DocumentMetadata changes title spacing and float placement

[alexanderperlis]

This is LuaHBTeX, Version 1.24.0 (TeX Live 2026), LaTeX2e <2025-11-01>, L3 programming layer <2026-01-19>

Just FYI, happened to notice turning on \DocumentMetadata increases the spacing between Title and Author and Date, and furthermore moves the float from the bottom to the middle.

%\DocumentMetadata{}
\documentclass{article}
\title{Title}
\author{Author}
\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{figure}
\caption{My figure}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

[u-fischer]

The spacing in maketitle has been fixed #996. Compile with latex-dev to see the new behaviour.

The change in the figure placement is by design. The previous behaviour was actually a bug. So with \DocumentMetadata we are correcting that. If you want the old behaviour back you can change the socket:

\AssignSocketPlug{build/column/outputbox}{footnotes-floats-legacy}

The socket and the plugs are documented in source2e in the ltoutput section.