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.

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 from those of a one-side document.

  Open an example in Overleaf

Difference between one-side and two-side documents

Lets compare a one-sided with a two-sided 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. Chapters in a two-sided document start on a right page.

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

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.