Skip to main content
Recipe number 93

Cookbook · Chapter 5 · Book structure

One text in four citation styles

One short essay with six citations, built in APA 7, Chicago author-date, IEEE and ISO 690: the style setting is the only thing that changes.

On this page
Output
Canvas
Postext
Tested with Postext 1.12.0
Needs ≥ 1.12.0
Licence
Updated 1 Oct 2026
Code MIT · Text CC BY 4.0

pp. 1–1 · 1–2 of 4

  • Trim 155 × 235 mm
  • 1 column
  • Source Serif 4 10/14
  • Source Sans 3
  • 4 pages
  • Level
  • Postext 1.12.0
  • Laid out in 298 ms
  • 113 lines of code

In short

The same two paragraphs about typography, with the same sources, printed four times. Each page uses a different way of citing sources, and the citations and the list at the end change with it, though the text was written once.

What you'll build

A two-paragraph essay on why good typography goes unnoticed, with six sources: a narrative citation, one with a page, one that leaves the author out because the sentence names him, and two works cited together. The text is set four times on a 155 × 235 mm page, and the only change between the four builds is citations.style: APA 7, Chicago author-date, IEEE and ISO 690. Each page carries the style's name in a band of its own colour, so laid side by side they read as a comparison chart. The citations change form, order and punctuation, the list changes its sorting and its names, and the essay itself is the same file.

This recipe answers

  • How do I change a book from one citation style to another without touching the text?
  • How do I cite works and build the bibliography in APA, IEEE or another citation style?

The short answer

script.js · lines 28–44in full code
// Citations are written once, Pandoc's way: [@key], [@a; @b], [-@key] without the author,
// @key [p. 17] inside the sentence. citeproc-js writes them, and the list, in the style named.
registerCitationEngine(createCiteprocEngine({ styles: STYLES, locales: LOCALES }));
const SHOWN = [ // the same text, built once per entry
  { style: 'apa', band: 'apa', name: 'APA 7', system: t({ en: 'author-date', es: 'autor-año' }) },
  { style: 'chicago-author-date', band: 'chicago', name: 'Chicago',
    system: t({ en: 'author-date', es: 'autor-año' }) },
  { style: 'ieee', band: 'ieee', name: 'IEEE', system: t({ en: 'numbered', es: 'numérico' }) },
  { style: t({ en: 'iso690-author-date-en', es: 'iso690-author-date-es' }), band: 'iso',
    name: 'ISO 690', system: t({ en: 'author-date', es: 'autor-año' }) },
];
const citations = (style) => ({
  style, // 'apa' → '(Warde, 1955)'; 'ieee' → '[1]'; the list is sorted and set to match
  link: true,
  bibliography: { fontSize: em(0.85), lineHeight: pt(11.2), hangingIndent: mm(6),
    entrySpacing: pt(2), labelWidth: mm(6), doi: 'hide' },
});

The style is one setting; everything else stays the same

Ingredients

Type
Source Serif 4, Source Sans 3 (SIL OFL 1.1)
Assets
None: every picture is drawn in code

Method

#1 · One setting

The code is the short answer above. The citations are written once in the content, in Pandoc's syntax, and the references sit in a BibTeX block at the end. citations.style names a CSL style, and citeproc-js writes every citation and every entry from it: APA puts a comma before the year and sorts two works by author, Chicago keeps the order in which they were written, IEEE turns them into numbers in order of first citation, ISO 690 sets the surnames in the list in capitals. For a book in progress this is the whole change: one value in the config, and the text is not touched.

#2 · Four builds, two spreads

script.js · lines 147–154in full code
// The style is set for the whole document, so each style is a build of its own.
const docs = [];
for (at = 0; at < SHOWN.length; at++) {
  // pageIndexOffset makes each page the next one of a book, so the desk pairs them:
  // APA beside Chicago, IEEE beside ISO 690.
  const content = { markdown, continuation: { pageIndexOffset: at + 1 } };
  docs.push(await buildWithFonts(() => buildDocument(content, config()), markdown));
}

The style holds for the whole document, so the four versions are four builds of the same Markdown. Each gets a pageIndexOffset one higher than the last, which makes its page the next page of an imaginary book; the desk then pairs them as two spreads, the two author-date styles that differ least beside each other.

