In short
A short commentary on an English court decision about the police. Every case, statute and article it relies on is cited in a numbered note at the foot of the page, in the style British law schools use.
What you'll build
An offprint from a law journal's case-comment series: four pages on Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, the 2018 Supreme Court decision on when the police owe a duty of care. The page is 162 × 240 mm, mirrored, in Libre Baskerville at 9.4/13.6 pt, and the first page opens on a claret band with the case name set in 60 pt italics. The author writes each authority as a key with its pinpoint, [@caparo1990, 617–18], and Postext sets 23 footnotes in OSCOLA, the citation standard of British law schools: case names in italics, statutes in roman, no full stops after AC, HL or edn, ibid for the authority of the note before and Robinson (n 1) [55] after that. The authorities are real; the author and the journal are not.
This recipe answers
- How do I cite cases and legislation in footnotes, in the OSCOLA style of British legal writing?
- How do I set citations as footnotes, Chicago style, with short forms for later citations?
The short answer
// The text cites with [@robinson2018, para 21]; OSCOLA is a note style, so each citation
// becomes a footnote: the case in full the first time, "ibid" when the note before cites
// the same authority, "Robinson (n 1) [55]" after that. Case names come out italic,
// statutes roman, and no abbreviation takes a full stop (AC, HL, UKSC, edn, n, s).
registerCitationEngine(createCiteprocEngine({ styles: STYLES, locales: LOCALES }));
const citations = {
style: 'custom', customStyle: OSCOLA, // the bundled 'oscola', patched above
locale: 'en-GB', // OSCOLA's words stay English in the Spanish edition too
notes: 'footnote',
link: false, // a case comment has no bibliography to link to
bibliography: { auto: false }, // OSCOLA articles cite in the notes only
};
// The citation notes share the numbering and the look of the author's own [^notes].
const footnotes = {
placement: 'column', numbering: 'chapter',
fontSize: pt(7.8), lineHeight: pt(10.2), spaceBetween: pt(2.2),
textAlign: 'left', // ragged: long report citations would open wide gaps if justified
separator: { width: 0.25, lineWidth: pt(0.5), color: col('rule') },
};
OSCOLA footnotes for cases, statutes and articles
Ingredients
- Features
- Citations in notesCitations in a citation styleFootnotesFull-width chapter bandDesigned openersHeading attributesRunning heads and foliosMirrored marginsParagraph stylesSemantic colour palettePDF export
- Also uses
- Cross-referencesBibliography from the referencesPaper colourHeads by page roleFonts embedded in the PDF
- Type
- Libre Baskerville, Libre Caslon Display, Libre Franklin (SIL OFL 1.1)
- Assets
- None: every picture is drawn in code
Method
#1 · An OSCOLA note for every authority
The code is the short answer above. OSCOLA is a note style, so [@robinson2018, para 21] leaves a superscript number after the full stop and its words go to the foot of the page. Note 1 gives the case in full, Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [2018] UKSC 4, [2018] AC 736; note 2, which cites it again at once, reads ibid [21]; note 8, after other cases have come between, reads Robinson (n 1) [26–27]. A law-review article cites only in its notes, so bibliography.auto: false keeps the list of works off the last page.
#2 · A case is data, written as the reports print it
A case is a CSL item of type: legal_case: its name in title, the court in authority, the report series in container-title and the first page in page. OSCOLA puts the year of a report in square brackets when the year identifies the volume, as with the Appeal Cases, so the recipe writes that year in volume, with the volume number after it: volume: "[1990] 2" gives [1990] 2 AC 605 (HL). A case decided after 2001 also has a neutral citation: authority: UKSC, number: "4" and issued: 2018 give [2018] UKSC 4, followed by the report. A statute is type: legislation with the year in its title and no issued, so the year is not printed twice, and [@hra1998, § 6] cites a section as s 6.
