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Recipe number 100

Cookbook · Chapter 10 · Output & integration

A laid-out book on the desk, in 3D

createFolioFromDocument from the postext-folio package opens a laid-out chapter as a cloth-bound book on a walnut desk, styled by config.folio.

On this page
  • Trim 129 × 198 mm
  • 1 column
  • Literata 9.8/14
  • Fraunces
  • Work Sans
  • 4 pages
  • Level
  • Postext 1.13.4
  • Laid out in 12 ms
  • 120 lines of code

In short

The first chapter of a short novel, shown as a real book lying open on a desk. You turn its pages with the mouse, and the paper, cover and desk are chosen in the settings.

What you'll build

The first chapter of The Ferryman’s Ledger, a short novel on a 129 × 198 mm page, opened as a book on a walnut desk. The case is bottle-green cloth, the pages are a bulky cream novel paper, and the reader takes the right-hand page by its edge and turns it, the leaf curling and casting its shadow on the page below. The text is set once with buildDocument; one call to the postext-folio package turns that layout into the book. Everything the book is made of (paper, binding, desk, light, the angle of the view) is part of the config, so the same document carries its look into the Sandbox’s Folio tab.

This recipe answers

  • How do I show my document as a 3D book whose pages the reader turns by hand?
  • How do I preview a book's binding, cover, paper and lighting before it goes to print?

The short answer

script.js · lines 175–186in full code
const stage = document.createElement('section');
stage.id = 'folio';
stage.ariaLabel = 'The book in 3D';
stage.style.cssText = 'height: min(78vh, 720px); margin: 0 auto; max-width: 1280px';
document.getElementById('pages').before(stage);
createFolioFromDocument(stage, doc, {
  // The paper, binding, desk and light come from doc.config.folio. Only the photographed
  // desk is the host's choice: without textureBaseUrl the walnut is drawn procedurally.
  appearance: { textureBaseUrl: 'https://postext.dev/folio/textures' },
  onChange: ({ pages }) => kitStatus(`${doc.pages.length} pages · open at `
    + pages.map((i) => doc.pages[i].pageLabel || i + 1).join('–')),
});

The document opened as a book; the container gives it its size

Ingredients

Type
Literata, Fraunces, Work Sans (SIL OFL 1.1)
Assets
None: every picture is drawn in code

Method

#1 · Say what the book is made of

script.js · lines 34–41in full code
const folio = {
  tilt: 26, // degrees from straight above: enough to see the depth of the page block
  paper: { type: 'bookWove', grammage: 70, shade: col('cream') }, // a bulky cream novel paper
  binding: { type: 'hardcover', cover: 'case', coverMaterial: 'cloth',
    coverColor: col('accent') }, // the case wraps the pages; boards a little larger
  surface: { type: 'walnut' },
  lighting: { environment: 'studio', intensity: 1, shadows: true },
};

config.folio is read by the 3D viewer and by nothing else: the layout, the canvas, the PDF and the HTML output ignore it, so changing the paper never moves a line. bookWove is a bulky novel paper, and 70 g/m² at its bulk makes a sheet about 112 µm thick; the viewer multiplies that by the page count for the depth of the page block. The cloth colour links to the palette's accent, the same green as the kicker and the folios.

#2 · A quiet opener and running heads

script.js · lines 45–57in full code
const opener = { enabled: true, minHeight: mm(50), slot: { elements: [
  { kind: 'text', id: 'kicker', content: '{attr.kicker}', fontFamily: 'Work Sans',
    fontSize: pt(7.5), fontWeight: 600, letterSpacing: pt(1.5), textTransform: 'uppercase',
    color: col('accent'), align: 'left',
    placement: { anchor: { to: 'container', edge: 'top-left' }, offset: { y: mm(10) } } },
  { kind: 'text', id: 'title', content: '{titleText}', fontFamily: 'Fraunces', fontSize: pt(28),
    lineHeight: 1.05, fontWeight: 600, color: col('ink'), align: 'left', overflow: 'wrap',
    placement: { anchor: { to: '#kicker', edge: 'below' }, offset: { y: mm(3) },
      size: { width: mm(90) } } },
  { kind: 'rule', id: 'rule', direction: 'horizontal', thickness: pt(1.25), color: col('accent'),
    placement: { anchor: { to: '#title', edge: 'below' }, offset: { y: mm(4.5) },
      size: { width: mm(12) } } },
] } };

