Text Formatting ⇒ Centering text

[Txukolatex]

Hi to all,

I am trying to do something as simple as centering text in a page but is impossible for me. It does not center the last line of the first paragraph and I don't understand why.

This is the minimum not working example:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper]{book}
\hyphenpenalty=10000
\exhyphenpenalty=10000
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.5}

\begin{document}
\vspace*{\fill}

\begin{center}
\centering
{
\textbf{\Huge{XXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXX}}
\newline
\newline
\LARGE XX XX XXXXX XX XXXX\par
}
\end{center}
\vspace*{\fill}

\end{document}

Thanks.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Welcome to the forum.

That's a very good minimal example, as it shows the problem in a short way. The simple answer is: don't use \newline except you really want to end a line (and definitely not a paragraph) and never use it to get vertical whitespace. You could replace it by \par or by an empty line.

And don't use \centering within a center environment, just choose either of them.

Minimal working example:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper]{book}
\hyphenpenalty=10000
\exhyphenpenalty=10000
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.5} 
\begin{document}
\vspace*{\fill}
\begin{center}
\Huge\bfseries
XXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXX
\par
\vspace{\baselineskip}
\LARGE XX XX XXXXX XX XXXX\par
\end{center}
\vspace*{\fill} 
\end{document}

Stefan

[Txukolatex]

Thanks. I knew that was absurd to put center and centering at the same time, but they didn't work separated.

The worst thing with latex is that each command always is doing more things than it is supposed to do.

[Johannes_B]

If you want to create a title page, please have a look at the wikibook page. A few examples are linked at the bottom.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

each command always is doing more things than it is supposed to do.

So you can tell us a lot of such commands doing unexpected things? All commands, you said. I'm curious, can you give some examples?

I think, commands do what they are supposed to do, not more. It's possible that users don't know, but it can be read in documentation when there's time. I agree that it's not easy for a beginner or occasional LaTeX user, but it's not the solution to say something like above just because you don't know better. We can provide explanation here, if you need some details about a command.

Stefan

[Txukolatex]

I have just give you an example. The command \newline alters the centering of the previous line.

And take into account that I am not trying to attack a very good tool as Latex or justify my ignorance, which I assume.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

The command \newline alters the centering of the previous line.

That's not the case, the reason is: centering works based on paragraphs, so it requires a paragraph end to center also the last line.

Stefan

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Here is an example:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper]{book}
\hyphenpenalty=10000
\exhyphenpenalty=10000
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.5}
\begin{document}
\vspace*{\fill}
\bfseries
{% next lines centered?
\centering
\Huge
XXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXX
% activate, that is, comment the next line out to fix:
%\par
}% previous lines centered?
\par
\vspace{\baselineskip}
\begin{center}
\LARGE XX XX XXXXX XX XXXX\par
\end{center}
\vspace*{\fill}
\end{document}

The \centering in the curly braces doesn't work, because there is no paragraph break in the {...} group where centering should be. If you remove the % before \par, centering works. You would also notice that line spacing works based on the paragraph, once you have the \par in the group, the line space is like it should be for \Huge.

Just to explain, why centering needs a paragraph break and not a \newline.

Stefan