[pdftex] "\frontmatter" and page-numbering.

[Michael Sternberg]

Hello,

On Mon, Apr 09, 2001 at 10:23:21PM +0200, Andreas Matthias wrote:
[yes, that long ago!]
> "Michael Chapman" <mchapman at mchapman.com> wrote:
> > [...] I see from Adobe's  PDF14Deltas.pdf (one of Donald Story's recent 
> > references) that it is possible to have "i, ii, ii, . . . viii, 1, 2 . . . 
> > 230" or whatever.  [..]
> > Using \frontmatter and \mainmatter (in "book"} on LaTex achieves this for 
> > printed numbers but not for the Acroread bottom line.
> > 
> > Is there something I can do to my file . .  if not can I add this to 
> > the pdftex Users' Wish List?
> 
> hyperref can do this:
> 
> \usepackage[plainpages=false, pdfpagelabels]{hyperref}
> 
> Ciao
> Andreas

While finishing up my thesis I ran into the same problem.  Only a
grep in the pdftex list's archive gave the answer. -- I suggest this
solution be added to the hyperref doc (manual.pdf lists plainpages,
but not pdfpagelabels).


I venture to add here a slightly opinionated note on style:

Markus G. Kuhn cites ISO 7144 ("Documentation -- Presentation of
theses and similar documents" -- yours for CHF 56.00 at www.iso.ch)
at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/publ-tips.html#pageno  -- It says:

    'The first printed page should be page number 1'

I strongly disagree.  This recommendation goes against long-
established tradition for printing books, now embodied into TeX.
Using roman page numbering for front matter is quite sensible.  My
opinion is that this is a clear example of an ISO standard being
drafted on the green table.  [Admittedly, I do not have access to the
full text of the standard, so I don't know their reasoning].  Current
software is able to manage different page styles, as above solution
indicates.  I verified it to work quite nicely with acrobat -- alas,
xpdf ignores the pdfpagelabels (not a reason to ignore the opportunity!)


With best regards
-- 
Michael Sternberg,  Dipl. Phys.          | Uni-GH Paderborn
http://www.phys.uni-paderborn.de/~stern/ | FB6 Theoretische Physik 
phone: +49-(0)5251-60-2329   fax: -3435  | 33098 Paderborn, Germany
"Who disturrrbs me at this time?"  << Zaphod Beeblebrox IV >>	<*>