The stony road to complex page layout Frank Mittelbach (and its - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The stony road to complex page layout The stony road to complex page layout Frank Mittelbach (and its road blocks) The Ask Some History T EX’s Model User Wishlist Balancing & Floats Columns Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Typesetting Challenges Balancing 2013-10-23 Right to left Spaces & penalties Summary

The stony road to complex page layout Frank Mittelbach The Ask Some History T EX’s Model User Wishlist Balancing & Floats Columns Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Typesetting Challenges Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Summary The old road Hakone 2009

The stony Translated . . . road to complex page layout When typesetting complex layouts Frank Mittelbach The Ask Some History T EX’s Model User Wishlist Balancing & Floats Columns Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Typesetting Challenges Balancing is not fully up to the task Right to left Spaces & penalties Summary (unless we restrict the scenario)

The stony road to complex page layout Frank Mittelbach The Ask Some History Instead T EX’s Model User Wishlist Balancing & Floats Columns Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Typesetting Challenges Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Summary

The stony is road to complex page layout Frank Mittelbach The Ask Some History T EX’s Model User Wishlist Balancing & Floats Columns Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Typesetting Challenges Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Summary needed?

Moving on . . . The Ask 1 The stony road to Some History complex page 2 layout T EX’s Model 3 Frank Mittelbach User Wishlist 4 The Ask Balancing & Floats Some History Columns T EX’s Model Column dependency User Wishlist Rules & Backgrounds Balancing & Floats At the border Columns Column dependency Wishlist summary Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Typesetting Challenges 5 Typesetting Balancing Challenges Balancing Right to left Right to left Spaces & penalties Spaces & penalties Summary Summary 6

The Ask The stony road to complex page layout Frank Mittelbach The Ask Some History T EX’s Model User Wishlist Balancing & Floats Columns Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Typesetting Challenges Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Summary

The Ask The stony road to complex page layout Frank Mittelbach For: The Ask multiple columns Some History text balancing T EX’s Model User Wishlist float positioning Balancing & Floats Columns grid typesetting Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds . . . and much more At the border Wishlist summary Typesetting Challenges Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Summary

Conflicting goals The stony Varying the number of columns on a page road to complex page layout Frank Mittelbach Balancing The Ask Some History T EX’s Model Automatic float placement User Wishlist Balancing & Floats Columns Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Grid typesetting Typesetting Challenges Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Do everything automatically Summary

Conflicting goals The stony Varying the number of columns on a page road to complex page what happens with footnotes? layout what happens with floats? Frank Mittelbach Balancing The Ask Some History T EX’s Model Automatic float placement User Wishlist Balancing & Floats Columns Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Grid typesetting Typesetting Challenges Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Do everything automatically Summary

Conflicting goals The stony Varying the number of columns on a page road to complex page what happens with footnotes? layout what happens with floats? Frank Mittelbach Balancing The Ask but have explicit columns breaks obeyed Some History but change typesetting based on columns T EX’s Model Automatic float placement User Wishlist Balancing & Floats Columns Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Grid typesetting Typesetting Challenges Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Do everything automatically Summary

Conflicting goals The stony Varying the number of columns on a page road to complex page what happens with footnotes? layout what happens with floats? Frank Mittelbach Balancing The Ask but have explicit columns breaks obeyed Some History but change typesetting based on columns T EX’s Model Automatic float placement User Wishlist Balancing & Floats into and across columns Columns maintaining relationships to call-outs Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds and produce pleasing (and compact) layout At the border Wishlist summary Grid typesetting Typesetting Challenges Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Do everything automatically Summary

Conflicting goals The stony Varying the number of columns on a page road to complex page what happens with footnotes? layout what happens with floats? Frank Mittelbach Balancing The Ask but have explicit columns breaks obeyed Some History but change typesetting based on columns T EX’s Model Automatic float placement User Wishlist Balancing & Floats into and across columns Columns maintaining relationships to call-outs Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds and produce pleasing (and compact) layout At the border Wishlist summary Grid typesetting Typesetting Challenges but use elements of varying and unknown heights Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Do everything automatically Summary

Conflicting goals The stony Varying the number of columns on a page road to complex page what happens with footnotes? layout what happens with floats? Frank Mittelbach Balancing The Ask but have explicit columns breaks obeyed Some History but change typesetting based on columns T EX’s Model Automatic float placement User Wishlist Balancing & Floats into and across columns Columns maintaining relationships to call-outs Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds and produce pleasing (and compact) layout At the border Wishlist summary Grid typesetting Typesetting Challenges but use elements of varying and unknown heights Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Do everything automatically Summary but guess exceptions (without them being marked up)

Moving on . . . The Ask 1 The stony road to Some History complex page 2 layout T EX’s Model 3 Frank Mittelbach User Wishlist 4 The Ask Balancing & Floats Some History Columns T EX’s Model Column dependency User Wishlist Rules & Backgrounds Balancing & Floats At the border Columns Column dependency Wishlist summary Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Typesetting Challenges 5 Typesetting Balancing Challenges Balancing Right to left Right to left Spaces & penalties Spaces & penalties Summary Summary 6

Brief history on multi-column attempts in L A T EX The stony 1982 T EXbook describes code for index balancing road to complex page layout 1988 multicol version 1.0a Frank Mittelbach The Ask 1993 balancing by Patrick Daly Some History T EX’s Model 1999 ltxgrid by Arthur Ogawa User Wishlist Balancing & Floats Columns Column dependency 1999-2000 Prototype of xor Rules & Backgrounds At the border Wishlist summary Typesetting 2007 flowfram by Nicola Talbot Challenges Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties 2011 adjmulticol by Boris Veytsman Summary

Brief history on multi-column attempts in L A T EX The stony 1982 T EXbook describes code for index balancing road to complex page — specific use case only layout 1988 multicol version 1.0a — multiple columns, Frank Mittelbach restriction on floats and footnotes The Ask 1993 balancing by Patrick Daly Some History — manual adjustment needed T EX’s Model 1999 ltxgrid by Arthur Ogawa User Wishlist Balancing & Floats — two-column, potential loss of material Columns Column dependency 1999-2000 Prototype of xor — general float handling, balancing, Rules & Backgrounds At the border grids, but no production version Wishlist summary Typesetting 2007 flowfram by Nicola Talbot — general text blocks, Challenges Balancing no balancing, limited float support Right to left Spaces & penalties 2011 adjmulticol by Boris Veytsman Summary — fixing some multicol limitations

Brief history on multi-column attempts in L A T EX The stony road to complex page layout Frank Or in summary: Mittelbach The Ask Some History 30 years have passed since T EX82 T EX’s Model Only a handful attempts User Wishlist No general solution Balancing & Floats Columns Column dependency Rules & Backgrounds At the border Why? Wishlist summary Typesetting Challenges Balancing Right to left Spaces & penalties Summary