The chapter opens a third of the way down a recto, under a kicker taken from the heading's attributes. In 3D a sunk opener reads as it does in a printed novel: the white space at the head of the page is the first thing the reader sees when the case is opened.

script.js · lines 61–74in full code
const head = (id, content, parity, edge, x, extra = {}) => ({ kind: 'text', id, content, parity,
  pages: 'body', fontFamily: 'Work Sans', fontSize: pt(7), fontWeight: 500,
  letterSpacing: pt(1.1), textTransform: 'uppercase', color: col('muted'),
  placement: { anchor: { to: 'page', edge }, offset: { x: mm(x), y: mm(11) } }, ...extra });
const folioNumber = { fontWeight: 600, color: col('accent') };
const header = { elements: [
  head('verso-folio', '{pageNumber}', 'even', 'top-left', OUTER, folioNumber),
  head('verso-author', '{author}', 'even', 'top-left', OUTER + 8),
  head('recto-title', '{title}', 'odd', 'top-right', -(OUTER + 8)),
  head('recto-folio', '{pageNumber}', 'odd', 'top-right', -OUTER, folioNumber),
] };
const footer = { elements: [head('drop-folio', '{pageNumber}', 'all', 'bottom', 0,
  { ...folioNumber, pages: 'opener', placement: { anchor: { to: 'page', edge: 'bottom' },
    offset: { y: mm(-11) } } })] };

#3 · Open the document as a book

The code is the short answer above. createFolioFromDocument takes a container and the laid-out document: it paints each page with renderPageToCanvas at the exact size of a page slot, only around the open spread, and fits the book into the container. The container needs a height of its own, or the book has no room. textureBaseUrl points at the photographed desks on postext.dev; without it the walnut is drawn with procedural maps.

The whole recipe

Sandbox
// ═══ Postext Cookbook · Nº 100 · A laid-out book on the desk, in 3D ═══════════════════
// https://postext.dev/en/cookbook/folio-book-on-a-desk
// Code: MIT · Text: original (CC BY 4.0) · Pictures: none
// Fonts: Literata, Fraunces, Work Sans (SIL OFL 1.1) · Needs postext ≥ 1.13.4
//
// A chapter of a short novel, laid out on a trade-book page and opened with postext-folio as a
// cloth-bound book lying on a walnut desk. Take the right-hand page by its edge and drag it
// over, click a page, or use the arrow keys. The flat pages follow under the book.
import { buildDocument, renderPageToCanvas, clearMeasurementCache } from 'https://esm.sh/postext';
import { createFolioFromDocument } from 'https://esm.sh/postext-folio';

const LANG = 'en'; // @lang: the language of the sample document ('en' | 'es')
const RECIPE = 'folio-book-on-a-desk';

// ─── 1 · Design ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
// #region palette: semantic colours, every one linked by id
const palette = {
  ink: '#211d1a', // text: a warm near-black
  accent: '#2f5d50', // bottle green: kicker, rule, folios, and the cloth of the case
  rule: '#c9bfae', // the colophon's hairline
  muted: '#6d655c', // running heads and the colophon
  cream: '#f7f0e1', // the book wove the pages are printed on (the 3D paper only)
};
const col = (id) => ({ hex: palette[id], model: 'hex', paletteId: id });
const colorPalette = [
  ...Object.entries(palette).map(([id, hex]) => ({ id, name: id, value: { hex, model: 'hex' } })),
  { id: 'main-color', name: 'accent (defaults)', value: { hex: palette.accent, model: 'hex' } },
];
// #endregion
const [TRIM_W, TRIM_H, TOP, BOTTOM, INNER, OUTER] = [129, 198, 20, 22, 17, 15]; // mm: B-format
const LEAD = 14; // pt: the body leading