#3 · The style's name in a band

script.js · lines 48–69in full code
const opener = (s, i) => ({
  enabled: true,
  minHeight: mm(41), // from the top margin to under the title, 63 mm from the trim
  slot: { elements: [
    { kind: 'box', id: 'band', style: { backgroundColor: col(s.band) },
      placement: { anchor: { to: 'page', edge: 'top-left' },
        size: { width: 'fill', height: mm(44) } } },
    { kind: 'text', id: 'kicker', content: `${t({ en: 'Citation style', es: 'Estilo de cita' })}`
      + ` · ${i + 1} / ${SHOWN.length} · ${s.system}`, fontFamily: SANS, fontSize: pt(8),
    fontWeight: 600, letterSpacing: pt(1.4), textTransform: 'uppercase', color: col('paper'),
    align: 'left',
    placement: { anchor: { to: 'page', edge: 'top-left' }, offset: { x: mm(18), y: mm(12) } } },
    { kind: 'text', id: 'name', content: s.name, fontFamily: SERIF, fontSize: pt(54),
      fontWeight: 600, lineHeight: 1, color: col('paper'), align: 'left', overflow: 'clip',
      placement: { anchor: { to: '#kicker', edge: 'below' }, offset: { x: mm(0), y: mm(5) },
        size: { width: mm(119), height: 'auto' } } },
    { kind: 'text', id: 'title', content: '{titleText}', fontFamily: SERIF, fontSize: pt(20),
      fontWeight: 600, lineHeight: 1.15, color: col('ink'), align: 'left', overflow: 'wrap',
      placement: { anchor: { to: 'page', edge: 'top-left' }, offset: { x: mm(18), y: mm(52) },
        size: { width: mm(119), height: 'auto' } } },
  ] },
});

The heading's design draws the band from the trim, the kicker with the style's number and system, and the name at 54 pt. The name and the system come from the script, not from the Markdown, because the text is the same in all four documents.

script.js · lines 15–22in full code
const palette = {
  ink: '#1d1b19', muted: '#66605a', rule: '#cfc8bf', paper: '#ffffff',
  apa: '#2f5d8a', chicago: '#8c2f2b', ieee: '#24476b', iso: '#3c6b4f', // the four bands
};
const col = (id) => ({ hex: palette[id], model: 'hex', paletteId: id });
// Each document points main-color at its own band, so any default left follows it.
const colorPalette = (band) => Object.entries({ ...palette, 'main-color': palette[band] })
  .map(([id, hex]) => ({ id, name: id, value: { hex, model: 'hex' } }));

Each document points main-color at its own band, so the four colours are linked palette entries, and any default the config leaves unstated follows the band of its page.

The whole recipe

Sandbox
// ═══ Postext Cookbook · Nº 093 · One text in four citation styles ════════════════
// https://postext.dev/en/cookbook/one-text-four-citation-styles
// Code: MIT · Text: original (CC BY 4.0) · Pictures: none
// Fonts: Source Serif 4, Source Sans 3 (SIL OFL 1.1) · Needs postext ≥ 1.12.0
import {
  buildDocument, renderPageToCanvas, clearMeasurementCache, registerCitationEngine,
} from 'https://esm.sh/postext';
import { createCiteprocEngine, STYLES, LOCALES } from 'https://esm.sh/postext-citeproc';

const LANG = 'en'; // @lang: the language of the sample document ('en' | 'es')
const RECIPE = 'one-text-four-citation-styles';

// ─── 1 · Design ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
// #region palette: one ink, and a colour for each style's band
const palette = {
  ink: '#1d1b19', muted: '#66605a', rule: '#cfc8bf', paper: '#ffffff',
  apa: '#2f5d8a', chicago: '#8c2f2b', ieee: '#24476b', iso: '#3c6b4f', // the four bands
};
const col = (id) => ({ hex: palette[id], model: 'hex', paletteId: id });
// Each document points main-color at its own band, so any default left follows it.
const colorPalette = (band) => Object.entries({ ...palette, 'main-color': palette[band] })
  .map(([id, hex]) => ({ id, name: id, value: { hex, model: 'hex' } }));
// #endregion
const [SERIF, SANS] = ['Source Serif 4', 'Source Sans 3'];
const LEAD = 14; // pt

