Headers and Footers, Page Numbering

fancyhdr package

fancyhdr is a package that provide extensive control of page headers and footers in $\LaTeX$.

Here is a diagram presenting the general structure of headers and footers defined by fancyhdr for a two-sided document:

It appears that:

• headers and footers can contain different content on left (even) and right (odd) pages.

• headers and footers are structured into 3 different zones:

  • Left

  • Right

  • Center

• The rule that seperating the main document and the header/footer is optional.

Coordinates in fancyhdr

Commands provided by fancyhdr use single-letter abbreviations, called “coordinates”, to identify specific header and footer zones and page locations:

• O/E - specify Odd/Even pages (this is only applicable when it comes to 2-sided documents)

• H/F - indicate Header/Footer

• L, C or R: for the Left, Centre and Right “zone” of the header or footer

Therefore, when specify location (coordinates), you may see the combination of these abbreviations, for example: LE, RO.

Commands in fancyhdr

To define the content of headers and footers, we can use:

• \fancyfoot[location]{content}

• \fancyhead[location]{content}

• \fancyhf[location]{content}

Note that, \fancyfoot and \fancyhead are just \fancyhf with F and H in the location part, respectively.

As a result, in some condition, \fancyhf can get a total of 3 coordinates and \fancyfoot and \fancyhead can get 2.

Let's take a look at an example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0.5pt}
\begin{document}
\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhead{}
\fancyhead[C]{\textbf{Report on the performance of retail stores}}
\fancyfoot{}
\fancyfoot[L]{From: MisterA}
\fancyhf[CF]{\thepage}
\fancyfoot[R]{To: MisterB}
Hello world.
\end{document}

• We instantiate the package by \usepackage{fancyhdr} and allow headers and footers in our document by \pagestyle{fancy}.

• \fancyhead{} - clears the settings for the headers

• \fancyhead[C]{\textbf{Report on the performance of retail stores}} - Create a header in the center location

• \fancyfoot{} - clears the settings for the footers

• \fancyfoot[L]{From: MisterA} - Create a footer in the left position

• \fancyhf[CF]{\thepage} - Create a page number, positioning in the center of the footer

Configure fancyhdr's rulers

Here are some rule-related commands provided by fancyhdr:

Commands	Meaning
\headrulewidth	define the thickness of a line under the header (default = 0.4pt)
\footrulewidth	define the thickness of a line above the footer (default = 0pt, that is the reason why there's no footer rule by default)
\headruleskip	define the distance between the line and the header text (only available since version 4.0)
\footruleskip	define the distance between the line and the footer text
\headrule	macro to completely redefine header rules (lines)
\footrule	macro to completely redefine footer rules (lines)
\headwidth	a length parameter that defines the total width of the headers and footers

Since these are macro (commands), we must use \renewcommand to modify their values instead of \setlength.

Page Numbering

As we mentioned in Commands in fancyhdr, we can quickly typeset the page number by using \thepage in our headers or footers.

However, in case you want to change their appearance (normal number, Roman numeral or letters), you can use this command in your preamble: \pagenumbering{style}.

Applicable style value:

• arabic: use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, ...)

• alph: use lowercase letters (a, b, c, ...)

• Alph: use uppercase letters (A, B, C, ...)

• roman: use lowercase roman numerals (i, ii, iii, ...)

• Roman: use uppercase roman numerals (I, II, III, ...)

\pagenumbering does not only affects page number in the headers/footers, but also the number in the table of contents!

Special case of Page numbering: page X of N

In this case, we need to use lastpage package with this command:

\fancyfoot[C]{\thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage}}

For reference:

• https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Headers_and_footers - this also has some useful guides on making "book" document
• http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/fancyhdr/fancyhdr.pdf