// #region folio: what the book is made of and where it lies; layout never reads it
const folio = {
  tilt: 26, // degrees from straight above: enough to see the depth of the page block
  paper: { type: 'bookWove', grammage: 70, shade: col('cream') }, // a bulky cream novel paper
  binding: { type: 'hardcover', cover: 'case', coverMaterial: 'cloth',
    coverColor: col('accent') }, // the case wraps the pages; boards a little larger
  surface: { type: 'walnut' },
  lighting: { environment: 'studio', intensity: 1, shadows: true },
};
// #endregion

// #region opener: a sunk chapter opening, kicker, title and a short rule
const opener = { enabled: true, minHeight: mm(50), slot: { elements: [
  { kind: 'text', id: 'kicker', content: '{attr.kicker}', fontFamily: 'Work Sans',
    fontSize: pt(7.5), fontWeight: 600, letterSpacing: pt(1.5), textTransform: 'uppercase',
    color: col('accent'), align: 'left',
    placement: { anchor: { to: 'container', edge: 'top-left' }, offset: { y: mm(10) } } },
  { kind: 'text', id: 'title', content: '{titleText}', fontFamily: 'Fraunces', fontSize: pt(28),
    lineHeight: 1.05, fontWeight: 600, color: col('ink'), align: 'left', overflow: 'wrap',
    placement: { anchor: { to: '#kicker', edge: 'below' }, offset: { y: mm(3) },
      size: { width: mm(90) } } },
  { kind: 'rule', id: 'rule', direction: 'horizontal', thickness: pt(1.25), color: col('accent'),
    placement: { anchor: { to: '#title', edge: 'below' }, offset: { y: mm(4.5) },
      size: { width: mm(12) } } },
] } };
// #endregion

// #region running-heads: author on the verso, book title on the recto, folios outside
const head = (id, content, parity, edge, x, extra = {}) => ({ kind: 'text', id, content, parity,
  pages: 'body', fontFamily: 'Work Sans', fontSize: pt(7), fontWeight: 500,
  letterSpacing: pt(1.1), textTransform: 'uppercase', color: col('muted'),
  placement: { anchor: { to: 'page', edge }, offset: { x: mm(x), y: mm(11) } }, ...extra });
const folioNumber = { fontWeight: 600, color: col('accent') };
const header = { elements: [
  head('verso-folio', '{pageNumber}', 'even', 'top-left', OUTER, folioNumber),
  head('verso-author', '{author}', 'even', 'top-left', OUTER + 8),
  head('recto-title', '{title}', 'odd', 'top-right', -(OUTER + 8)),
  head('recto-folio', '{pageNumber}', 'odd', 'top-right', -OUTER, folioNumber),
] };
const footer = { elements: [head('drop-folio', '{pageNumber}', 'all', 'bottom', 0,
  { ...folioNumber, pages: 'opener', placement: { anchor: { to: 'page', edge: 'bottom' },
    offset: { y: mm(-11) } } })] };
// #endregion

const config = () => ({ // a factory: the engine caches resolved configs per object
  locale: 'en-us',
  colorPalette,
  page: { sizePreset: 'custom', width: mm(TRIM_W), height: mm(TRIM_H), dpi: 150,
    margins: { top: mm(TOP), bottom: mm(BOTTOM), left: mm(INNER), right: mm(OUTER),
      mirror: true } },
  layout: { layoutType: 'single' },
  bodyText: { fontFamily: 'Literata', fontSize: pt(9.8), lineHeight: pt(LEAD),
    color: col('ink'), boldColor: col('ink'), italicColor: col('ink'),
    referenceColor: col('ink'), textAlign: 'justify', firstLineIndent: mm(4),
    indentAfterHeading: false, hyphenation: { enabled: true }, optimalLineBreaking: true,
    avoidWidows: true, avoidOrphans: true, avoidRunts: true },
  headings: { fontFamily: 'Fraunces', color: col('ink'), fontWeight: 600, levels: [
    // Restated: any headings object drops the H1 break (gotcha: headings-drop-h1-break).
    { level: 1, fontSize: pt(28), breakBefore: { enabled: true, parity: 'odd' },
      advancedDesign: opener },
    { level: 2, fontSize: pt(11.5), lineHeight: pt(LEAD), fontWeight: 400, italic: true,
      color: col('accent'), marginTop: pt(LEAD), marginBottom: pt(0) },
  ] },
  paragraphStyles: [{ id: 'colophon', fontFamily: 'Work Sans', fontSize: pt(6.8),
    lineHeight: pt(9.5), color: col('muted'), textAlign: 'left', firstLineIndent: pt(0),
    marginTop: pt(LEAD) }],
  header, footer,
  folio, // the 3D book's materials, carried in the document as doc.config.folio
});

