How to control the space allotted for a signature in letter documents?

The distance between the closing phrase and the signature is hard coded in letter.cls; in order to modify it, you have to change the \closing command: the following code doesn't really modify the distance, you should act on 6\medskipamount, changing it into a length that suits your needs.

\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\closing}[1]{\par\nobreak\vspace{\parskip}%
  \stopbreaks
  \noindent
  \ifx\@empty\fromaddress\else
  \hspace*{\longindentation}\fi
  \parbox{\indentedwidth}{\raggedright
       \ignorespaces #1\\[6\medskipamount]%
       \ifx\@empty\fromsig
           \fromname
       \else \fromsig \fi\strut}%
   \par}
\makeatother

This is the result when 2\medskipamount is used

enter image description here

Note that \noindent is not needed in the letter body with the letter class, which sets zero indentation.


A simple workaround is this:

\signature{\vspace{-80pt} Susan R. Bumpershoot}