Postext · Cookbook
Layouts set with Postext, from a chapter opener to a whole book. Each recipe puts its pages beside the script that sets them and explains the main settings.
70 recipes · 10 chapterstested with postext 1.4.1
Nº 064Workaround
Headings & openers
Letters run on without page breaks; each dateline comes from heading attributes, and paragraph styles set the salutation, the signature and a postscript.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateFiction, drama & literary prose5 pp.
Nº 043Workaround
Type & text
Each poem is a frameless box with two columns: a fixed column break opens the English at its title, and :::space keeps each stanza level with its original.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediatePoetry5 pp.
Nº 068
Figures & images
Plates as heading styles built from a list, each filling its page to the trim; the storm plate runs across the gutter of a spread in two halves.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediatePhotobooks9 pp.
Trim sizes, mirrored margins, one, two and one-and-a-half columns, the baseline grid, flush columns and pages built to exact positions.
Nº 001
Page & grid
A column-and-a-half page whose outer column holds only floats: span 'side' figures and glosses stack there, and captionSide moves the other captions into it.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedTextbooks4 pp.
Nº 013
Page & grid
A mirrored two-column page whose text block is exactly 44 leads tall, so the body text sits on one grid across the gutter and the spine.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateAny genre3 pp.
Nº 027Workaround
Page & grid
A local weekly's front page and page 2 in two ruled columns, with page-wide headlines set as boxes and a four-column strip of briefs floated to the foot.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedNewspapers & newsletters2 pp.
Nº 042Workaround
Page & grid
A two-page allotment newsletter in column and a half: the lead fills the wide column and jumps to page 2; column breaks send tagged briefs to the narrow one.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateNewspapers & newsletters2 pp.
Justification and hyphenation per language, verse set line by line, paragraph styles, chips, superscripts, subscripts and maths.
Nº 002WorkaroundPDF
Type & text
A two-column physics paper whose inline formulas and seven numbered equations are set by MathJax from the ?bundle build, and stay vector in the PDF.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedPapers & academic4 pp.
Nº 014
Type & text
Knuth–Plass breaking with word spaces held to 0.8–1.6 times normal, set beside a greedy control whose loose lines, lone lines and runts are marked from the VDT.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedMagazines & zines3 pp.
Nº 015Workaround
Type & text
Each line of verse is a paragraph whose turnovers hang 4 em in. Em spaces hold the 1918 indents, and :::space puts one line between stanzas.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediatePoetry8 pp.
Nº 016Workaround
Type & text
The opening of Marianela’s chapter I as a pocket edition: Spanish hyphenation, word spaces under 1.7×, no runts, a raised initial and Figura 1 on the map.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateFiction, drama & literary prose5 pp.
Band and photo openers, sunk and framed titles, side heads and hanging numbers, badges, datelines and one-off designed pages.
Nº 003
Headings & openers
An advancedDesign opener on the level-1 heading: a bleed band, the chapter number on its foot, and a kicker and standfirst from the heading's attributes.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedTextbooks4 pp.
Nº 004
Headings & openers
One advancedDesign opener sets a bleed photo and the heading's kicker, headline, standfirst and byline; two floated boxes and a chip end mark follow.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedMagazines & zines4 pp.
Nº 017Workaround
Headings & openers
One opener on level 1 and four heading styles named in the Markdown; each style swaps the accent colour, and some also change the margins, columns or folios.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedAny genre7 pp.
Nº 018Workaround
Headings & openers
Sections numbered 1.1 to 1.12 in an amber pill that widens with its number, four more levels beneath them, and a seventh made with a heading style.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateManuals, guides & reference3 pp.
Verso and recto heads, folios, filters by page role and parity, thumb tabs that move or change colour, and painted blank pages.
Nº 005Workaround
Running heads & folios
Header elements filtered by parity and page role: book title on versos, essay title cut short on rectos, folio tabs in the margin, a drop folio on openers.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateFiction, drama & literary prose5 pp.
Nº 046Workaround
Running heads & folios
A loop makes one heading style per letter, and each style’s header prints that letter’s navy tab one step lower on the fore-edge, over a pale index.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedManuals, guides & reference4 pp.
Nº 047
Running heads & folios
A pocket guide with one heading style per walk, whose palette recolours the fore-edge tab, the stop numbers, the box’s tint and the blank verso before the walk.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedManuals, guides & reference7 pp.
Covers, front matter, contents generated from the headings, parts in colour, back matter and books built chapter by chapter.
Nº 006PDF
Book structure
The cover and prelims are unnumbered headings counted in lower-case roman; :::numbering restarts the count at 1 on the recto where the novel opens.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedFiction, drama & literary prose14 pp.
Nº 007PDF
Book structure
buildBundle sets five Markdown files as one book: each chapter opens on a recto, and page, chapter and figure numbers run on from file to file.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedManuals, guides & reference11 pp.
Nº 019
Book structure
A pocket field guide where each :::part sets one palette entry, and its divider, painted verso, thumb tabs, field marks and contents row print in that colour.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedManuals, guides & reference10 pp.