// ─── 2 · Content ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
const markdown = String.raw`---
Markdown sample · 55 lines · content.en.mdtitle: "The Ferryman’s Ledger" author: "Mara Ellison" --- # The Last Crossing {kicker="Chapter one"} **The ferry left the north bank at six** every evening, whatever the weather, and for thirty-one years Tobias Wren had written its passengers into a ledger bound in green cloth. He wrote the date, the hour, the state of the river, and then a line for every soul who came aboard: a name if they gave one, a description if they did not. *A woman with a cello case. Two boys and a dog that would not sit. A priest, reading.* The ledger lived in a drawer under the wheel, wrapped in oilskin, and nobody but Tobias had ever opened it. The river at Hallam is four hundred yards wide and never still. It comes down from the moors brown with peat, carrying branches and once, in the flood of the year his daughter was born, the roof of a barn with a goat standing on it. Tobias took the goat across for nothing and wrote it down as a passenger. He said afterwards that it had paid more attention to the crossing than most. On the evening of the last crossing the light was going early. October had turned cold all at once, and the willows on the south bank had dropped their leaves in a single night, so that the landing stage looked bare and new. Tobias came down the lane at half past five with his collar up and found a young man already waiting at the rail, a canvas bag at his feet and his hands deep in his pockets. “You’re early,” Tobias said. “I didn’t want to miss it. They told me in the village it was the last one.” “The last one I take,” said Tobias. “The council has a bridge now. You’ll have seen it.” Everyone had seen it. It stood a mile upstream on six concrete legs, grey and patient, and cars went over it in less time than it took Tobias to cast off. ## Six o’clock He let the young man aboard and went through the small rituals of the boat without thinking about them: the engine coaxed into life, the lamps lit fore and aft, the ropes looped and stowed. The ferry was a flat-bottomed thing of tarred oak, older than Tobias, with a wheelhouse no bigger than a wardrobe. It smelled of diesel and wet rope and, faintly, of the apples a farmer had carried across that morning. Nobody else came. At six exactly Tobias rang the bell, as he always did, once for the north bank and once for the south, and took the ferry out into the current. The young man stood at the bow and watched the far bank come slowly towards them. Halfway across, where the river runs deepest and the water turns from brown to black, Tobias cut the engine. He did it every night. The current took the boat and turned it gently downstream, and for a minute the only sounds were the water against the hull and the rooks going home over the woods. Passengers who knew the crossing waited for that minute; the ones who did not usually asked whether something had broken. The young man did not ask. He turned round and looked at Tobias through the wheelhouse window, and Tobias saw that he was holding a book against his chest, a thin book bound in green cloth, its corners worn white. ## The other ledger “My grandmother kept this,” the young man said when the engine was running again. “She crossed with you every Saturday for nine years, to see her sister in Calder. She wrote down the crossings too. I thought you would want to see it before it ends.” Tobias took the book in both hands. The cloth was the same green as his own, from the same stationer in the market square, which had closed a decade ago. Inside, in a small upright hand, were the Saturdays: the date, the weather, the colour of the river, and then a line about the ferryman. *He was whistling today. He has cut his hair. He gave the boy with the bicycle an apple and told him it was the fare.* He read for the rest of the crossing, and when the ferry bumped against the south landing he did not move to tie up. The young man did it for him, clumsily but well enough, and then sat on the rail and waited. “Ada Pell,” Tobias said at last. “Grey coat, a basket with a lid. She always stood on the left of the bow.” “The left was the side of the house she grew up in. You can see the chimney from the middle of the river, if you know where to look.” Tobias had never known that. He had written her into his own ledger more than four hundred times, and never once wondered why she stood where she did. He turned the pages of her book until he found the last entry, a Saturday in March eleven years ago. *River high and fast. He waited for me at the top of the lane, though I was late. I think he knows I won’t be coming back.