// #region answer: the style is one setting; everything else stays the same
// Citations are written once, Pandoc's way: [@key], [@a; @b], [-@key] without the author,
// @key [p. 17] inside the sentence. citeproc-js writes them, and the list, in the style named.
registerCitationEngine(createCiteprocEngine({ styles: STYLES, locales: LOCALES }));
const SHOWN = [ // the same text, built once per entry
  { style: 'apa', band: 'apa', name: 'APA 7', system: t({ en: 'author-date', es: 'autor-año' }) },
  { style: 'chicago-author-date', band: 'chicago', name: 'Chicago',
    system: t({ en: 'author-date', es: 'autor-año' }) },
  { style: 'ieee', band: 'ieee', name: 'IEEE', system: t({ en: 'numbered', es: 'numérico' }) },
  { style: t({ en: 'iso690-author-date-en', es: 'iso690-author-date-es' }), band: 'iso',
    name: 'ISO 690', system: t({ en: 'author-date', es: 'autor-año' }) },
];
const citations = (style) => ({
  style, // 'apa' → '(Warde, 1955)'; 'ieee' → '[1]'; the list is sorted and set to match
  link: true,
  bibliography: { fontSize: em(0.85), lineHeight: pt(11.2), hangingIndent: mm(6),
    entrySpacing: pt(2), labelWidth: mm(6), doi: 'hide' },
});
// #endregion

// #region band: the style's name, large, in a band of its colour
const opener = (s, i) => ({
  enabled: true,
  minHeight: mm(41), // from the top margin to under the title, 63 mm from the trim
  slot: { elements: [
    { kind: 'box', id: 'band', style: { backgroundColor: col(s.band) },
      placement: { anchor: { to: 'page', edge: 'top-left' },
        size: { width: 'fill', height: mm(44) } } },
    { kind: 'text', id: 'kicker', content: `${t({ en: 'Citation style', es: 'Estilo de cita' })}`
      + ` · ${i + 1} / ${SHOWN.length} · ${s.system}`, fontFamily: SANS, fontSize: pt(8),
    fontWeight: 600, letterSpacing: pt(1.4), textTransform: 'uppercase', color: col('paper'),
    align: 'left',
    placement: { anchor: { to: 'page', edge: 'top-left' }, offset: { x: mm(18), y: mm(12) } } },
    { kind: 'text', id: 'name', content: s.name, fontFamily: SERIF, fontSize: pt(54),
      fontWeight: 600, lineHeight: 1, color: col('paper'), align: 'left', overflow: 'clip',
      placement: { anchor: { to: '#kicker', edge: 'below' }, offset: { x: mm(0), y: mm(5) },
        size: { width: mm(119), height: 'auto' } } },
    { kind: 'text', id: 'title', content: '{titleText}', fontFamily: SERIF, fontSize: pt(20),
      fontWeight: 600, lineHeight: 1.15, color: col('ink'), align: 'left', overflow: 'wrap',
      placement: { anchor: { to: 'page', edge: 'top-left' }, offset: { x: mm(18), y: mm(52) },
        size: { width: mm(119), height: 'auto' } } },
  ] },
});
// #endregion

let at = 0; // the entry of SHOWN being built
const config = () => ({ // a factory: the engine caches resolved configs per object
  locale: t({ en: 'en-us', es: 'es' }),
  colorPalette: colorPalette(SHOWN[at].band),
  citations: citations(SHOWN[at].style),
  page: { sizePreset: 'custom', width: mm(155), height: mm(235), dpi: 150,
    margins: { top: mm(22), bottom: mm(20), left: mm(18), right: mm(18) } },
  layout: { layoutType: 'single' },
  bodyText: {
    fontFamily: SERIF, fontSize: pt(10), 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: SERIF, color: col('ink'), levels: [
    { level: 1, breakBefore: { enabled: true, parity: 'any' }, // gotcha: headings-drop-h1-break
      advancedDesign: opener(SHOWN[at], at) },
  ] },
  header: { elements: [] },
  footer: { elements: [
    { kind: 'text', id: 'colophon', content: t({
      en: 'Set in Source Serif 4 and Source Sans 3 (SIL OFL) · Text: original, CC BY 4.0',
      es: 'Compuesto en Source Serif 4 y Source Sans 3 (SIL OFL) · Texto: original, CC BY 4.0' }),
    fontFamily: SANS, fontSize: pt(7), color: col('muted'),
    placement: { anchor: { to: 'page', edge: 'bottom-left' }, offset: { x: mm(18), y: mm(-11) } } },
  ] },
});

