Outdent chapter # into margin for poetry?

Question

Poetry looks better when the verse numbers are hung in the margin. However, PTXprint doesn't seem to do the same for chapter numbers, and this interferes with the \q hierarchy of indents. I'm currently working on Song of Songs, so having the chapter number on a line of its own doesn't work (the translators' exegetical choice was to read the book as six poems that don't match the chapter numbering).

Is there a workaround to outdent the chapter numbers a bit? And could this be added as a feature in future (for those of us who prefer UI to code)? Thanks!

Answer 1

When you say "having the chapter number on a line of its own doesn't work", do you mean that it's not automatically set to do this, or, urm, something else?
It's certainly possible to specify a chapter label (\cl) for a whole book - put it before the \c 1 in the file, e.g. with a changes file.
Then you will no longer get a drop-cap style chapter number.

Another option that might be suitable, on re-reading your question,  is to disable chapter numbers entirely for Songs. That can be done in the user interface, by creating a special style for the marker id:SNG|c which you then set to 'hide/exclude contents of marker' (the often-ignored check-box at the very top of the styling panel).

You could then write some changes rules to put the chapter number into the presentation form of verse 1 for each chapter. Something like these:
at SNG 1 "\\v 1 " > "\\v 1 \\vp 1:1\\vp*"
at SNG 2 "\\v 2 " > "\\v 1 \\vp 2:1\\vp*"

I've not tested those, but hopefully something like them will work.

(I've had a look at the code and at the moment there's nothing to move the chapter number sideways).

Answer 2

Another option which I've just realised exists is to include the following in ptxprint-mods.txt:

\def\llapChapter{\edef\printchapter{\llap{\printchapter}}} 

\setbookhook{start}{SNG}{\let\PrepChapterNumber\llapChapter}
\setbookhook{end}{SNG}{\let\PrepChapterNumber\relax}

This will set the chapter number to stick out into the left-margin (entirely), with the hooks setting that to only happen in SNG.

I've also been working on making left-margin, right-margin, and justification have an effect on chapter numbers...
Current state in (github) test-version:
If justification is set to 'right', then the right margin (or, since rightmargin can't be set negative, leftmargin if the rightmargin is left at 0) specifies where the right-hand edge of the chapter number sits. (relative to the left margin). This will make the above piece of code unnecessary, once it makes it to a released version.

For other justification settings, left margin indents / outdents the left side of the chapter number relative to the margin.

Comments

Thank you, this is a simple solution which looks good, and I appreciate the time you're putting into this.

My only concern is that because the chapter number is so big, it now extends quite a ways into the page margin. This isn't such a big deal on recto (odd-numbered) pages since there is extra space from the gutter, but it could be an issue on verso (even-numbered) pages. We're using a one-column layout, but I guess this would also be an issue for the second column of a two-column layout.

The ideal solution would be for the two lines affected by the chapter number to shift somewhat to the right, but keep the relative size of indents. The chapter number would outdent relative to its two lines of text, but remain within the overall page margin.

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2.4.16 has been released (on 9th), and now allows the left-adjusted or right-adjusted chapter numbers I tried to explain above, so you have control which edge is in a fixed position. I don't understand what you mean by "outdent but stay within the page margin...keep the relative size of indents", but my suspicion is that left-aligned with a negative indentation is what you want. That will work as a (fixed)  outdent.