September 2024 - ntg-context - NTG Mailing Lists

serial letters
by Henning Hraban Ramm 11 Nov '24

11 Nov '24

How would you approach serial letters, e.g. to all members of a club? (Actually I need to send out donation receipts.) I’d like to use the letter module, since my usual letter design is using it. I can export the addresses to CSV, JSON, Lua tables or whatever or transfer them to a SQLite db. Would it make more sense to read them in Lua and combine this data with a buffer, or to write a single tex file for every letter? I know how to do the latter, but I’d like to learn a more ConTeXt-ish way. Would it make sense to use the bibliographies module? Greetlings, Hraban --- https://www.fiee.net http://wiki.contextgarden.net https://www.dreiviertelhaus.de GPG Key ID 1C9B22FD

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t-downsample.lua
by Peter Münster 17 Oct '24

17 Oct '24

Hi, Please find attached a new version of the module, with some ideas from Marco. Later, I'll upload it to modules.contextgarden.net. Here a usage example: \usemodule[downsample] \setupexternalfigures[ location=default, % find hacker.jpg and mill.png cache=/tmp, % where to put the low resolution images resolution=50, % resolution in DPI conversion=downsample.pdf] % use this module \starttext \externalfigure[hacker][width=0.4\textwidth] \setupexternalfigures[resolution=20] \externalfigure[mill][width=4in, height=3in] \setupexternalfigures[resolution=200] \externalfigure[mill][width=4in, height=3in] \stoptext Hans, it would be nice, to apply this patch, to trigger new conversion, when figure dimensions change: --- grph-inc.lua~ 2019-02-14 17:04:12.000000000 +0100 +++ grph-inc.lua 2019-02-17 08:45:38.129971581 +0100 @@ -864,6 +864,14 @@ newbase = prefix .. newbase end local hash = "" + local width = figures.current().request.width + local height = figures.current().request.height + if width then + hash = hash .. "[w:" .. width .. "]" + end + if height then + hash = hash .. "[h:" .. height .. "]" + end if resolution then hash = hash .. "[r:" .. resolution .. "]" end TIA, -- Peter

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Downsampling images (again)
by Henning Hraban Ramm 17 Oct '24

17 Oct '24

This is lying around for years, let’s try to get it finally working. The code below works, but doesn’t do the right thing. Since the original image doesn’t contain a resolution setting, gm doesn’t do anything: “gm convert: image does not contain resolution” It would be more reliable to use “gm convert -resize”, but for that we need to know the final pixel size. How can a converter function access … – the final (scaled) size of a placed image – the original pixel size of an image ? With that information it would be easy to calculate the target pixel size. And then it would be nice to hook this function into \setupexternalfigure[conversion=] """ \startluacode local function downsampler(oldname, newname, resolution) if not resolution or resolution == "" then resolution = 72 end local cmd = string.format( [[gm convert -resample %ix%i "%s" "%s"]], resolution, resolution, oldname, newname) logs.report("downsample", cmd) os.execute(cmd) end -- Set the PDF and default JPEG converters to the above function. figures.converters.jpg.pdf = downsampler figures.converters.jpg.default = downsampler \stopluacode \setupexternalfigure[ %conversion=downsampler,% not used resolution=10, ] \starttext \externalfigure[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Hermann_Zapf_signing.jpg][width=.5\textwidth] \stoptext """ Hraban

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How to improve appearance of bars in frac, sqrt, etc. on screens?
by Ralph 07 Oct '24

07 Oct '24

Hello, I’m relatively new to ConTeXt (version 2024.05.31, LMTX, standalone) and really enjoy learning it so far, but I have one little problem with the appearance of horizontal bars in math mode. It seems the way ConTeXt displayed horizontal extensible bars in math mode some time ago (as used in \frac, \sqrt, \overbar, ...) was similar to the way LaTeX (PDFLaTeX and LuaLaTeX) and Plain TeX handled this, but it has changed since then. Instead of one bar there are now multiple characters attached to each other. This makes it look more consistent with the font, but unfortunately it doesn’t display well in any PDF viewer I’ve tried (on Linux, so I’ve not tried Adobe Acrobat Reader). The bars look dotted, I guess it’s due to anti-aliasing (the dots disappear when anti-aliasing is disabled, but then of course everything looks pixelated). Two screenshots are attached (different zoom levels in PDF viewer) so that you know what I’m talking about. Source: \setuppapersize[S3] \starttext \startformula \sqrt{a^2 + b^2} = \frac{1000 \cdot c}{1000} \stopformula \stoptext Is there a way to switch to the old bars for documents viewed mainly on screens, or is there any other way to improve their appearance? I couldn’t find any documentation on this, so I would be very thankful if somebody here could help out. Best, Ralph