// ─── 2 · Content ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
const markdown = String.raw`---
Markdown sample · 33 lines · content.en.mdtitle: "The invisible page" author: "Postext Cookbook" --- # The page that is not seen Good typography is meant to go unnoticed. @warde1955 put the idea in an image that printers still quote: a page should be a crystal goblet, a clear glass that shows the wine, rather than a cup of gold that hides it. Tschichold argued much the same about the book, which in his essays serves its reader before it serves its designer [-@tschichold1991]. The argument is moral as much as practical, and @bringhurst2004 [p. 17] makes it the first principle of his manual: typography exists to honour the content. The practical half has evidence behind it. Tests of legibility measured how the size of the type, the length of the line and the leading change the speed of reading, and the study of eye movements later explained why an even texture matters: the eye takes in a few letters at each fixation and plans its next jump from the shape of the line ahead [@tinker1963; @rayner1998]. A page that draws attention to itself costs the reader something, however little. None of this makes design a matter of taste alone. A reader who never notices a well-made page notices a badly made one at once, and the grammar of a good one can be taught [@lupton2010]. :::references{format=bibtex} @book{warde1955, author = {Warde, Beatrice}, title = {The Crystal Goblet: Sixteen Essays on Typography}, editor = {Jacob, Henry}, publisher = {Sylvan Press}, address = {London}, year = 1955} @book{tschichold1991, author = {Tschichold, Jan}, title = {The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design}, translator = {Hadeler, Hajo}, publisher = {Hartley \& Marks}, address = {Point Roberts, WA}, year = 1991} @book{bringhurst2004, author = {Bringhurst, Robert}, title = {The Elements of Typographic Style}, edition = {3}, publisher = {Hartley \& Marks}, address = {Point Roberts, WA}, year = 2004} @book{tinker1963, author = {Tinker, Miles A.}, title = {Legibility of Print}, publisher = {Iowa State University Press}, address = {Ames, IA}, year = 1963} @article{rayner1998, author = {Rayner, Keith}, title = {Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research}, journal = {Psychological Bulletin}, volume = 124, number = 3, pages = {372--422}, year = 1998, doi = {10.1037/0033-2909.124.3.372}} @book{lupton2010, author = {Lupton, Ellen}, title = {Thinking with Type}, edition = {2}, publisher = {Princeton Architectural Press}, address = {New York}, year = 2010} :::
`; // ─── 3 · Fonts ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── const FONTS = { 'Source Serif 4': ['400', '400i', '600', '600i', '700', '700i'], // 700: the list's title 'Source Sans 3': ['400', '600'], }; // ─── 4 · Build & show ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── await loadFonts(FONTS, markdown); // #region build: one text, four documents, shown as two spreads // The style is set for the whole document, so each style is a build of its own. const docs = []; for (at = 0; at < SHOWN.length; at++) { // pageIndexOffset makes each page the next one of a book, so the desk pairs them: // APA beside Chicago, IEEE beside ISO 690. const content = { markdown, continuation: { pageIndexOffset: at + 1 } }; docs.push(await buildWithFonts(() => buildDocument(content, config()), markdown)); } // #endregion showPages(docs, { title: t({ en: 'One text, four styles', es: 'Un texto, cuatro estilos' }) });
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

#Try a note style

With Chicago notes and bibliography, each citation becomes a footnote and the list a bibliography; the text still does not change.

-  { style: 'apa', band: 'apa', name: 'APA 7', system: t({ en: 'author-date', es: 'autor-año' }) },
+  { style: 'chicago-notes-bibliography', band: 'apa', name: 'Chicago', system: 'notes' },

#Write the numbers as superscripts

A numbered style can keep its list and print the citations as superscript numbers, as Nature and Vancouver do.

-  link: true,
+  link: true, marker: 'superscript',

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

Quote every frontmatter value

YAML reads title: 1984 as a number and a date as a Date object, and non-string values print empty in placeholders and leave the PDF without a title. Quote every value: title: "1984". Document metadata →

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 locator is written once and each style prints its own word for it: "p. 17" in all four here. The bundled ISO 690 Spanish style prints "p." for every kind of locator, a section or a chapter included, so this text cites a page.
  • Edition numbers belong in BibTeX as numbers (edition = {3}): each style then writes "3rd ed.", "3.ª ed." or "3." in its own way. Written as "3rd", the word is printed as it stands and the style's own form is lost.

Credits

Text
Original prose, CC BY 4.0
Fonts
Source Serif 4 (SIL OFL 1.1) · Source Sans 3 (SIL OFL 1.1)
Sandbox