#3 · Two patches to the bundled style
// The bundled oscola.csl writes a paragraph pinpoint in brackets only in a case's first
// note: a later note printed "Robinson (n 1) para 55" and "ibid 27", and a repeated
// statute "ibid 7". These two replacements give "Robinson (n 1) [55]", "ibid [27]" and
// "ibid s 7", as OSCOLA prints them.
const LOCATOR = `<macro name="label-locator"><choose>
<if type="legal_case" locator="paragraph">
<text variable="locator" prefix="[" suffix="]"/></if>
<else-if locator="page"><text variable="locator"/></else-if>
<else><group delimiter=" "><label form="short" strip-periods="true" variable="locator"/>
<text variable="locator"/></group></else>
</choose></macro>`;
const OSCOLA = STYLES.oscola
.replace(/<macro name="label-locator">[\s\S]*?<\/macro>/, LOCATOR)
.replace(/(<if position="ibid-with-locator">[\s\S]*?)<text variable="locator"\/>/,
'$1<text macro="label-locator"/>');
The bundled oscola.csl brackets a paragraph pinpoint only in a case's first note. Later notes printed para 55 and ibid 27, and a second note to the same Act lost its s. The patch replaces one macro and one line of the style's XML before the build and passes the result as a custom style, so the text and the references do not change.
#4 · The case name on the band
const BAND = 124; // mm from the trim's top
const big = (id, content, family, size, color, y, extra = {}) => ({
kind: 'text', id, content, fontFamily: family, fontSize: pt(size), lineHeight: 1.08, color,
align: 'left', overflow: 'wrap', ...extra,
placement: { ...at('container', 'top-left', 0, y), size: { width: mm(118), height: 'auto' } },
});
const opener = {
enabled: true,
minHeight: mm(BAND - MARGIN.top + 8), // the text starts 8 mm under the band
slot: { elements: [
{ kind: 'box', id: 'band', style: { backgroundColor: col('claret') },
placement: { ...at('page', 'top-left'), size: { width: 'fill', height: mm(BAND) } } },
big('kicker', '{attr.kicker}', LABEL, 7.4, col('tint'), 2,
{ fontWeight: 600, letterSpacing: pt(1.4), textTransform: 'uppercase' }),
big('case', '{attr.case}', TEXT, 60, col('paper'), 9, { italic: true }),
big('parties', '{attr.parties}', TEXT, 12.5, col('tint'), 33, { italic: true }),
big('citation', '{attr.citation}', TEXT, 10.5, col('tint'), 40),
{ kind: 'box', id: 'hairline', style: { backgroundColor: col('tint') },
placement: { ...at('container', 'top-left', 0, 51),
size: { width: mm(30), height: pt(0.6) } } },
big('title', '{titleText}', DISPLAY, 27, col('paper'), 57),
big('byline', '{attr.byline}', LABEL, 8.5, col('tint'), 82,
{ fontWeight: 500, letterSpacing: pt(0.5) }),
] },
};
The band runs 124 mm down from the trim. The case name, the parties and the citation are heading attributes, so another comment in the series changes only its Markdown. Robinson is set in Libre Baskerville Italic at 60 pt because OSCOLA italicises case names, and the citation under it stays roman, as it does in the notes.
const palette = {
ink: '#1f1b1a', claret: '#5e1b26', tint: '#ecdcd8', rule: '#bfb4ad', muted: '#6b625d',
paper: '#fcfaf6',
};
// A design element paints the hex written beside its paletteId (gotcha: palette-skips-designs).
const col = (id) => ({ hex: palette[id], model: 'hex', paletteId: id });
const colorPalette = Object.entries({ ...palette, 'main-color': palette.claret })
.map(([id, hex]) => ({ id, name: id, value: { hex, model: 'hex' } }));
The whole recipe
// ═══ Postext Cookbook · Nº 099 · A legal opinion cited in OSCOLA ══════════════════ // https://postext.dev/en/cookbook/legal-opinion-oscola // Code: MIT · Text: original (CC BY 4.0) · Pictures: none // Fonts: Libre Baskerville, Libre Caslon Display, Libre Franklin (OFL 1.1) · Needs postext ≥ 1.12.1 import { buildDocument, renderPageToCanvas, clearMeasurementCache, registerCitationEngine, } from 'https://esm.sh/postext'; import { renderToPdf, decompressWoff2 } from 'https://esm.sh/postext-pdf'; import { createCiteprocEngine, STYLES, LOCALES } from 'https://esm.sh/postext-citeproc'; const LANG = 'en'; // @lang: the language of the sample document ('en' | 'es') const RECIPE = 'legal-opinion-oscola'; // ─── 1 · Design ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── // #region palette: a law-report claret for the band, ink and cream paper for the rest const palette = { ink: '#1f1b1a', claret: '#5e1b26', tint: '#ecdcd8', rule: '#bfb4ad', muted: '#6b625d', paper: '#fcfaf6', }; // A design element paints the hex written beside its paletteId (gotcha: palette-skips-designs). const col = (id) => ({ hex: palette[id], model: 'hex', paletteId: id }); const colorPalette = Object.entries({ ...palette, 'main-color': palette.claret }) .map(([id, hex]) => ({ id, name: id, value: { hex, model: 'hex' } })); // #endregion const TEXT = 'Libre Baskerville', DISPLAY = 'Libre Caslon Display', LABEL = 'Libre Franklin'; const TRIM = { width: 162, height: 240 }; // a law-journal offprint const MARGIN = { top: 23, bottom: 22, inner: 19, outer: 21 }; const LEAD = 13.6; // pt const at = (to, edge, x = 0, y = 0) => ({ anchor: { to, edge }, offset: { x: mm(x), y: mm(y) } }); // #region oscola: two patches to the bundled OSCOLA style, applied before the build // The bundled oscola.csl writes a paragraph pinpoint in brackets only in a case's first // note: a later note printed "Robinson (n 1) para 55" and "ibid 27", and a repeated // statute "ibid 7". These two replacements give "Robinson (n 1) [55]", "ibid [27]" and // "ibid s 7", as OSCOLA prints them. const LOCATOR = `<macro name="label-locator"><choose> <if type="legal_case" locator="paragraph"> <text variable="locator" prefix="[" suffix="]"/></if> <else-if locator="page"><text variable="locator"/></else-if> <else><group delimiter=" "><label form="short" strip-periods="true" variable="locator"/> <text variable="locator"/></group></else> </choose></macro>`; const OSCOLA = STYLES.oscola .replace(/<macro name="label-locator">[\s\S]*?<\/macro>/, LOCATOR) .replace(/(<if position="ibid-with-locator">[\s\S]*?)<text variable="locator"\/>/, '$1<text macro="label-locator"/>'); // #endregion // #region answer: OSCOLA footnotes for cases, statutes and articles // The text cites with [@robinson2018, para 21]; OSCOLA is a note style, so each citation // becomes a footnote: the case in full the first time, "ibid" when the note before cites // the same authority, "Robinson (n 1) [55]" after that. Case names come out italic, // statutes roman, and no abbreviation takes a full stop (AC, HL, UKSC, edn, n, s). registerCitationEngine(createCiteprocEngine({ styles: STYLES, locales: LOCALES })); const citations = { style: 'custom', customStyle: OSCOLA, // the bundled 'oscola', patched above locale: 'en-GB', // OSCOLA's words stay English in the Spanish edition too notes: 'footnote', link: false, // a case comment has no bibliography to link to bibliography: { auto: false }, // OSCOLA articles cite in the notes only }; // The citation notes share the numbering and the look of the author's own [^notes]. const footnotes = { placement: 'column', numbering: 'chapter', fontSize: pt(7.8), lineHeight: pt(10.2), spaceBetween: pt(2.2), textAlign: 'left', // ragged: long report citations would open wide gaps if justified separator: { width: 0.25, lineWidth: pt(0.5), color: col('rule') }, }; // #endregion // #region opener: the claret band holds the case name, its citation and the title const BAND = 124; // mm from the trim's top const big = (id, content, family, size, color, y, extra = {}) => ({ kind: 'text', id, content, fontFamily: family, fontSize: pt(size), lineHeight: 1.08, color, align: 'left', overflow: 'wrap', ...extra, placement: { ...at('container', 'top-left', 0, y), size: { width: mm(118), height: 'auto' } }, }); const opener = { enabled: true, minHeight: mm(BAND - MARGIN.top + 8), // the text starts 8 mm under the band slot: { elements: [ { kind: 'box', id: 'band', style: { backgroundColor: col('claret') }, placement: { ...at('page', 'top-left'), size: { width: 'fill', height: mm(BAND) } } }, big('kicker', '{attr.kicker}', LABEL, 7.4, col('tint'), 2, { fontWeight: 600, letterSpacing: pt(1.4), textTransform: 'uppercase' }), big('case', '{attr.case}', TEXT, 60, col('paper'), 9, { italic: true }), big('parties', '{attr.parties}', TEXT, 12.5, col('tint'), 33, { italic: true }), big('citation', '{attr.citation}', TEXT, 10.5, col('tint'), 40), { kind: 'box', id: 'hairline', style: { backgroundColor: col('tint') }, placement: { ...at('container', 'top-left', 0, 51), size: { width: mm(30), height: pt(0.6) } } }, big('title', '{titleText}', DISPLAY, 27, col('paper'), 57), big('byline', '{attr.byline}', LABEL, 8.5, col('tint'), 82, { fontWeight: 500, letterSpacing: pt(0.5) }), ] }, }; // #endregion const head = (id, content, parity, edge, x, align) => ({ kind: 'text', id, content, parity, pages: 'body', fontFamily: LABEL, fontWeight: 500, fontSize: pt(7.2), letterSpacing: pt(1), textTransform: 'uppercase', color: col('muted'), align, placement: at('page', edge, x, 13), }); const journal = t({ en: 'Notes on Obligations', es: 'Cuadernos de Obligaciones' }); const config = () => ({ // a factory: the engine caches resolved configs per object locale: t({ en: 'en-us', es: 'es' }), // exact codes (gotcha: hyphenation-locales) colorPalette, citations, footnotes, page: { sizePreset: 'custom', width: mm(TRIM.width), height: mm(TRIM.height), dpi: 150, backgroundColor: col('paper'), margins: { top: mm(MARGIN.top), bottom: mm(MARGIN.bottom), left: mm(MARGIN.inner), right: mm(MARGIN.outer), mirror: true }, }, layout: { layoutType: 'single' }, bodyText: { fontFamily: TEXT, fontSize: pt(9.4), lineHeight: pt(LEAD), color: col('ink'), boldColor: col('ink'), italicColor: col('ink'), referenceColor: col('ink'), textAlign: 'justify', firstLineIndent: mm(4.5), indentAfterHeading: false, hyphenation: { enabled: true }, optimalLineBreaking: true, avoidWidows: true, avoidOrphans: true, avoidRunts: true, }, headings: { fontFamily: TEXT, fontWeight: 400, color: col('ink'), levels: [ // Restated: any headings object drops the H1 break (gotcha: headings-drop-h1-break). { level: 1, fontSize: pt(27), breakBefore: { enabled: true, parity: 'any' }, advancedDesign: opener }, { level: 2, italic: true, fontSize: pt(12), color: col('claret'), lineHeight: pt(LEAD), marginTop: pt(LEAD), marginBottom: pt(LEAD / 2) }, ], }, paragraphStyles: [ { id: 'colophon', fontFamily: LABEL, fontSize: pt(6.8), lineHeight: pt(9.2), color: col('muted'), textAlign: 'left', firstLineIndent: pt(0), marginTop: pt(LEAD) }, ], header: { elements: [ head('verso-folio', '{pageNumber}', 'even', 'top-left', MARGIN.outer, 'left'), head('verso-journal', journal, 'even', 'top-left', MARGIN.outer + 8, 'left'), head('recto-title', '{title}', 'odd', 'top-right', -(MARGIN.outer + 8), 'right'), head('recto-folio', '{pageNumber}', 'odd', 'top-right', -MARGIN.outer, 'right'), ] }, footer: { elements: [ // a drop folio on the opener page only { kind: 'text', id: 'drop-folio', content: '{pageNumber}', pages: 'opener', fontFamily: LABEL, fontWeight: 500, fontSize: pt(7.2), color: col('muted'), align: 'center', placement: at('page', 'bottom', 0, -11) }, ] }, }); // ─── 2 · Content ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── const markdown = String.raw`---Markdown sample · 192 lines · content.en.md
title: "Acts, Omissions and the Police" author: "Harriet Okafor" --- # Acts, Omissions and the Police {#comment kicker="Notes on Obligations · Case Comment" case="Robinson" parties="v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police" citation="[2018] UKSC 4, [2018] AC 736" byline="Harriet Okafor"} On a July afternoon in 2008 two detectives tried to arrest a man suspected of dealing drugs on a shopping street in the centre of Huddersfield. He resisted, and the three men fell against Mrs Robinson, a woman of 76 who was walking past, and knocked her to the ground. The trial judge found that the officers had been careless in attempting the arrest where and when they did, but held that the police owed no duty of care to a passer-by hurt in the course of their work against crime. The Court of Appeal agreed. The Supreme Court did not.[@robinson2018] Lord Reed, with whom Lady Hale and Lord Hodge agreed, began by correcting a reading of the law that had gone uncorrected for almost thirty years.[@robinson2018, para 21] This comment argues that the case matters less for what it decided about the police than for the method it restored. A court asked whether a duty of care exists should look first for an established category and reason from it by analogy; it should weigh questions of policy only when the case is new. ## There is no “Caparo test” The modern law begins with Lord Atkin’s statement that a person must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which he can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure his neighbour.[@donoghue1932, 580] In the 1970s the House of Lords tried to turn that statement into a general formula. Lord Wilberforce proposed two stages: a relationship of proximity in which harm was foreseeable, and then any considerations that ought to negative or limit the duty.[@anns1978, 751–52] The formula expanded liability faster than the courts could defend, and *Anns* was overruled in 1990.[@murphy1991] In the same year Lord Bridge described the ingredients of a duty as foreseeability of damage, a relationship of proximity, and a situation in which the court considers it fair, just and reasonable to impose a duty.[@caparo1990, 617–18] Many judges went on to apply it as a three-stage test to every claim, including claims for physical injury caused by a positive act. Lord Bridge had said the opposite. He doubted that any single test could settle every case and preferred that the law develop novel categories incrementally.