Error log

This page documents the quirks of using Octomode, which are part of the culture of using free software to make graphic design.

02.05.2023: An unexpected column jump

Images cut off in PDF exported from Firefox

The automagical column jump

The situation

The intention was to make a multi-page report, which has a cover page and text flowing across two columns, beginning on page 2. The document was made using the Firefox browser over the course of a week or so. Everything looked great, until the PDF was exported, which showed images breaking across columns. Strange, as this was not how it appeared in the PDF as it was rendered in the browser.

So, the switch was made to Chrome, which was recommended as a more stable browser to work with. But in Chrome, there was an entirely different issue. On page 2, the text did not flow across two columns. Instead, it jumped from the left-hand column on page 2, to page 3.

Inspecting...

In the CSS, the property and values columns: 2 auto; were previously applied to a class called .columns. In the pad, this class had also been added on page 2, like so:

<section class="columns">

When inspecting the elements, it appeared that the <section> tag had been closed at the end of the first column automagically. So, the text did not flow to the second column, as the browser thought this was the end of the section?

Resolution

After much searching online, gnashing of teeth and hand-wringing, the issue was solved by adding <section class="columns"> to the cover (page 1), then a bunch of break tags:

<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>

This pushed the text down to page 2, where it flowed across both columns, as originally intended.

Disappearing sentences

Since OSP has been working on [diversions.constantvzw.org/ DiVersions] in 2020, which is made with Paged.js, stories of disappearing sentences on page breaks have been circulating in the web-to-print networks-of-networks. It also emerged in the context of making Volumetric Regimes.

Below is a log of messages and exchanges between Manetta and the Paged.js developers on the Mattermost instance of Coko.

Hey all, hope you are well! A couple of months ago i have been hanging around here (or actually in the other chat instance before the move to this one) to learn about paged.js as i was working on a 300+ pages book. It has been my first bigger project made with paged.js and it has been an amazing learning curve! The making of the book has been on hold for a while and i’m picking it up again these days, but unfortunately a mysterious problem suddenly appeared again: sentences are “eaten” and thus disappearing at the bottom of pages. I had bumped into this in the very beginning of the project too, and @julien was so nice to talk me through possible things that could have caused it. We talked about documenting this in some way, as i have heard stories of designers around me who also bumped into this and said how much anxiety it gives them to not understand when or why sentences disappear. Specially when they work with deadlines, this can easily create all-nighters to make sure that a PDF can be send to print on time. We did not find the time to talk and document it at the end of 2021, but since i’m bumping into this problem again now, and it feels interesting and relevant to document this, i was wondering if @julien or someone else would be up for a short conversation somewhere next week to chat about it?

About the missing sentence in the 342 pages book (Volumetric Regimes): - i checked the zoom, the browser is at 100% - all my sizes are in px, including the baseline and top and bottom margins of the page, to avoid the rounding issue - when i turn Hyphenology off, the issue disappears

I tried again to tweak the page margins, but without success. If i make them smaller, the missing line reappears, but … the next one is missing.

I feel quite desperate now… don’t know what to do anymore, the “hack” of this afternoon (working with the CTRL+S saved copy) messes up the text flow, … which leaves me out of options to try other things or find other hack-ish ways to send this file to print :slightly_frowning_face:

It turns out that without Hyphenology everything is oke, but we need Hyphenology for the hyphenation of the book… Did you encounter this missing sentences bug before by any chance, in combination with Hyphenology? Is there anything i can do?

Meanwhile…. i am back at my 342 book project, we are sending it to print, but unfortunately the missing sentences bug reappeared……

Hey Julien, hope you are well! I wanted to let you know that the missing sentences problem strangely enough suddenly disappeared again. The PDF renders oke now, and i’m crossing fingers for it to stay like this!

Links

• https://git.vvvvvvaria.org/varia/octomode/issues/25
• https://github.com/pagedjs/pagedjs/issues/130
• https://github.com/pagedjs/pagedjs/issues/87
• https://github.com/pagedjs/pagedjs/issues/87#issuecomment-1476958035