Headers and footers

LaTeX has some predetermined styles that change the way the header and the footer are displayed. The footer and the header can also be customized to fit any particular layout. This article explains how.

Introduction

The information displayed in the footer and the header of a document depends on the page style currently active, these page styles are more notorious in the book document class:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt,twoside]{book}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\pagestyle{headings}

\begin{document}
\chapter{Sample Chapter}
\section{New section}

Hello, here is some text without a meaning.  This text should 
show what a printed text will look like at this place.  If you 
read this text, you will get no information.  Really?  Is there 
no information?  Is there a difference between this text and some 
nonsense like ``Huardest gefburn?  Kjift " not at all!...

\end{document}

The command \pagestyle{headings} sets the page style called headings to the current document. You can see more page styles in the next section

  Open an example in Overleaf

Standard page styles

The standard page styles are invoked in LaTeX by means of the command:

\pagestyle{''style''}

\pagestyle{myheadings}

The myheadings pagestyle displays the page number on top of the page in the outer corner.

There are other three page styles:

• empty: Both the header and footer are cleared (blank) in this page style.

• plain: This is the default style. The header is empty and the footer contains page numbers in the centre.

• myheadings: As shown in the introduction,The footer is empty in this page style. The header contains the page number on right side (on even pages) or on left side (on odd pages) along with other user-supplied information; there is an exception for the first page of each chapter, where the footer contains centred page number while the header is blank.

  Open an example in Overleaf

Setting page style for current page only

Sometimes is convenient to specify the page style only for the current page. For instance, to leave a intentionally blank page or to remove the header and footer from the current chapter page:

\chapter{Sample Chapter}
\thispagestyle{empty}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do 
eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim 
}ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi 
ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in 
reprehenderit in voluptate velit es...
\end{document}

Of course, you can replace empty for any of the styles mentioned in the previous section

  Open an example in Overleaf

Style customization in single-sided documents

Styles can be modified beyond the standard layouts by means of fancyhdr. Below is an example.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}

\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhf{}
\rhead{Overleaf}
\lhead{Guides and tutorials}
\rfoot{Page \thepage}

\begin{document}

\section{First Section}

Hello,  here  is  some  text  without  a  meaning.   This  
text  should  show  what  a printed text will look like at 
this place.  If you read this text, you will get no information.  
Really?  Is there no information?  Is there a difference between 
this ...

\end{document}

To customize the footer and header in your document first import the package fancyhdr with

\usepackage{fancyhdr}

After that, the "fancy" style is set by \pagestyle{fancy}. The command \fancyhf{} clears the header and footer, otherwise the elements of the default "plain" page style will appear.

Below, a description of the rest of the commands and a few more whose usage is similar.

\rhead{Overleaf}

Prints the text included inside the braces on the right side of the header.

\lhead{Guides and tutorials}

Prints the text set inside the braces on the left side of the header.

\chead{ }

Similar to the previous commands, in this case the text is centred on the header.

\rfoot{Page \thepage}

Prints the word "Page" and next the page number which is automatically set by \thepage on the right side of the footer. See the reference guide for a list of commands that automatically generate content (Section numbers, chapters and so on).

\lfoot{ }

This prints the parameter passed inside the braces on the left side of the footer.

\cfoot{ }

Similar to the previous two commands, prints its parameter on the centre of the footer.

  Open an example of the fancyhdr package in Overleaf

Style customization in double-sided documents

If your document is double-sided, for example a book, and you need to customize the header and the footer, the recommended commands in this case are \fancyhead and \fancyfoot with several selectors passed as parameters. Let's see:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt,twoside]{book}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}

\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhf{}
\fancyhead[LE,RO]{Overleaf}
\fancyhead[RE,LO]{Guides and tutorials}
\fancyfoot[CE,CO]{\leftmark}
\fancyfoot[LE,RO]{\thepage}


\begin{document}

\chapter{Using different page styles}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing ...

The selectors that can be passed, inside brackets, to the commands \fancyhead and \fancyfoot are:

• E for even page
• O for odd page
• L for left side
• C for centered
• R for right side

For instance, \fancyhead[LE,RO]{Overleaf} will print the text "Overleaf" on the Left side of the header for Even pages, and the Right side for Odd pages.

For more information on the command \leftmark and \thepage used in the previous example see the reference guide.

  Open an example of the fancyhdr package in Overleaf

Decorative lines on header and footer

When you are using fancyhdr in your document, there are two decorative lines on both the header and the footer, the latter has 0pt thickness and hence is not visible. It's easy to change that:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt,twoside]{book}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}

\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhf{}
\fancyhead[LE,RO]{Overleaf}
\fancyhead[RE,LO]{Guides and tutorials}
\fancyfoot[CE,CO]{\leftmark}
\fancyfoot[LE,RO]{\thepage}

\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{2pt}
\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{1pt}

\begin{document}

\chapter{Using different page styles}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing ...

There are two additional lines in this example:

\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{2pt}

This sets the header line thickness to 2pt.

\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{1pt}

Sets the footer line thickness to 1pt.

  Open an example of the fancyhdr package in Overleaf

Reference guide

The following commands can be used in the headers and footers to add custom information

•  \thepage
  

  adds number of the current page.

•  \thechapter
  

  adds number of the current chapter.

•  \thesection
  

  adds number of the current section.

•  \chaptername
  

  adds the word "Chapter" in English or its equivalent in the current language.

•  \leftmark
  

  adds name and number of the current top-level structure (for example, Chapter for reports and books classes; Section for articles ) in uppercase letters.

•  \rightmark
  

  adds name and number of the current next to top-level structure (Section for reports and books; Subsection for articles) in uppercase letters.

Further reading

For more information see:

• Page numbering
• Single sided and double sided documents
• Page size and margins
• Footnotes
• Margin notes
• Bold, italics and underlining
• Font sizes, families, and styles
• Management in a large project
• The fancyhdr package documentation
• Page layout documentation