[^brennan] [^brennan]: Lord Bridge adopted the words of Brennan J in the High Court of Australia; see [@caparo1990, 618; @sutherland1985, 481] *Robinson* restores that reading. Where a case falls within an established category, the court applies the law as settled; the question of what is fair, just and reasonable arises only where the court is asked to go further.[@robinson2018, para 26–27] Physical injury caused by a careless positive act has been an established category since *Donoghue*. The officers’ decision to make the arrest in a crowded street was such an act, the risk to people nearby was foreseeable, and nothing more was needed to found a duty.[@robinson2018, para 74] ## Acts and omissions The common law does not, in general, impose a duty to protect another from harm caused by a third party or by nature.[@smith1987, 271] Lord Hoffmann gave the reason in political terms: it is less of an invasion of a person’s freedom to require him to take care when he chooses to act than to require him to act at all, and a duty to rescue invites the question why it should fall on one bystander rather than another.[@stovin1996, 943–44] The rule has exceptions: where the defendant has assumed responsibility, controls the source of the danger, or has created it. Read in this light, the earlier police cases were cases about omissions. In *Hill* the mother of the last victim of Peter Sutcliffe sued the force that had failed to catch him. The House of Lords held that no duty was owed to her daughter, who was one of an indeterminate public, and added reasons of policy about the effect of liability on police work.[@hill1989, 63] For thirty years *Hill* was cited as if it gave the police a general immunity. Lord Reed treated the policy reasons as a supplement to the ordinary rule: the police, like anyone else, owe no duty to prevent harm by a third party, unless one of the exceptions applies; but they owe the ordinary duty not to injure people by what they themselves do.[@robinson2018, para 55] The distinction had already decided *Michael*, where a call to the emergency services was wrongly graded and the caller was killed before officers arrived. The majority held that the police had assumed no responsibility for her safety and so owed her no duty in negligence.[@michael2015, para 97–100] Academic opinion had divided on the point. One view holds that a public body set up to protect people should bear a narrow duty where it knows of a specific threat to a specific person;[^peripheral] the other, that the omissions rule applies to public authorities as it applies to private persons, and that any wider duty is for Parliament.[@nolan2011] [^peripheral]: [@tofaris2016, 130–32; cf @stapleton1995, 304–06, on the deterrent value of claims against parties who are not the primary wrongdoer] ## The statutory route Section 6(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998 makes it unlawful for a public authority to act in a way that is incompatible with a Convention right,[@hra1998, § 6] and a victim may bring proceedings against it under section 7.[@hra1998, § 7] In *Michael* the claim under article 2 of the Convention was allowed to go to trial even though the claim in negligence failed.[@michael2015, para 139] In *DSD* the Supreme Court held the police liable under article 3 for serious failures in investigating a series of sexual assaults by a taxi driver.[@dsd2018, para 24] The concern behind *Hill*, that liability would push the police into defensive practices, has a statutory answer of its own. When a court decides what steps a defendant should have taken to meet the standard of care, it may consider whether requiring those steps might prevent a desirable activity from being undertaken.[@compensation2006, § 1] That is a question of breach, not of duty. The officers in *Robinson* were not expected to stop arresting suspects, only to choose the moment with some regard for the people on the pavement. ## Comment A year later the Supreme Court applied the same method to a local authority that had failed to rehouse a family harassed by their neighbours, and found no duty, because the council had neither created the danger nor assumed responsibility for the children’s safety.[@poole2019, para 64–65] The two decisions point in different directions on their facts and rest on the same reasoning. Two difficulties remain. The line between acts and omissions is easy to state and hard to draw: an officer who opens a door and lets a violent man in has acted, but one who fails to lock it has not, and the difference may be small to the person on the other side. And the exceptions do much of the work. An assumption of responsibility can be found in a promise, a practice or the nature of a service, and the cases since *Robinson* show that the courts have not agreed how readily to find one.