geometry package does not respect default paper size

[Dan Drake]

Binary package hint: texlive-base

The geometry package defaults to letter-size paper, even when the texconfig utility has been used to make A4 paper the default.

The following LaTeX document is compiled to a PDF with letter-size paper. Commenting out the "\usepackage{geometry}" produces A4-sized output on my system.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{geometry}
\begin{document}
This is a \LaTeX\ document.
\end{document}

Moreover, /etc/papersize is set to A4, and my locale is en_GB. Between all of those, it seems like the geometry package should understand that I'd like A4 paper!

Thanks for helping with this.

[Norbert Preining (preining)]

Hi Dan!

On So, 21 Okt 2007, Dan Drake wrote:
> The geometry package defaults to letter-size paper, even when the
> texconfig utility has been used to make A4 paper the default.
>
> The following LaTeX document is compiled to a PDF with letter-size
> paper. Commenting out the "\usepackage{geometry}" produces A4-sized
> output on my system.

There are two things here you are mentioning:
- default paper size in TeX versus /etc/papersize
- default paper size for geometry

The topic is an old one dating back from Debian tetex bug reports from
tetex 1.0 (bug #49149 from 1999!).

I ask everyone to read in detail the discussion which has taken place in
Debian bug #402994
(http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=402994).

First of all:
- TeX has NO NOTION of papersize!!! Forget what you heard.
- dvips and pdftex can use some hints put into the dvi file to determine
  which papersize was the expected one
- all this is in no way supported upstream.

Short solution for ALL your problem: SPECIFY THE PAPERSIZE!!!

> \documentclass{article}
> \usepackage{geometry}
> \begin{document}
> This is a \LaTeX\ document.
> \end{document}
>
> Moreover, /etc/papersize is set to A4, and my locale is en_GB. Between
> all of those, it seems like the geometry package should understand that
> I'd like A4 paper!

Well, that is your opinion. You can configure geometry.sty using
geometry.cfg.

But AGAIN I recommend doing something as simple as
 \documentclass[a4paper]{article}
You DON'T want to have your document layout changed with every transfer
on a different computer, do you????

BTW: If someone, Ubuntu maintainers or someone else, wants to help with
this, in the above mentioned bug report there are already some proposals
how to support a useful mechanism ... help is appreciated, we will not
implement this in any reasonable time frame, first since we don't have
enough man power, second because we (debian-tex-maint developer) think
that you should specify what you want.

Best wishes

Norbert

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Norbert Preining <email address hidden> Vienna University of Technology
Debian Developer <email address hidden> Debian TeX Group
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[Munchkinguy (10068660)]

I don't think this is a bug. All you have to do is:
\usepackage[a4paper]{geometry}