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Draw leftframe to a description
by Gerion Entrup 07 Oct '24

07 Oct '24

Hi, I want to typeset an "excurses" description that is marked with a leftframe. The problem is that it spans about multiple pages and has footnotes. Here is an MWE: ``` %% -> mwe-framedtext.pdf \defineframedtext[excursusbg][ frame=off, leftframe=on, rulethickness=1mm, framecolor=blue, toffset=0mm, % there is an offset anyways ] %% -> mwe-textbackground.pdf % \definetextbackground[excursusbg] [ % location=text, % background=color, % backgroundcolor=lightblue, % frame=on, % loffset=10cm, % seems to have no impact % ] \definedescription[excursus][ text={Excursus:\ }, alternative=top, headstyle=bold, margin=1cm, width=broad, before={\startexcursusbg}, after={\stopexcursusbg}, ] \starttext \input ward \startexcursus[title={A Knuth extract}] \input knuth \stopexcursus \input ward \startexcursus[title={A much longer Knuth extract}] \input knuth Sometimes, sentences have footnotes\footnote{Some footnote}. \input knuth \input knuth \stopexcursus \stoptext ``` See the attached PDFs for the different results. In principal, I would like the excurses typesetted like to solution with \defineframedtext. However, this does not work with pagebreaks. Additionally, the leftframe is too long (it begins above the "Excursus" text). I tried toffset to let the leftframe begin exactly at the "Excurses" text without success. The solution with \textbackground looks somewhat promising. It supports pagebreaks, but draws above footnotes and prints a small rectangle at the end of the excursus. I also didn't found a way to specify a leftframe only. Also, loffset seems to have no effect, here. Do I use the false environments? Do you know a better solution? Gerion

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“breaking news”
by Henning Hraban Ramm 01 Oct '24

01 Oct '24

Hi, since the latest update, I have differences in line/paragraph/page breaking. I should have expected that vz and granular aren’t stable yet, but maybe it’s a problem in my setup and not even related to that update. * widow and orphan penalties seem to work different, preferring empty lines over single lines. * looseness doesn’t seem to work any more. Where there changes? Hraban

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arguments parameter in \setupexternalfigure
by mf 01 Oct '24

01 Oct '24

Hello list, reading the Pdfmerge manual, I stumbled on the "arguments" parameter of \setupexternalfigure. From the wiki and the source code I get it's meant for converters, but what's its meaning? Massi

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mailing list delivery security
by Taco Hoekwater 30 Sep '24

30 Sep '24

Hi again, Besides having a solution for the mailing list server inadvertently spamming unsuspecting people through scripted form submits (see my recent message), there is also another update: the mailing lists of both ntg.nl <http://ntg.nl/> and contextgarden.net <http://contextgarden.net/> now use DKIM signing for their outgoing messages. This should help reliability of message delivery. Best wishes, Taco — Taco Hoekwater E: taco(a)bittext.nl genderfluid (all pronouns)

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Mail server login broken
by Hans Åberg 30 Sep '24

30 Sep '24

Nothing seems to be working on the NTG ConTeXt server login page below, so I can't change my email address. https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl/

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syntax highlighting: pandoc uses Kate
by Henning Hraban Ramm 30 Sep '24

30 Sep '24

Hi, since we recently discussed editor support and syntax highlighting: Pandoc can use definitions from Kate[1] for syntax highlighting in a code block via "--syntax-definition". There’s also ConTeXt support (MkIV/LMTX): https://kate-editor.org/syntax/data/syntax/context.xml Apparently, it can switch contexts to Lua, XML, MetaPost etc. But the list of commands is quite short. In case the author (Philipp A.) is listening: Is this intentional (“not necessary, highlight everything that starts with a backslash”)? Otherwise it probably would make sense to read in the interface files (i-*.xml). I can’t tell if it would make sense to support this syntax via a module (like scite and vim). What we have if probably enough for most of us. Hraban [1] List: https://kate-editor.org/syntax/ Specs: https://api.kde.org/frameworks/syntax-highlighting/html/

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