Single sided and double sided documents

LaTeX offers the possibility of declaring the document as one-sided or two-sided, this wil arrange several elements to look fine in the chosen format.

[edit] Introduction

Declaring a two-sided document is simple, just pass the twoside parameter to the \documentclass declaration.

\documentclass[twoside]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
 
\title{Two-sided document example}
\author{ }
\date{March 2014}
 
\begin{document}
 
\maketitle
 
\section{Introduction}
In a two-sided document the space in the inner side 
of the page is a bit larger. There are several commands 
that have a special version for two-sided documents, 
like figure alignment and page numbering.
 
\end{document}

As you see, the margins are different than in a one-side document.

  Open an example in ShareLaTeX

[edit] Difference between one-side and two-side documents

Lets see one next to other a one-side and a two-side document.

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,oneside]{book}

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,twoside]{book}

Headers, page numbering, margin notes and several other elements are reformatted when using a two-sided document

It is good way to define binding offset value for documents with binding (e.g. books) by using geometry package.

When inserting images in a two-sided document you can define the alignment relative to the edges of the page.

  Open an example in ShareLaTeX

[edit] Further reading

For more information see:

• Page size and margins
• Footnotes
• Margin notes
• Headers and footers
• Sections and chapters
• Management in a large project
• Multi-file LaTeX projects
• Text alignment
• Font sizes, families, and styles
• Inserting Images
• Positioning images and tables
• geometry package documentation.