundle the style file(s) in question with your submission. Files that unpack in the same directory as your main TeX file will be used instead of system files with the same name. </p> <h2>Testing</h2> <p> Some postscript display programs, like Ghostview, GSview, and GV, allow explicit papersize settings and/or display the paper boundaries according to the papersize setting in the postscript file, and thus allow for easy interactive layout tuning for optimal printout on lettersize and A4 paper. </p> <p> Also remember that you can and should replace as often as necessary before 16:00 US Eastern time on the day of submission to tune layout and to make other changes without bumping the revision number. </p> <h2>dvips Settings</h2> <p> If the postscript generated at arXiv displays as you expect, but prints with different margins or is truncated at the top or bottom, the likely reason is a difference in offsets used. For printing with <code>dvips</code>, offsets are configurable on a per printer basis, and capable sysadmins tune these to specific printers. </p> <p> A frequent pitfall is the default papersize setting and corresponding offsets. Check the file <code>config.ps</code> for papersize settings, or look at the comments at the top of the postscript file for a line <code>%%DocumentPaperSizes: Letter</code>, or try: </p> <pre> dvips -t letter -o usletter.ps your.dvi </pre> <p> versus </p> <pre> dvips -t a4 -o europeanpaper.ps your.dvi </pre> <p> to see the difference. Recent versions of teTeX come with <code>a4</code> as default. </p>