Diglot with one language above, second language below

Question

Ideally, we would like to do a diglot edition of the book of Luke, with the indigenous language at the top of each page, and the 2nd language below, rather than side-by-side columns. Is that a possibility?

Answer 1

Hi @DaleBarkley! Thanks for posting this question. Others have also requested this feature, so we are aware that there is a desire for this kind of top/bottom diglot to be made possible in PTXprint. Is the main reason for this kind of layout that you prefer 1-column layouts, and the wider column widths, or is there a different reason? What if a side-by-side diglot was possible with alternating languages/scripts on different pages (i.e. pg 2 is language-x; page 3 is language-y) – would that work just as well, or do you really need one below the other?

Currently it is isn’t possible, but maybe one day in the distant future it might be. I understand from the developers that it isn’t trivial to do, but should be possible.

Answer 2

Thanks for your reply! I would also be open to doing it with the alternating languages on different pages (facing pages), but our preference would be having the minority language (Teita Mixtec) on top of each page, and the Spanish translation below. We want to give prominence to the indigenous language, and maybe even use a smaller font size (if possible?) for the Spanish version. By the way, is that possible, to have different fonts (and font sizes) for the two different languages?

Answer 3

Yes, it is possible (and even encouraged) to change the font size and line spacing of the secondary text in a diglot – particularly when you are trying to give prominence to the indigenous language text. For example, as done here:

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This next image visually describes what you need to do to switch to the “Secondary” text project to change the settings there before “Returning” to the main (Indigenous) project’s diglot settings. Notice that the button at #8 will optimize the column width so that you don’t have unnecessary whitespace.

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Answer 4

Thank you! That’s very helpful. I’ll give that a try and see how it looks.