Page headers and footers contain running titles, page numbers, and author names. The fancyhdr package provides flexible control over them.
\usepackage{fancyhdr} \pagestyle{fancy} \lhead{Left Header} \chead{Center Header} \rhead{Right Header} \lfoot{Left Footer} \cfoot{\thepage} % page number \rfoot{Right Footer} \begin{document} % Page content \end{document}
\lhead, \chead, \rhead set left, center, and right headers. \lfoot, \cfoot, \rfoot set footers. \thepage inserts the current page number automatically.
Page styles control where headers/footers appear:
\pagestyle{fancy} % enable fancy headers/footers \pagestyle{plain} % just page number in footer (default) \pagestyle{empty} % no headers or footers \pagestyle{headings} % section titles in header
First page different from others (e.g., no header on title page):
\fancypagestyle{plain}{ \fancyhf{} % clear all fields \cfoot{\thepage} % only page number in footer } \begin{document} \maketitle % uses plain style automatically \pagestyle{fancy} % subsequent pages use fancy Your content... \end{document}
Horizontal lines above/below headers and footers:
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0.4pt} % thin line under header \renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0.4pt} % thin line above footer
Set to 0pt to remove the line.
Section titles in headers:
\usepackage{fancyhdr} \pagestyle{fancy} \rhead{\thesection. \leftmark} % current section title \cfoot{\thepage}
\leftmark contains the current section title (or chapter title in books). This is updated automatically as you move through sections.
Clearing fields:
\fancyhf{} % clear all headers and footers \cfoot{\thepage} % then set only what you want
\fancyhf{} clears everything; then set individual fields.
Different headers for odd/even pages (for double-sided documents):
\lhead[\textrm{Even Page}]{\textrm{Odd Page}} % [even] {odd}
This is useful for book formatting where even pages have one style, odd pages another.
Margins and spacing: Adjust header/footer distances from the page edge with lengths like \headheight, \headsep, \footskip. Usually defaults are fine, but if you get warnings, increase these:
\setlength{\headheight}{15pt} \setlength{\headsep}{0.5in}