[XeTeX] Typesetting a Bible

[John Was]

Hello

I don't use LaTeX but have not had any problem with double-columned footnotes using edmac (just \input edmac near the top of the file).

In one job here is what I had for these footnotes, which were invoked with \edn{TEXT OF FOOTNOTE}.  (NB this was years ago - the code could be spruced up a lot, but it does work, as you will see if you consult the prelims to volume I of the Princeton edition of Coleridge's Poems.)


\def\ednotefmt#1#2#3{%
   \widowpenalty=0 \clubpenalty=0
   \let\par=\endgraf
   \hsize=11.5pc
   \tolerance=5000
   \ednotetext
   \rightskip=0pt
   \leftskip=\rightskip
   \parindent=8.5pt
   \parfillskip=0pt plus 1fil
   \vrule height 7.5pt depth 1.5pt width 0pt
   #3\vrule height 0pt depth 1.5pt width 0pt
   \goodbreak}

In that job, as you see, widows and orphans were both allowed, but you can set the penalties to 10000 if you disallow them (I'd recommend allowing orphans though).  You would have to set the \hsize and \parindent to whatever it is you require.  And 7.5pt and 1.5pt might have to be tweaked if you are getting uneven interlinear space in the font you happen to be using for footnotes.

I also needed:

\foottwocol{A}
\let\Afootfmt=\ednotefmt
\let\ed=\Afootnote
\let\Afootnoterule=\relax
\skip\Afootins=9pt plus 12pt minus 3pt

And, for keying in the footnote material itself:

\def\edn#1{\global \advance \ednotenumber by 1%
{\sup\the\ednotenumber}%
\text{}\ed{{\ednotetext
\the \ednotenumber}\kern 0.5em #1}/}

I can't remember why, but I think I was getting some slight riding up of the first column.  Anyway it was fixed by:

\def\balancerule{\vrule height8.5pt depth0pt width0pt}% MANUAL STRUT TO
%   FORCE DOWN FIRST COLUMN OF EDITORIAL NOTES

You might not need that.

\ednotetext was just my definition of footnote-sized text:  you would want to substitute whatever it is you use for that size.

I think I also needed 

\def\notefontsetup{\ednotetext}


(Instead of \ednotetext use whatever you use to call the footnote-sized text.)


Hope this helps a bit - but if you are dead set on pre-written LaTeX packages the above may not work for you.

There is surely no way you are getting a line-break after the verse numbers unless you've introduced a space with some bit of coding.  A simple font call such as {\bold 1}~SOME TEXT  will always keep the bold numeral attached to the following text.  You will get potential line-breaks if you have a space before ~ (and even a line-break doesn't occur I think you will get a double-sized space at this point in the line).  Or, of course, if somewhere you or a package has redefined ~ itself (hope not!).

As to the two-line numeral at the start, the size is usually a matter of trial and error, since you want a numeral which (to the eye) will precisely equal the visual height of two lines of adjacent text, inclusive of the \baselineskip between them but *not* including any notional height above the size of a capital letter on the first line.  You might end up specifying that it has to be in a peculiar point size such as 20.375 or whatever, to get it just right.  Then define that font as \dropcapfont:

\font \dropcapfont = "Times New Roman Bold" at 20.375pt

Once that is done, it's fairly simple to code (the following assumes that you want 9pt after the dropcap number, otherwise just change it to whatever looks nice):

\def\dropnum#1{\leaveavmode
      \noindent \setbox0=\hbox{\dropcapfont #1}\copy0
      \kern 9pt  \hangindent \wd0 \advance \hangindent by 9pt \hangafter -2 \ignorespaces}

You would then just give at the start of each Bible chapter:

\dropnum{1} In the beginning.......



Hope this gives you some ideas at least!


John






  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Thomas Thackery 
  To: Unicode-based TeX for Mac OS X and other platforms 
  Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2009 2:05 AM
  Subject: [XeTeX] Typesetting a Bible


  At risk of open criticism, I am just going to post my questions since I'm not getting anywhere on a personal project.  I'm presuming that (Xe)LaTeX is a good tool for this. 
  I want to typeset single column Bible text with numbered footnotes in two columns.  I would first like to try this with Latin characters (e.g. in German or English) before attempting something more complex. 


  To save time, quite frankly, here is an example of the kind of layout I am after:
  http://www.hendrickson.com/pdf/chapters/9781598562859-ch01.pdf




  Main Text
  Chapter numbering: I've looked at Dirk-Jan Dekker's (http://www.djdekker.net/ledmac/) site for help on versification, but I don't know how I would produce the chapter numbers as in the example above. 
  Verse numbering: I can get versification, but am unsure if Dirk-Jan Dekker's method is the best for the job.   On this note, I tried inserting ~ for a non-breaking space after a verse number and the text beginning, but still get linebreaks after the verse number. 
  Chapter & verse ranges in a header (I'll use fancyhdr I presume though this will tricky with chapt & verse I would imagine)


  Footnotes
  I've been manipulating ledmac, and can I can get critical notes \edtext{}\Afootnotes{} to appear in columns, but what I'd really like is to have the regular footnotes in two columns. In the example above, the footnote numbering begins with 1 at a page break.  Section 22.6 shows how to define for critical notes, but I don't see how to define for regular \footnote that would appear in two columns. 


  If anyone has examples of something close to this I would love to see it. 


  Thomas


  PS I do have a very klugey .tex file (attached) that reflects some of what I'm trying out.  


------------------------------------------------------------------------------






------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  At risk of open criticism, I am just going to post my questions since  
  I'm not getting anywhere on a personal project.  I'm presuming that  
  (Xe)LaTeX is a good tool for this.
  I want to typeset single column Bible text with numbered footnotes in  
  two columns.  I would first like to try this with Latin characters  
  (e.g. in German or English) before attempting something more complex.

  To save time, quite frankly, here is an example of the kind of layout  
  I am after:
  http://www.hendrickson.com/pdf/chapters/9781598562859-ch01.pdf


  Main Text
  Chapter numbering: I've looked at Dirk-Jan Dekker's (http://www.djdekker.net/ledmac/ 
  ) site for help on versification, but I don't know how I would produce  
  the chapter numbers as in the example above.
  Verse numbering: I can get versification, but am unsure if Dirk-Jan  
  Dekker's method is the best for the job.   On this note, I tried  
  inserting ~ for a non-breaking space after a verse number and the text  
  beginning, but still get linebreaks after the verse number.
  Chapter & verse ranges in a header (I'll use fancyhdr I presume though  
  this will tricky with chapt & verse I would imagine)

  Footnotes
  I've been manipulating ledmac, and can I can get critical notes  
  \edtext{}\Afootnotes{} to appear in columns, but what I'd really like  
  is to have the regular footnotes in two columns. In the example above,  
  the footnote numbering begins with 1 at a page break.  Section 22.6  
  shows how to define for critical notes, but I don't see how to define  
  for regular \footnote that would appear in two columns.

  If anyone has examples of something close to this I would love to see  
  it.

  Thomas

  PS I do have a very klugey .tex file (attached) that reflects some of  
  what I'm trying out.


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