February 2026 - ntg-context

Opinions wanted
by Mikael Sundqvist 27 Feb '26

27 Feb '26

Hi all, Hans and I are exploring some new alignment features, in particular ragged right. One of the problems is to get a "nice rag". Attached is a sample with three different settings for various hsizes. The quote comes from a Twain book, and is in German, since that might be more challenging. So, please, which one, if any, look in general better, and, more importantly, why? The prize you might get is a new keyword to align. /Hans and Mikael

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Lua with xtable
by Fabrice Couvreur 27 Feb '26

27 Feb '26

Hi, Can someone tell me where the error is in this code ? Thanks for your help. Fabrice \starttext \startluacode context.startxtable({"align={middle,lohi},bodyfont=9pt"}) context.startxrow({"background=color,backgroundcolor=lightgray"}) context.startxcell({"background=color,backgroundcolor=white,width=0.6cm"}) context("") context.stopxcell() context.startxcell({"width=0.6cm"}) context("A") context.stopxcell() context.startxcell({"width=1.5cm"}) context("B") context.stopxcell() context.stopxrow() context.startxrow() context.startxcell({"width=0.6cm"}) context("1") context.stopxcell() context.startxcell() context("\\im{n}") context.stopxcell() context.startxcell() context("\\im{u_n}") context.stopxcell() context.stopxrow() local p = {} p[8] = 511 for i= 9, 17 do context.startxrow() context.startxcell() context(i-8) context.stopxcell() context.startxcell() context(i) context.stopxcell() context.startxcell() context("%0.3f", p[i]) context.stopxcell() context.stopxrow() p[i] =512*(1-1/(2^(i+1))) end context.stopxtable() \stopluacode \stoptext

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Question to kernings (modern, sans, \bi)
by Tomáš Hála 27 Feb '26

27 Feb '26

Hi all, the MWE below produces two pages with different kernings b-o and o-w. (I have observed the same with \ss\it but not with \tf\bi or \tf\it.) Viewed by three viewers. As evince and pdffonts report, only one font (LMSans10-BoldOblique) was loaded. (All lmsans10-boldoblique.otf files on my computer since 2022 are the same.) I cannot figure out why these two snippets give different result. Could someone please explain? Or is it just a display/eye issue? Best, Tomáš %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % Tested on: % TL2025 % ConTeXt ver: 2025.11.24 17:55 % ConTeXt ver: 2024.06.21 23:45 LMTX (at c-o-w) % Viewed by: xpdf, evince, mupdf %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \definefontfamily [mainface] \starttext \startTEXpage[offset=3dd] \switchtobodyfont[modern,1cc] \ss\bi bowling \stopTEXpage \page \startTEXpage[offset=3dd] \switchtobodyfont[mainface,1cc] \ss\bi bowling \stopTEXpage \stoptext %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

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Re: Windows installation in my school
by damien＠thiriet.web4me.fr 25 Feb '26

25 Feb '26

Thanks for your advices. As Max suggested, I also downloaded tl-install.exe on my USB stick, and decided to challenge our connections rather than downloading the 6 GB iso, not knowing which distro will be installed. Texlive it was, since my attempt with ConTeXt distribution failed (install.bat was launched, but aborted quite quickly. I suspect batch scripts are blocked at user's level for security reasons because I had later the same issue with tlmgr.bat). I managed to make a minimal install (base + context + several font packages); since I was almost the only one at school, it was done in 11 minutes. But connecting with tlmgr to a server in order to install additional fonts took some time (10 minutes). When connected, it went swiftly. And this time I didn't repeat the mistake I made when I gave our sysadmin the instructions to install texlive on the professor's room computer: my $TEXMF is set on my Z:/ disk, accessible from anywhere in our school's network. I also hope tl perl ant tc/tlk will spare me a perl distro installation: I use a lot of perl script, but based on vanilla perl. Damien

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Difference between "definetextbackground" and "definefreamedtext"
by Jeong Dal 25 Feb '26

25 Feb '26

Hi, In the following code, the output of \starttextbackground and the output of \startframedtext are same. Is there any differences between them? Or Are the purposes of two command different? Thanks for reading. Best regards, Dalyoung \startuseMPgraphic{mp:leftBar} begingroup; path p ; for i = 1 upto nofmultipars : p := (ulcorner multipars[i]) -- (llcorner multipars[i]); draw p withcolor boxfillcolor withpen pencircle scaled 2pt; endfor; endgroup; \stopuseMPgraphic \definetextbackground [leftBarFrame] [ mp=mp:leftBar, location=paragraph, background=color, backgroundcolor=darkred, leftoffset=1ex ] \defineframedtext[LeftBar] [width=\textwidth, frame=off, leftframe=on, framecolor=darkred, rulethickness=2pt, offset=0pt, loffset=4pt, roffset=4pt, ] \starttext \startleftBarFrame \input tufte \stopleftBarFrame \startLeftBar \input tufte \stopLeftBar \stoptext

