What is the parameter in LaTeX which limits the vertical space that can
be taken up by footnotes on a page? I though I could find this unaided,
but I can't. In all these years I have never actually needed to know
this :-)

Alternatively (if this is the way it works) what is the parameter in
LaTeX which requires a page with a massive quantity of footnote text to
still have at least $n$ lines of actual body text at the top? I know
that printers' convention is two lines, but again I have never needed
this in LaTeX...until now.

Peter

Am Thu, 29 Sep 2022 22:44:17 +0200 schrieb Peter Flynn:

> What is the parameter in LaTeX which limits the vertical space that can
> be taken up by footnotes on a page? I though I could find this unaided,
> but I can't. In all these years I have never actually needed to know
> this :-)
>
> Alternatively (if this is the way it works) what is the parameter in
> LaTeX which requires a page with a massive quantity of footnote text to
> still have at least $n$ lines of actual body text at the top? I know
> that printers' convention is two lines, but again I have never needed
> this in LaTeX...until now.

\dimen\footins will restrict the space. But it will not force more
lines on the first page if they have footnotes too, the b here is
moved to the last page:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\dimen\footins=3cm
\begin{document}
a\footnote{\lipsum\lipsum}

b\footnote{aaa}
\end{document}

--
Ulrike Fischer
http://www.troubleshooting-tex.de/

On 29/09/2022 22:53, Ulrike Fischer wrote:
> Am Thu, 29 Sep 2022 22:44:17 +0200 schrieb Peter Flynn:
>
>> What is the parameter in LaTeX which limits the vertical space that can
>> be taken up by footnotes on a page?
[...]
> \dimen\footins will restrict the space. But it will not force more
> lines on the first page if they have footnotes too, the b here is
> moved to the last page:
>
> \documentclass{article}
> \usepackage{lipsum}
> \dimen\footins=3cm
> \begin{document}
> a\footnote{\lipsum\lipsum}
>
> b\footnote{aaa}
> \end{document}

OK, thanks. So in the case of a single giant footnote which runs to many
pages, if I want to ensure a minimum of (say) five lines of normal text
on each page (and the rest of the space all footnote), I would need to
set \dimen\footins to \textheight - 5\baselineskip minus whatever space
I wish to separate text from footnote. Is that correct?

Peter

Le 01/10/2022 à 00:03, Peter Flynn a écrit :
> On 29/09/2022 22:53, Ulrike Fischer wrote:
>> [a very good answer as usual...]
>
> OK, thanks. So in the case of a single giant footnote which runs to many
> pages, if I want to ensure a minimum of (say) five lines of normal text
> on each page (and the rest of the space all footnote), I would need to
> set \dimen\footins to \textheight - 5\baselineskip minus whatever space
> I wish to separate text from footnote. Is that correct?

I do love when there is a question along with its answer :-)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\newdimen\whatever
\dimen\whatever0pt % useless in fact
\dimen\footins\the\dimexpr\textheight-5\baselineskip-\whatever

\begin{document}
Some text\footnote{\lipsum[1-30]}

\lipsum
\end{document}

Jean-Côme Charpentier

On 01/10/2022 11:45, Jean-Côme Charpentier wrote:
> Le 01/10/2022 à 00:03, Peter Flynn a écrit :
>> On 29/09/2022 22:53, Ulrike Fischer wrote:
>>> [a very good answer as usual...]
>>
>> OK, thanks. So in the case of a single giant footnote which runs to
>> many pages, if I want to ensure a minimum of (say) five lines of
>> normal text on each page (and the rest of the space all footnote), I
>> would need to set \dimen\footins to \textheight - 5\baselineskip minus
>> whatever space I wish to separate text from footnote. Is that correct?
>
>   I do love when there is a question along with its answer :-)
>
> \documentclass{article}
> \usepackage{lipsum}
>
> \newdimen\whatever
> \dimen\whatever0pt % useless in fact
> \dimen\footins\the\dimexpr\textheight-5\baselineskip-\whatever
>
> \begin{document}
> Some text\footnote{\lipsum[1-30]}
>
> \lipsum
> \end{document}

Thanks, I shall work on that (results may be in my next column in
TUGboat :-)

Peter