* He had known. He remembered the day. He had not written down what he knew, only her name and the time, because the ledger was for the crossing and not for the people in it. He saw now that she had kept the better book. ## After The young man would not take the ledger back. “She wrote it about you,” he said. “It should be on the boat.” Then he shouldered his bag and walked up the lane towards the village, where a bus would take him to the station and the station would take him home. Tobias watched him out of sight. He did not go back across that night. The ferry stayed tied to the south landing with its lamps lit until the oil ran out, and in the morning the men from the council found Tobias asleep in the wheelhouse with two green ledgers open on his knees. They let him keep the boat. It sits on the bank now below the willows, and children climb in it and steer it across rivers that are not there. The ledgers went to the library in Hallam, where they are kept side by side in a glass case, open at the same Saturday in March: on the left page a name and an hour, and on the right a few lines that say everything the left page leaves out. :::paragraphs{style="colophon"} Set in Literata, Fraunces and Work Sans (SIL Open Font License) · Text: original, CC BY 4.0. :::
`; // content.<lang>.md, inlined by the Cookbook // ─── 3 · Fonts ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── const FONTS = { Literata: ['400', '400i', '700'], Fraunces: ['400i', '600'], 'Work Sans': ['400', '500', '600'], }; // ─── 4 · Build & show ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── await loadFonts(FONTS, markdown); const doc = await buildWithFonts(() => buildDocument({ markdown }, config()), markdown); showPages(doc, { title: 'The Ferryman’s Ledger · in Folio' }); // #region answer: the document opened as a book; the container gives it its size const stage = document.createElement('section'); stage.id = 'folio'; stage.ariaLabel = 'The book in 3D'; stage.style.cssText = 'height: min(78vh, 720px); margin: 0 auto; max-width: 1280px'; document.getElementById('pages').before(stage); createFolioFromDocument(stage, doc, { // The paper, binding, desk and light come from doc.config.folio. Only the photographed // desk is the host's choice: without textureBaseUrl the walnut is drawn procedurally. appearance: { textureBaseUrl: 'https://postext.dev/folio/textures' }, onChange: ({ pages }) => kitStatus(`${doc.pages.length} pages · open at ` + pages.map((i) => doc.pages[i].pageLabel || i + 1).join('–')), }); // #endregion
Kit · core, fonts, viewer: the same in every recipe · 235 lines// ─── Kit ── helpers shared by every Cookbook recipe · postext.dev/cookbook ───── // ─── Kit · core v1 ── the same in every recipe · postext.dev/cookbook ───────── function mm(value) { return { value, unit: 'mm' }; } function pt(value) { return { value, unit: 'pt' }; } function em(value) { return { value, unit: 'em' }; } /** The sample language's string: t({ en: 'Figure', es: 'Figura' }). */ function t(strings) { return strings[LANG] ?? Object.values(strings)[0]; } /** A file in this recipe's assets folder, served from the Postext repo by jsDelivr. */ function asset(file) { return `https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/drnachio/postext@main/cookbook/${RECIPE}/assets/${file}`; } // ─── Kit · fonts v1 ── the same in every recipe · postext.dev/cookbook ──────── // Postext measures text with the faces the browser has loaded, and caches the // widths, so every face must be ready before the first build. Faces come from // Fontsource: the same static files the PDF embeds, so screen and PDF agree. /** faces = { 'Family Name': ['400', '400i', '700'] }. `text` is the sample: * letters beyond Latin-1 (č, ł, ő…) also load the latin-ext files. With * `optional`, a face Fontsource does not ship is skipped instead of failing. * Resolves to the number of faces added. */ async function loadFonts(faces, text = '', { optional = false } = {}) { kitStatus('Loading fonts…'); const ranges = { latin: 'U+0000-00FF,U+0131,U+0152-0153,U+02BB-02BC,U+02C6,U+02DA,U+02DC,U+0304,U+0308,U+0329,' + 'U+2000-206F,U+20AC,U+2122,U+2191,U+2193,U+2212,U+2215,U+FEFF,U+FFFD', 'latin-ext': 'U+0100-02BA,U+02BD-02C5,U+02C7-02CC,U+02CE-02D7,U+02DD-02FF,U+0304,U+0308,U+0329,' + 'U+1D00-1DBF,U+1E00-1E9F,U+1EF2-1EFF,U+2020,U+20A0-20AB,U+20AD-20C0,U+2113,U+2C60-2C7F,U+A720-A7FF', }; const subsets = /[Ā-˿Ḁ-ỿ]/.test(text) ? ['latin', 'latin-ext'] : ['latin']; const jobs = []; let added = 0; for (const [family, specs] of Object.entries(faces)) { const id = fontsourceId(family); const meta = optional ? await fontsourceMeta(family) : null; for (const spec of new Set(specs)) { const weight = parseInt(spec, 10); const style = spec.endsWith('i') ? 