stocksize — Structured control of PDF page (stock) size in LaTeX

Purpose

The stocksize package provides robust control of the physical PDF page size (the stock size) inside a LaTeX document.

It complements the geometry package by managing paper size transitions reliably, including nested changes, while delegating margin and layout calculations to geometry.

The package is designed for documents where the physical page size itself must change mid-document, such as appendices, inserts, or mixed-format publications.

Key Concepts

• Stock size = physical PDF page dimensions
• Layout = (logical) paper height and width, margins, text block, headers/footers (handled by geometry)
• stocksize coordinates both, ensuring they remain synchronized

Typical Use Cases

• Appendices with different paper formats
• Mixed A4 / A5 / Letter documents
• Landscape or square inserts
• Print-ready PDFs with non-uniform stock
• Publisher workflows requiring strict PDF page dimensions

Features

• Logical page size control (via geometry)
• Physical page size control (PDF page dimensions)
• Fully nested size changes (LIFO stack semantics)
• Optional margin preservation
• Reliable restoration of previous sizes
• Transparent integration with geometry
• Engine-independent (pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX, LuaLaTeX)
• Documented design with rationale and implementation notes

Installation

Place stocksize.sty in your working directory or a LaTeX-visible path.

Load the package in the preamble with:

\usepackage[OPTIONS]{stocksize}

The package loads geometry automatically if needed.

User Interface

\newstocksize{⟨options⟩}

Starts a new physical page with the specified stock size and geometry options.

Internally:

1. Saves the current page and layout state
2. Applies geometry with the provided options
3. Updates the PDF page dimensions

Options

All options are passed directly to geometry, except keepmargins which are processed by the package.

Common examples:

Example

\newstocksize{layoutsize={20cm,25cm}, margin=2cm}

\restorestocksize

Restores the previous stock size and layout.

• Operates in Last-In-First-Out (stack) order
• Safe for arbitrarily deep nesting
• Restores both geometry and PDF page size

Example

\newstocksize{layoutsize={15cm,10cm}, margin=1.5cm}
  Content...

  \newstocksize{layoutsize={20cm,20cm}, keepmargins}
    Nested content in 20x20 cm stock and paper size...
  \restorestocksize

Back to 15×10 cm stock and paper size...
\restorestocksize

Back to the initial stock and paper size...

Relation to geometry

• geometry alone does not safely support nested page size changes
• stocksize provides a stack-based abstraction on top of geometry
• All layout computation remains delegated to geometry
• stocksize ensures page size and layout state remain consistent

Technical Notes

• PDF page size is set using:
  • \pdfpagewidth / \pdfpageheight (pdfLaTeX)
  • \pagewidth / \pageheight (XeLaTeX, LuaLaTeX)
• Geometry states are saved and restored explicitly
• No grouping tricks or output-routine hacks are used

Documentation

The full technical documentation, including design rationale and edge-case discussion, is available in:

stocksize-doc.pdf

Package Information

• Version: 2.0.1 (2026-01-01)
• Author: João M. Lourenço
• License: LPPL v1.3c or later
• Dependencies: geometry
• Engines: pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX, LuaLaTeX

Contributing

Bug reports, tests, and design discussions are welcome via GitHub issues.

Copyright © 2025-26 João M. Lourenço. Crafted with 🧡 for reproducible scientific writing.