Nº 030Workaround
Book structure
Three essays on walking whose headings carry author, year and magazine: the opener prints all three; the verso running heads and the contents print the author.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateFiction, drama & literary prose9 pp.
Callout families, boxes that split, float or stay pinned, margin glosses, stand-ins for footnotes, worksheets, recipe cards and code listings.
Nº 008
Boxes & notes
Six kinds of textbook box in three colours, told apart by a stripe with an icon, a badge, a numbered tab, a strip of pictograms or a marker outside the frame.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateTextbooks3 pp.
Nº 020Workaround
Boxes & notes
A short preprocessor turns Markdown footnotes into raised numbers and a Notes section, which a heading style sets on a page of its own in two columns.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediatePapers & academic5 pp.
Nº 021
Boxes & notes
A lab worksheet in which the procedure box splits between two columns, the data sheet moves to the head of the next page and a badge is pinned to the foot.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedWorkbooks & exercises4 pp.
Nº 022
Boxes & notes
A four-page science worksheet: white answer boxes in pale green cards, 2 mm under each question and off the grid, with word banks and blanks made of chips.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateWorkbooks & exercises4 pp.
Numbered figures that float to their citation, facing plates, maps and rotated overviews, full-bleed spreads and single-ink artwork.
Nº 009Workaround
Figures & images
A two-column chapter with seven numbered figures: six float from their first :ref to the first slot their placement allows; one sits where ::resource puts it.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedTextbooks4 pp.
Nº 034Workaround
Figures & images
Each entry opens a verso and cites its plate in the commentary’s first sentence; the plate floats to the facing recto, 221 mm tall at the scan’s proportions.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedCatalogues8 pp.
Nº 051PDF
Figures & images
A four-page zine for a two-drum risograph: full-colour drawings print as tints of the pink, recoloured by the pen for the canvas and by renderToPdf in the PDF.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedMagazines & zines4 pp.
Nº 067
Figures & images
Maps with a numbering of their own and captions on a blue bar, a key of swatches in the maps' colours, and a sea chart turned sideways on page 3.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedManuals, guides & reference4 pp.
Tables built from data: merged headers, splits with a repeated header, fills and swatch keys, pictures in cells, calendars and grids.
Nº 010WorkaroundPDF
Tables
Tables pasted as TSV, parsed with parseTSV and shaped with mergeCells, setAlignment and setCellBackground; a register map that splits across pages by itself.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedManuals, guides & reference4 pp.
Nº 035
Tables
A 38-crop sowing chart set in landscape on two pages of its own, a calendar computed from dates and a companion matrix, their cells filled from the palette.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedManuals, guides & reference4 pp.
Nº 036
Tables
A seed catalogue whose price list is a table read from TSV, with a seed packet drawn in each variety's cell and the list split across a spread.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedCatalogues4 pp.
Nº 052Workaround
Tables
A bistro menu printed on both sides, with the prices set in borderless tables and a brass rule anchored to either side of each course head.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateSingle sheets & ephemera2 pp.
Whole issues and editions, each using at least eight features on four pages or more.
Nº 023
Complete publications
A photo cover whose cover lines hang below the masthead, and contents generated with a coloured row per section. Each section is a part that opens no page.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedMagazines & zines6 pp.
Nº 037
Complete publications
An energy co-op's annual report in two justified columns that end on the same grid line, with a key-figures box across the page and a closing page cut level.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedReports5 pp.
Nº 038
Complete publications
The Awakening as a 140 × 216 mm trade paperback: a drawn cover and a colophon with no running heads, then chapters sunk on rectos under an italic numeral.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateFiction, drama & literary prose8 pp.
Nº 070Workaround
Complete publications
The opening of Wilde’s play as an acting edition. Names print in bold plum and directions in grey italic; the cast list is read from tab-separated lines.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateFiction, drama & literary prose5 pp.
From a Markdown string to canvas, HTML and PDF: fonts, print-ready and tagged PDFs, screen editions, bundles, workers, diagnostics and live rebuilds.
Nº 011HTMLLive
Output & integration
Both editions come from one config: htmlViewer.overrides holds the dark screen design, and applyHtmlViewerOverrides merges it in before each HTML build.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedMagazines & zines4 pp.
Nº 012
Output & integration
A Markdown string with frontmatter is set as two-column magazine pages and painted on canvas, with six named colours in place of the default blue.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateMagazines & zines2 pp.
Nº 024WorkaroundPDF
Output & integration
An exhibition leaflet laid out with 3 mm of bleed and crop marks, exported as a CMYK PDF that takes its maps and floor plan from print masters.
Level 3 of 3: AdvancedSingle sheets & ephemera4 pp.
Nº 025PDF
Output & integration
A recital programme exported to PDF. Each face is fetched once, for FontFace and for the PDF, and each heading becomes a bookmark.
Level 2 of 3: IntermediateSingle sheets & ephemera4 pp.
Every plate on this page was set by postext 1.4.1 in Chrome 131 from the code on its recipe page. Set in Fraunces, Lora, Geist and Bricolage Grotesque.
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