'italic' : 'normal'; if (hasFace(family, weight, style)) continue; if (optional && !(meta?.weights.includes(weight) && meta.styles.includes(style))) continue; for (const subset of subsets) { const url = `https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@fontsource/${id}@5/files/${id}-${subset}-${weight}-${style}.woff2`; const face = new FontFace(family, `url(${url}) format('woff2')`, { weight: String(weight), style, unicodeRange: ranges[subset] }); jobs.push(face.load().then((ready) => { document.fonts.add(ready); added++; }, () => { if (subset === 'latin' && !optional) throw new Error(`Fontsource has no ${family} ${weight} ${style}`); })); } } } await Promise.all(jobs).catch((error) => { kitFail(error); throw error; }); return added; } /** Runs `build` (a buildDocument or buildBundle call) and checks the faces * the pages use. A regular face missing from FONTS is loaded with a warning; * bold and italic variants are loaded when the family ships them. Then the * measurement caches are cleared and the build runs again. */ async function buildWithFonts(build, text = '') { const tried = new Set(); for (let round = 0; round < 3; round++) { kitStatus('Laying out…'); await new Promise(requestAnimationFrame); // let the status paint first const result = await Promise.resolve().then(build).catch((error) => { kitFail(error); throw error; }); const wanted = { base: {}, variants: {} }; for (const { font, base } of [result].flat().flatMap(fontStringsOf)) { const { family, weight, style } = parseFont(font); const key = `${family}|${weight}|${style}`; if (tried.has(key) || hasFace(family, weight, style)) continue; tried.add(key); (wanted[base ? 'base' : 'variants'][family] ??= []).push(`${weight}${style === 'italic' ? 'i' : ''}`); } if (Object.keys(wanted.base).length) { console.warn(`[cookbook] FONTS does not list ${JSON.stringify(wanted.base)}: loading them.`); } const added = await loadFonts(wanted.base, text) + await loadFonts(wanted.variants, text, { optional: true }); if (added === 0) return result; clearMeasurementCache(); } throw new Error('The fonts did not settle after three builds.'); } /** Every font string of the layout. `base` marks a block's own face; its * bold, italic and bold-italic variants are listed whether or not used. */ function fontStringsOf(doc) { const found = new Map(); const walk = (node) => { if (!node || typeof node !== 'object') return; if (Array.isArray(node)) { node.forEach(walk); return; } for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(node)) { if (typeof value === 'string' && /fontString$/i.test(key)) { found.set(value, found.get(value) || key === 'fontString'); } else if (value && typeof value === 'object') walk(value); } }; walk(doc.pages); walk(doc.blocks); return [...found].map(([font, base]) => ({ font, base })); } /** '700 37.5px Open Sans' / 'italic 400 13px "Source Serif 4"' → { family, weight, style }. * A string with no weight ('95.8px Young Serif', from a design text) is 400. */ function parseFont(font) { const m = /^(?:(italic|oblique)\s+)?(?:small-caps\s+)?(?:(\d+|bold|normal)\s+)?[\d.]+px\s+(.+)$/.exec(font.trim()); if (!m) throw new Error(`Unexpected font string: ${font}`); const weight = m[2] === 'bold' ? 700 : !m[2] || m[2] === 'normal' ? 400 : Number(m[2]); return { family: m[3].replace(/^["']|["']$/g, ''), weight, style: m[1] ? 'italic' : 'normal' }; } /** True when a loaded FontFace covers exactly this family, weight and style * (document.fonts.check() is also true for families nobody declared). */ function hasFace(family, weight, style) { for (const face of document.fonts) { if (face.status !== 'loaded' || face.style !== style) continue; if (face.family.replace(/^["']|["']$/g, '') !== family) continue; const [low, high = low] = face.weight.split(' ').map(Number); if (weight >= low && weight <= high) return true; } return false; } /** Fontsource's id for a family: 'Source Serif 4' → 'source-serif-4'. */ function fontsourceId(family) { return family.toLowerCase().replace(/\s+/g, '-'); } /** The weights and styles a family ships ({ weights: [400, 700], styles: ['normal', 'italic'] }), or null. */ function fontsourceMeta(family) { fontsourceMeta.cache ??