Title Page in LaTeX: \maketitle, titlepage and Custom Designs

\documentclass{article}

\title{A Study of Analytical Engines}
\author{Ada Lovelace\thanks{Supported by the Royal Society.}
  \and Charles Babbage}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

The text starts here.
\end{document}

Every LaTeX class knows how to make a title: you declare the title, author and date and \maketitle sets them. When the standard layout is not enough, for a thesis, a report or a cover with a logo, the titlepage environment gives you an empty page to design. This guide covers both, shows a complete custom title page and a thesis title page you can copy, and fixes the errors that come up most. Every snippet compiles as shown.

How to Make a Title Page with \maketitle

\maketitle reads three declarations, which usually go in the preamble (they only have to come before \maketitle):

A title with two authors, affiliations and a fixed date:

\documentclass{article}

\title{On the Mechanical Computation of Bernoulli Numbers\\
  \large A Second Look}
\author{Ada Lovelace\thanks{Corresponding author: ada@example.org}\\
  Analytical Engine Lab
  \and
  Charles Babbage\\
  University of Cambridge}
\date{10 December 1843}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
  The abstract follows the title in the article class.
\end{abstract}

\section{Introduction}
Text.
\end{document}

Each author block is centered under the title, and the blocks separated by \and sit side by side when they fit. Use \And only in classes that define it, such as some conference templates; the standard classes only know \and.

The titlepage Class Option: Article, Report and Book

Whether \maketitle produces a page of its own depends on the class. The titlepage and notitlepage class options switch it:

\documentclass[titlepage]{article}  % title gets its own page

\title{Quarterly Report}
\author{Finance Team}

\begin{document}
\maketitle
\section{Summary}
The report starts on the second sheet.
\end{document}

Custom Title Page with \begin{titlepage}

The titlepage environment starts a new page with no header, footer or page number and leaves the layout entirely to you. A few tools do most of the work: \centering, the size commands from \Large to \Huge (see font size), \vspace for fixed gaps, \vfill to push the rest to the bottom, and \rule for horizontal lines. This example adds a logo with graphicx:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}

\begin{titlepage}
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.3\textwidth]{example-image}\par   % your logo
  \vspace{1.5cm}
  {\scshape\Large Analytical Engine Lab\par}
  \vspace{1.5cm}
  \rule{\linewidth}{0.5pt}\par
  \vspace{0.4cm}
  {\Huge\bfseries Notes on the Analytical Engine\par}
  \vspace{0.4cm}
  \rule{\linewidth}{0.5pt}\par
  \vspace{1cm}
  {\Large\itshape Ada Lovelace\par}
  \vfill
  supervised by\par
  Dr.~Charles \textsc{Babbage}
  \vfill
  {\large \today\par}
\end{titlepage}

\section{Introduction}
The document continues on the next page.
\end{document}

example-image is a placeholder from the mwe package that ships with TeX Live; replace it with your own file name, such as logo for logo.png or logo.pdf. Two details make the layout behave:

• End every group with \par before the closing brace, as in {\Huge\bfseries Title\par}. Without it, a title that wraps onto a second line gets the line spacing of the normal text and the lines collide.
• \vfill splits the leftover space equally between every place it appears, so two \vfill commands give a balanced page. The commands are covered in more depth in spacing in LaTeX.

In the standard classes the page after a titlepage is numbered 1 again in one-sided documents, so the title page is not counted. The page numbering guide shows how to use roman numerals for the front matter.

Thesis Title Page Example

Universities usually prescribe the content of a thesis title page: the institution, the title, the author, the degree statement, the department, the supervisor and the date. The same titlepage approach in the report class:

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage[a4paper, margin=2.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}

\begin{titlepage}
  \centering
  {\Large\bfseries UNIVERSITY OF LONDON\par}
  \vspace{1cm}
  \includegraphics[width=4cm]{example-image-a}\par
  \vspace{1.5cm}
  {\huge\bfseries Machine Learning Methods for\\ Protein Structure Prediction\par}
  \vspace{2cm}
  {\Large Jane Doe\par}
  \vspace{1.5cm}
  A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment\\
  of the requirements for the degree of\par
  \vspace{0.5cm}
  {\Large\itshape Doctor of Philosophy\par}
  \vspace{0.5cm}
  in the\\
  Department of Computer Science\par
  \vfill
  \begin{tabular}{rl}
    Supervisor:        & Prof.~John Smith \\
    Second supervisor: & Dr.~Mary Jones
  \end{tabular}\par
  \vspace{1cm}
  {\large September 2026\par}
\end{titlepage}

