Sstrhsrtj

I am putting together a document that has several cover pages, both for front and back cover. The bulk of the document is two-sided. Cover pages, however, must be right-side (or left-side, for the back cover) pages.

How can I force the next page to specifically be a right-side-page or a left-side-page?

For odd / right-side pages you can use cleardoublepage in two-sided documents. (In one-sided ones cleardoublepage is identical to clearpage)

To force even / left-side pages you would need to define your own macro based on cleardoublepage, but with reversed logic:

documentclass{book}



newcommand*cleartoleftpage{%

  clearpage

  ifoddvalue{page}hbox{}newpagefi

}



% Demonstration / Test:

begin{document}

  Title on right side

cleardoublepage

  other title on right side

cleartoleftpage

  on the left side

cleartoleftpage

  also on the left side

cleardoublepage

  right side again

end{document}

A more complex version which behaves nicely in single-sided documents and also supports two-column mode is:

makeatletter

newcommand*{cleartoleftpage}{%

  clearpage

    if@twoside

    ifoddc@page

      hbox{}newpage

      if@twocolumn

        hbox{}newpage

      fi

    fi

  fi

}

makeatother

This is the definition of cleardoublepage just with the else removed to negate the logic, i.e. make it force even pages instead of odd.

As Martin explained, cleardoublepage is a standard LaTeX command to force a break to an odd (right, recto) page in double-sided documents. The KOMA-script classes and the memoir class offer numerous custom commands for page-breaking:

• With KOMA-script, use cleardoubleevenemptypage to force a break to an even (left, verso) page. (If necessary, this will produce an additional odd page with page style empty, as is the default in KOMA-script.) See section 3.13 of the KOMA-script manual for other available commands.




• With memoir, use cleartoverso to force a break to an even page. See section 18.13 of the memoir manual for other available commands.

You can modify both cleardoublepage (as in this answer) and @Martin Scharrer's code to insert, if necessary, an empty page:

makeatletter

defcleardoublepage{clearpageif@twoside

ifoddc@page

elsehbox{}thispagestyle{empty}newpage

if@twocolumnhbox{}newpagefififi}

makeatother

and

makeatletter

newcommand*{cleartoleftpage}{%

  clearpage

    if@twoside

    ifoddc@page

      hbox{}thispagestyle{empty}newpage

      if@twocolumn

        hbox{}newpage

      fi

    fi

  fi

}

makeatother