How to Force a Page Break in LaTeX

Why it happens

LaTeX breaks pages on its own, and these commands override it. \newpage ends the current paragraph and the page. Figures and tables are floats, held in a queue until a good place turns up, and \newpage leaves them queued, so they can still appear after the break. \clearpage empties the queue first, which is why figures sometimes end up on pages of their own after it.

Example

End of this section.
\newpage        % start a new page

% Place pending figures and tables, then break:
\clearpage

% Two-sided book: start on the next right-hand page
\cleardoublepage

\newpage, \clearpage, \pagebreak and \cleardoublepage

\newpage ends the paragraph and the page; the last line before it stays short, like the last line of any paragraph. In a two-column layout it only moves to the next column, while \clearpage always starts a new page.

\clearpage also prints every pending figure and table, on pages of their own if necessary. Use it at the end of a chapter or before the appendices.

\pagebreak asks for a break without ending the paragraph. In the middle of a paragraph it breaks after the current line, which stays justified, and the paragraph continues on the next page. In two-sided and two-column documents, which use \flushbottom, it also stretches the vertical space so the page still reaches the bottom margin; when there is too little to stretch, the log shows "Underfull \vbox (badness 10000) has occurred while \output is active". \pagebreak[1] to \pagebreak[3] are softer requests that LaTeX may ignore.

\cleardoublepage works like \clearpage, then adds a blank page if needed so that the next page is odd-numbered. In a one-sided document it is the same as \clearpage.

Inserting a blank page

Two \newpage commands in a row give one break, not a blank page, because the second one finds an empty page and does nothing. Put something invisible on the page between them, \null or \mbox{}. Add \thispagestyle{empty} if the blank page should have no page number.

Last line of the chapter.
\newpage
\null
\thispagestyle{empty}
\newpage
First line after the blank page.

Every section on a new page

Rather than typing \clearpage before every \section, add one line to the preamble. With LaTeX from 2021 onwards a hook does it: \AddToHook{cmd/section/before}{\clearpage}. If you already use titlesec, define \sectionbreak instead. \chapter in report and book always starts a new page, so this is mostly for article.

% Either, with LaTeX from 2021 onwards:
\AddToHook{cmd/section/before}{\clearpage}

% or, with titlesec:
% \usepackage{titlesec}
% \newcommand{\sectionbreak}{\clearpage}
% in the document:
\section{Introduction}
Text.
\section{Method}   % starts on a new page
Text.

Keeping text together

To stop a heading or a short block from being separated from what follows, use the needspace package: \needspace{5\baselineskip} starts a new page only if less than five lines of space remain. \nopagebreak between two paragraphs discourages a break there, and \enlargethispage{\baselineskip} squeezes one more line onto the current page to avoid a single stranded line on the next.

To place pending figures without leaving a half-empty page now, load afterpage and write \afterpage{\clearpage}: the queue is emptied at the next natural page break instead.

\usepackage{needspace}
\usepackage{afterpage}
% in the document:
\needspace{5\baselineskip}
\section{Results}
Text that should start on the same page as its heading.

\afterpage{\clearpage}   % place waiting figures at the next page break