[^generally] The case does not resolve either difficulty; it puts them where they belong, in the analysis of established categories, and not in an open question about what is fair. [^generally]: For the exceptions and the cases on each, see generally [@winfield2020] :::paragraphs{style="colophon"} Written for the Postext Cookbook (CC BY 4.0). Author and series are fictional; this is not legal advice. The authorities are real; some pinpoints are illustrative. Set in Libre Baskerville, Libre Caslon Display and Libre Franklin (SIL OFL). ::: :::references{format=csl-yaml} - id: donoghue1932 type: legal_case title: Donoghue v Stevenson title-short: Donoghue volume: "[1932]" container-title: AC page: "562" authority: HL - id: anns1978 type: legal_case title: Anns v Merton London Borough Council title-short: Anns volume: "[1978]" container-title: AC page: "728" authority: HL - id: murphy1991 type: legal_case title: Murphy v Brentwood District Council title-short: Murphy volume: "[1991] 1" container-title: AC page: "398" authority: HL - id: caparo1990 type: legal_case title: Caparo Industries plc v Dickman title-short: Caparo volume: "[1990] 2" container-title: AC page: "605" authority: HL - id: sutherland1985 type: legal_case title: Sutherland Shire Council v Heyman title-short: Sutherland volume: "157" container-title: CLR page: "424" authority: HCA issued: 1985 - id: smith1987 type: legal_case title: Smith v Littlewoods Organisation Ltd title-short: Smith volume: "[1987]" container-title: AC page: "241" authority: HL - id: stovin1996 type: legal_case title: Stovin v Wise title-short: Stovin volume: "[1996]" container-title: AC page: "923" authority: HL - id: hill1989 type: legal_case title: Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire title-short: Hill volume: "[1989]" container-title: AC page: "53" authority: HL - id: michael2015 type: legal_case title: Michael v Chief Constable of South Wales Police title-short: Michael authority: UKSC number: "2" issued: 2015 volume: "[2015]" container-title: AC page: "1732" - id: robinson2018 type: legal_case title: Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police title-short: Robinson authority: UKSC number: "4" issued: 2018 volume: "[2018]" container-title: AC page: "736" - id: dsd2018 type: legal_case title: Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v DSD title-short: DSD authority: UKSC number: "11" issued: 2018 volume: "[2019]" container-title: AC page: "196" - id: poole2019 type: legal_case title: N v Poole Borough Council title-short: Poole authority: UKSC number: "25" issued: 2019 volume: "[2020]" container-title: AC page: "780" - id: hra1998 type: legislation title: Human Rights Act 1998 - id: compensation2006 type: legislation title: Compensation Act 2006 - id: stapleton1995 type: article-journal author: [{family: Stapleton, given: Jane}] title: "Duty of Care: Peripheral Parties and Alternative Opportunities for Deterrence" container-title: LQR volume: "111" page: "301" issued: 1995 - id: nolan2011 type: article-journal author: [{family: Nolan, given: Donal}] title: The Liability of Public Authorities for Failing to Confer Benefits container-title: LQR volume: "127" page: "260" issued: 2011 - id: tofaris2016 type: article-journal author: [{family: Tofaris, given: Stelios}, {family: Steel, given: Sandy}] title: Negligence Liability for Omissions and the Police container-title: CLJ volume: "75" page: "128" issued: 2016 - id: winfield2020 type: book author: [{family: Goudkamp, given: James}, {family: Nolan, given: Donal}] title: Winfield and Jolowicz on Tort edition: 20 publisher: Sweet & Maxwell issued: 2020 :::`; // ─── 3 · Fonts ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── // Every face the design uses (gotcha: fonts-first). const FONTS = { 'Libre Baskerville': ['400', '400i', '700'], 'Libre Caslon Display': ['400'], 'Libre Franklin': ['400', '500', '600'], }; // ─── 4 · Build & show ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── await loadFonts(FONTS, markdown); const doc = await buildWithFonts(() => buildDocument({ markdown }, config()), markdown); const title = t({ en: 'A legal opinion cited in OSCOLA', es: 'Un dictamen jurídico citado en OSCOLA' }); showPages(doc, { title }); offerPdf(() => renderToPdf(doc, { fontProvider: fontsourceProvider }), `${RECIPE}.pdf`);Kit · core, fonts, viewer, pdf: the same in every recipe · 275 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: ${error?.message ?? error}`); } // ─── Kit · pdf v1 ── the same in every recipe that exports a PDF ────────────── /** postext-pdf embeds TrueType bytes. Fetch the Fontsource file the screen * used, snapping to a weight the family ships and falling back to upright * when it has no italic: the PDF asks for every face a block could use. */ async function fontsourceProvider(family, weight, style) { const id = fontsourceId(family); const meta = await fontsourceMeta(family); const weights = meta?.weights?.length ? meta.weights : [400, 700]; const w = weights.reduce((a, b) => (Math.abs(b - weight) < Math.abs(a - weight) ? b : a)); const s = style === 'italic' && meta && !meta.styles.includes('italic') ? 'normal' : style; const res = await fetch(`https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@fontsource/${id}@5/files/${id}-latin-${w}-${s}.woff2`); if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Fontsource has no ${family} ${w} ${s} (${res.status})`); return decompressWoff2(new Uint8Array(await res.arrayBuffer())); } /** A "Build the PDF" button in the bar. Once built: "Open the PDF" (a new * tab, since CodePen's preview frame cannot show PDFs) and a download link. */ function offerPdf(makePdf, filename) { viewer(); const button = Object.assign(document.createElement('button'), { type: 'button', textContent: 'Build the PDF' }); button.dataset.postextPdf = filename; button.addEventListener('click', async () => { button.disabled = true; button.textContent = 'Building the PDF…'; try { const bytes = await makePdf(); const url = URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([bytes], { type: 'application/pdf' })); const size = `${Math.max(1, Math.round(bytes.length / 1024))} KB`; button.replaceWith( Object.assign(document.createElement('a'), { href: url, target: '_blank', rel: 'noopener', textContent: 'Open the PDF ↗' }), Object.assign(document.createElement('a'), { href: url, download: filename, textContent: `Download ${filename} · ${size}` })); } catch (error) { button.disabled = false; button.textContent = 'Build the PDF'; kitFail(error); } }); document.getElementById('pt-actions').append(button); } // ─── /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
#Print the style as it ships
To compare with the unpatched output, use the bundled id. Paragraph pinpoints in later notes then read para 55.
- style: 'custom', customStyle: OSCOLA, // the bundled 'oscola', patched above
+ style: 'oscola',#Collect the notes at the end
Some journals print their notes after the text. The citations keep their full and short forms and their numbers.
- placement: 'column', numbering: 'chapter',
+ placement: 'chapterEnd', numbering: 'chapter',Pitfalls
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
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
A swapped palette misses design elements and the reference colour
postext 1.4.1 reads colorPalette into the text styles (body, headings, lists, captions, tables, boxes) but not into the elements of headers, footers, openers and part pages, nor into bodyText.referenceColor: they keep the hex written beside their paletteId. When you swap the palette, for a dark screen edition or a retint, rewrite every linked colour from colorPalette before the build. Semantic colour palette →
Pitfall
Only 8 locales hyphenate, by exact code
Hyphenation ships for en-us, es, fr, de, it, pt, ca and nl, matched exactly: 'es-ES' or any other language silently falls back to American English. Hyphenation and document language →
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 →
- A report whose volume is a plain number,
volume: "2", prints the year in round brackets, (1990) 2 AC, which OSCOLA keeps for series numbered across years such as the Commonwealth Law Reports (note 7). Write the bracketed year intovolumefor the Appeal Cases and the Weekly Law Reports. sbefore a locator means a page (German Seite), not a section: write§ 6. A subsection such as6(1)is not read as a locator; name it in the sentence and cite the section.- OSCOLA has no bibliography in an article, and the style has no separate tables of cases and legislation. A thesis that needs those tables gets one sorted list from
:::bibliography, with secondary sources first and then cases and statutes mixed.
Credits
- Recipe
- Ignacio Ferro
- Text
- Original prose, CC BY 4.0
- Fonts
- Libre Baskerville (SIL OFL 1.1) · Libre Caslon Display (SIL OFL 1.1) · Libre Franklin (SIL OFL 1.1)
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