\tableofcontents
\chapter{Introduction}
Text.
\end{document}

For APA-style student papers the rules are different again (title, author, affiliation, course, instructor and due date, all centered and double-spaced); the APA title page guide has the exact layout.

Changing the \maketitle Layout with titling

If you like \maketitle but want a different font or spacing, the titling package lets you change each part without rewriting the command. Each of \pretitle, \posttitle, \preauthor, \postauthor, \predate and \postdate takes the code placed before or after that part:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{titling}

\pretitle{\begin{flushleft}\Huge\sffamily\bfseries}
\posttitle{\par\end{flushleft}\vskip 0.5em}
\preauthor{\begin{flushleft}\large}
\postauthor{\par\end{flushleft}}
\predate{\begin{flushleft}\small}
\postdate{\par\end{flushleft}}
\setlength{\droptitle}{-4em}   % move the title up

\title{Left-Aligned Title}
\author{Ada Lovelace}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}
\maketitle
Text after the title.
\end{document}

titling also stores the values as \thetitle, \theauthor and \thedate, which is handy for repeating the title in a header.

Common Errors and Fixes

The page-number fix in full; \thispagestyle must follow \maketitle, because \maketitle sets the style itself:

\documentclass{article}
\title{No Number on Page 1}
\author{Ada Lovelace}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\thispagestyle{empty}
Text on the first page.
\end{document}

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make a title page in LaTeX?

Put \title{...}, \author{...} and \date{...} in the preamble and write \maketitle right after \begin{document}. In the article class the title appears at the top of the first page; add the titlepage class option, or use the report or book class, to give it a page of its own.

What is the difference between \maketitle and the titlepage environment?

\maketitle typesets the title, author and date in the class’s standard layout. The titlepage environment is an empty page with no header, footer or page number, where you place everything yourself: logo, rules, title, author, supervisor and date. Use \maketitle for papers and titlepage for theses, reports and anything with a custom design.

How do I put the title on a separate page in an article?

Use the class option: \documentclass[titlepage]{article}. \maketitle then produces a page of its own and the text starts on the next page. The opposite option, notitlepage, keeps the title on the first page in report and book.

How do I add a logo to a LaTeX title page?

Load graphicx with \usepackage{graphicx} and put \includegraphics[width=0.3\textwidth]{logo} inside the titlepage environment, or inside \title{...} if you use \maketitle. The file (logo.png, logo.jpg or logo.pdf) must be in the same folder as the .tex file or in a path set with \graphicspath.

How do I remove the page number from the title page?

The titlepage environment and a titlepage produced by \maketitle already have no page number. With \maketitle on the first page of an article, add \thispagestyle{empty} right after \maketitle. \maketitle sets the plain style itself, so the command has to come after it, not before.

Why do I get a blank page after my title page?

The titlepage environment already ends the page, so an extra \newpage or \clearpage after \end{titlepage} adds an empty page. In the book class, which is two-sided with openright by default, chapters start on a right-hand page, so a blank left page after the title is intended; use the openany or oneside class option if you do not want it.

Next Steps

• APA Title Page in LaTeX – The student and professional APA 7 layouts
• Page Numbering in LaTeX – Roman numerals for the front matter, arabic for the body
• Table of Contents – The page that usually follows the title
• Fonts in LaTeX – Font families and packages for a distinctive title
• Spacing in LaTeX – \vspace, \vfill and line spacing
• Learn LaTeX: Tutorial for Beginners – The basics every document builds on

Free Title Page Templates

• Thesis Template – A thesis with title page, front matter and chapters
• Technical Report Template – A report with a custom cover page
• APA Title Page Template – APA 7 title page ready to fill in
• LaTeX Preview – Paste a title page and see the PDF instantly