Quarto book - Thesis title page: text doesn't appear in the center

[barizona]

Hi, I am writing my thesis using Quarto, project type: book, format: pdf. I would like to create a first page includes more info, therefore I've included this section to the YAML:
header-includes:

• \usepackage{microtype}
• \pretolerance=10000
• \usepackage{colortbl}
• \usepackage{titling}
• \predate{\begin{center}
  \textit{egyetemi adjunktus}
  \newline
  \newline
  \newline
  \newline
  \newline
  \newline
  \newline
  \newline
  Name of the University
  \newline
  Name of the University 2
  \newline
  Name of the University 3
  \newline
  Name of the University 4
  \newline
  \newline
  \newline
  \includegraphics[width=4cm,height=4cm]{figs/University_logo.png}\LARGE\}
• \postdate{\end{center}}
• \pagenumbering{gobble}

The "Name of the University" parts aligned to the center but they do not appear in the vertical center of the page. I've tried including

• \usepackage[a4paper, total={6in, 8in}, margin=0.5in]{geometry}
  but it doesn't solve the problem.
  Do you have an idea how to solve this issue?
  Thanks!
  Eszter

[jjallaire]

I don't have enough LaTeX chops to say -- perhaps someone else here does?

[barizona]

Ok, I copy the content of my whole _quarto.yaml:

project:
  type: book

book:
  title: "Title"
  author: "My name"
  date: 2022-08-30
  date-format: "YYYY"

  chapters:
    - index.qmd
    - chapter1.qmd
    - chapter2.qmd

bibliography: references.bib
lang: hu

format:

  pdf:
    documentclass: scrreprt
    pdf-engine: xelatex
    papersize: A4
    pandoc_args: --listings
    classoption: notitlepage
    keep-tex: true
    toc: true
    toc-depth: 2
    number-sections: false
    colorlinks: true
    mainfont: Calluna
    sansfont: Calluna
    urlcolor: DodgerBlue4
    fig-pos: "h"

editor: visual

header-includes:
  - \usepackage{microtype}
  - \pretolerance=10000
  - \usepackage{colortbl}
  - \usepackage{titling}
  - \predate{\begin{center}
    \textit{post doc}
    \newline
    \newline
    \newline
    \newline
    \newline
    \newline
    \newline
    \newline    
    Name of the University
    \newline
    Name of the University 2
    \newline
    Name of the University 3
    \newline
    Name of the University 4
    \newline
    \newline
    \newline
    \includegraphics[width=4cm,height=4cm]{figs/University_logo.png}\LARGE\\}
  - \postdate{\end{center}}
  - \pagenumbering{gobble}

[eeholmes]

Hi @barizona , All those \newlines are messing up the center environment. Replace as follows

project:
  type: book

book:
  title: "Title"
  author: "My name"
  date: 2022-08-30
  date-format: "YYYY"

  chapters:
    - index.qmd

bibliography: references.bib
lang: hu

format:

  pdf:
    documentclass: scrreprt
    pdf-engine: xelatex
    papersize: A4
    pandoc_args: --listings
    classoption: notitlepage
    keep-tex: true
    toc: true
    toc-depth: 2
    number-sections: false
    colorlinks: true
    urlcolor: DodgerBlue4
    fig-pos: "h"

editor: visual

header-includes:
  - \usepackage{microtype}
  - \pretolerance=10000
  - \usepackage{colortbl}
  - \usepackage{titling}
  - \predate{\begin{center}
    \textit{post doc}
    
    \vspace{0.025\textheight}
    
    Name of the University
    
    Name of the University 2

    Name of the University 3

    Name of the University 4

    \vspace{0.025\textheight}

    \includegraphics[width=4cm,height=4cm]{figs/University_logo.png}\LARGE\\}
  - \postdate{\end{center}}
  - \pagenumbering{gobble}

[barizona]

Hi @eeholmes , thanks a lot! You are right the \newlines messed with the "centering". With your solution it worked fine.

[eeholmes]

However given what you are trying to do (a custom title page), you might just mock up you title page directly. I made a repo with title pages that you can modify and put into your Quarto doc.

quarto_titlepages

• Start with the the How it works chapter.
• Then go to the titlepages/thesis-static folder
• The _titlepage.tex file will get you started on a basic thesis title page that you can adapt.

[barizona]

Thank you, I will check it.