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Windows installation in my school
by damien＠thiriet.web4me.fr 25 Feb '26

25 Feb '26

Hello, I will try tomorrow to install the ConTeXt distribution at my school (Windows 11), as a simple user. So far, we have texlive 2025 on several computers, and I have a 2023 cygwin texlive running on my personnal account. Quite often, I run into troubles in classrooms, where I do not have access to last year's texlive binaries. I have several questions: 1. The install page states that "On WINDOWS you can best run the script as administrator because that will use shortcuts to programs instead of copies which is more efficient. There you can also run the setpath.bat file". Well, we are on holidays, and during the usual school time, I have too much stuff to do to try this install, so I will have to go on without any admin right (our IT administrator won't rather be there). First question: will my installation be much slower than when using links? Our accounts are already connected from a network (a separated drive Z:\ that is symlinked to C:\Users\ on each computer at school), so when using TexLive under Cygwin, it is already slow, and my typical user case is correcting my presentation during the lesson… 2. Download bandwidth is limited for users, so I wondered how may I install as many offline as possible. What I have in my pendrive: – context-win64.zip – texmf.zip – texmf-context.zip For example, if I unpack the archives and then run install.bat, will the files be downloaded? Thanks, Damien

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question about module `basicexam`
by Pablo Rodriguez 24 Feb '26

24 Feb '26

Dear list, I have an issue installing a module (`basicexam') automatically, even after modifying `mtx-install-imp-modules.lua`. I tried to install it with the command: mtxrun --script install-modules --install basicexam As error message, I get https://modules.contextgarden.net/dl/basicexam.zip. Module info seems to be right (https://modules.contextgarden.net/cgi-bin/module.cgi/ruid=4231344815/action…) but https://modules.contextgarden.net/dl/ sorts the `basicexam-*.zip` files in a rather uncommon way: basicexam-2025.12.12.zip basicexam-2026.02.18.zip basicexam-20250102A.zip At least, `ls -lh basicexam-*` in “Fedora 43” gives the more standard: basicexam-20250102A.zip basicexam-2025.12.12.zip basicexam-2026.02.18.zip This prevents the symlink `basicexam.zip` from being generated and then the `mtxrun` command cannot find it. Is there any way to fix this? I wonder whether the symlink might need to be generated manually. Many thanks for your help, Pablo

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sectionblocks (matters)
by Henning Hraban Ramm 24 Feb '26

24 Feb '26

Hi, my book is nearly finished, but it has one page too much. I could shorten one, but it doesn’t help, because the appendix insists to start on a right page (after an empty left page). This is my setup: \setupsectionblock[frontpart][page=no,number=no] \setupsectionblock[bodypart][page=right,number=yes,setups=headeryes] \setupsectionblock[appendix][page=no,number=yes,setups=headeryes] "setups=headeryes" just changes the header texts; I also tried without. How can I force my appendices to start on a left page? (No, page=left doesn’t help, it inserts another 2 pages.) Hraban

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Question on XML processing
by Jairo A. del Rio 21 Feb '26

21 Feb '26

Hi. I'm trying to process XML files in ConTeXt and I'm struggling with Docbook quotes and verses. I want to print attributions at the end of each text, but I don't know how to extract text not inside a tag. MWE and output attached: \startbuffer[xmltest] <blockquote> <attribution> Bertolt Brecht <citetitle>Questions From a Worker Who Reads</citetitle> </attribution> <simpara> Every page a victory. Who cooked the feast for the victors? Every 10 years a great man. Who paid the bill? </simpara> </blockquote> \stopbuffer \startxmlsetups xml:blockquote \startblockquote \xmlall{#1}{/!attribution} \blank \xmldoiftext{#1}{/attribution}{ \xmlall{#1}{/attribution/!citetitle}{ % Braces and parentheses just for testing [\xmltext{#1}{/attribution/!citetitle}] % It must be "Bertolt Brecht" } \xmldoiftext{#1}{/attribution/citetitle}{ (\xmltext{#1}{/attribution/citetitle}) } } \stopblockquote \stopxmlsetups \startxmlsetups xml:mysetups \xmlsetsetup{#1}{blockquote}{xml:*} \stopxmlsetups \xmlregistersetup{xml:mysetups} \starttext \xmlprocessbuffer{main}{xmltest}{} \stoptext Best regards, Jairo

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misplaced border with scaled link
by Pablo Rodriguez 20 Feb '26

20 Feb '26

Hi Hans, since previous latest rotated link borders were fixed (as comments in the sample), but scaled links got their border misplaced: \setupinteraction[state=start, color=, contrastcolor=, style=,] \enabledirectives[references.border=red] \setuppapersize[A6] \starttext \pagereference[æb] %~ \rotate[90]{Huge thanks for \at[æb]}\vfill %~ \rotate[90]{\at[æb]}\vfill \scale[width=.5tw]{\at[æb]} \stoptext Could you take a look at this? Many thanks for your help, Pablo

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