= new Map(); const id = fontsourceId(family); if (!fontsourceMeta.cache.has(id)) { fontsourceMeta.cache.set(id, fetch(`https://api.fontsource.org/v1/fonts/${id}`) .then((res) => (res.ok ? res.json() : null), () => null)); } return fontsourceMeta.cache.get(id); } // ─── Kit · viewer v1 ── the same in every recipe · postext.dev/cookbook ─────── /** Shows the pages as facing spreads on a dark desk: the first page is a * recto on its own, then verso | recto pairs, as in a bound book. Pages * are painted when they scroll near the screen. */ function showPages(docs, { title, width = 460 } = {}) { const root = viewer(title); const pages = [docs].flat().flatMap((doc) => doc.pages.map((page) => ({ doc, page, n: (doc.pageIndexOffset ?? 0) + page.index }))); const spreads = []; let verso = null; for (const p of pages) { if (p.n % 2 === 1) { if (verso) spreads.push([verso, null]); verso = p; } else { spreads.push([verso, p]); verso = null; } } if (verso) spreads.push([verso, null]); const density = Math.min(window.devicePixelRatio || 1, 2); showPages.painter?.disconnect(); const painter = new IntersectionObserver((entries) => { for (const { isIntersecting, target } of entries) { if (!isIntersecting) continue; painter.unobserve(target); const { doc, page } = target.postext; renderPageToCanvas(page, doc, target, { scale: (width * density) / page.width }); } }, { rootMargin: '800px' }); showPages.painter = painter; root.replaceChildren(...spreads.map((pair) => { const spread = document.createElement('div'); spread.className = 'pt-spread'; for (const p of pair) { const figure = document.createElement('figure'); if (p) { const label = p.page.pageLabel || String(p.n + 1); const canvas = document.createElement('canvas'); canvas.postext = p; canvas.style.aspectRatio = `${p.page.width} / ${p.page.height}`; canvas.setAttribute('role', 'img'); canvas.setAttribute('aria-label', `Page ${label}`); const folio = document.createElement('figcaption'); folio.textContent = label; figure.append(canvas, folio); painter.observe(canvas); } else figure.className = 'pt-blank'; spread.append(figure); } return spread; })); kitStatus(`${pages.length} ${pages.length === 1 ? 'page' : 'pages'}`); document.documentElement.dataset.postext = 'ready'; return pages.length; } /** The desk, the bar and the error reporting, created once. */ function viewer(title) { if (!document.getElementById('pt-kit')) { document.head.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', `<style id="pt-kit"> :root { color-scheme: dark; } body { margin: 0; background: #0e1014; color: #b9bcc4; font: 13px/1.45 system-ui, sans-serif; } #pt-bar { position: sticky; top: 0; z-index: 1; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; align-items: center; gap: 6px 16px; padding: 10px 16px; background: rgb(14 16 20 / .92); backdrop-filter: blur(6px); border-bottom: 1px solid #23262d; } #pt-bar strong { color: #f4f1ea; font-weight: 600; } #pt-actions { display: flex; gap: 12px; margin-left: auto; } #pt-actions a, #pt-actions button { color: #d8a21a; font: inherit; background: none; border: 0; padding: 0; cursor: pointer; } #pages { display: grid; justify-items: center; gap: 48px; padding: 32px 16px 72px; } .pt-spread { display: flex; } .pt-spread figure { margin: 0; width: min(460px, 44vw); } .pt-spread canvas { display: block; width: 100%; background: #fff; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgb(0 0 0 / .5), 0 22px 44px -16px rgb(0 0 0 / .8); } .pt-spread figure:first-child canvas { box-shadow: inset -14px 0 14px -14px rgb(0 0 0 / .18), 0 1px 2px rgb(0 0 0 / .5), 0 22px 44px -16px rgb(0 0 0 / .8); } .pt-spread figcaption { margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; font: 600 10px/1 system-ui, sans-serif; letter-spacing: .18em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #6c7079; } .pt-blank { visibility: hidden; } @media (max-width: 760px) { .pt-spread { flex-direction: column; gap: 32px; } .pt-spread figure { width: min(460px, 92vw); } .pt-blank { display: none; } } </style>`); document.body.insertAdjacentHTML('afterbegin', '<header id="pt-bar"><strong id="pt-title"></strong><span id="pt-status" role="status"></span><span id="pt-actions"></span></header>'); document.getElementById('pt-title').textContent = document.title || 'Postext'; addEventListener('error', (event) => kitFail(event.error ?? event.message)); addEventListener('unhandledrejection', (event) => kitFail(event.reason)); } if (title) document.getElementById('pt-title').textContent = title; return document.getElementById('pages') ?? document.body.appendChild(Object.assign(document.createElement('main'), { id: 'pages' })); } function kitStatus(text) { viewer(); document.getElementById('pt-status').textContent = text; } function kitFail(error) { document.documentElement.dataset.postext = 'error'; kitStatus(`Error: ${error?.message ?? error}`); } // ─── /Kit ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

The composed script.js runs as it is: paste it into any page’s module script, or open the recipe on CodePen. Recipe folder on GitHub ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Variations

#A paperback on oak in daylight

Change three settings and the same chapter is a softcover on a pale desk; nothing is laid out again.

-  binding: { type: 'hardcover', cover: 'case', coverMaterial: 'cloth',
-    coverColor: col('accent') }, // the case wraps the pages; boards a little larger
-  surface: { type: 'walnut' },
-  lighting: { environment: 'studio', intensity: 1, shadows: true },
+  binding: { type: 'paperback', cover: 'case', coverMaterial: 'paper',
+    coverColor: col('accent') },
+  surface: { type: 'oak' },
+  lighting: { environment: 'daylight', intensity: 1, shadows: true },

#Every leaf on another paper

A swatch book prints each leaf on its own stock with :::paper, and the settings bench changes every setting live with setAppearance.

Pitfalls

Pitfall

The Folio viewer takes the size of its container

createFolioFromDocument fits the book into the element you give it, with the buttons and the page count in its margins. An element with no height (an empty div in normal flow) shows nothing: give it a height in CSS. 3D book viewer (Folio) →

Pitfall

Load every face before layout

Layout measures text with the faces the browser has loaded and caches the widths, so a face that arrives after the first build leaves wrong line breaks and a PDF that no longer matches the screen. Load every weight and style first, and call clearMeasurementCache() before rebuilding when one arrives late. Fonts before layout →

Pitfall

Any headings object switches off the H1 page break

By default an H1 breaks to a recto (always-odd), but passing any headings object resets that default, so chapters run on and span: 'page' does nothing. Restate headings.levels[0].breakBefore: { enabled: true, parity } in every config. Chapters that open on a recto →

Pitfall

A config is cached by identity: build a fresh object

The engine caches resolved configs by object identity, so changing a config in place and building again reuses the old result. Build a fresh object for every build, which is why a recipe's config is a factory: config(). Pages on a canvas →

Credits

Text
Original prose, CC BY 4.0
Fonts
Literata (SIL OFL 1.1) · Fraunces (SIL OFL 1.1) · Work Sans (SIL OFL 1.1)
Sandbox