Any beginner guide to start using PTX Print?

Question

Hello brethren,

Looking for the simpliest guide to getting started with PTX Print and Paratext. Looking to make a few projects with Berean Standard Bible and Punjabi Bible. Was looking for a way to do english /punjabi layout with special characters and borders that make the text look more reverential for distribution. Was thinking with the Gospel of John first.

Answer 1

Hi there, I'm not sure what your starting point is, but the home page of PTXprint has links to all kinds of resources (scroll down to the end to see links to videos etc.). Similarly for Paratext training.

Are you planning on downloading BSB and some Punjabi text from the Digital Bible Library (DBL) or Open.Bible site? If so, then you don't actually need Paratext, you can access those resources directly from the "DBL" button (top right) in PTXprint and create a diglot English+Punjabi, for example.

If you have specific questions, please get back to us.

If you're doing a Diglot, you might want to start at this page of the extensive set of Master Slides covering almost every topic there is regarding PTXprint.

Comments

Is there an archived video of the zoom meeting? would love to watch it if so.

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Thank you for your help. I have successfully loading the database bibles and got a lot of features working. Love the "Diglot" feature as I am working on a Punjabi / english gospel of John.  A few big problems I am running into:

1) There are varied whitespace at the bottom of pages sometimes even a half a page that randomly happens.

2) When using "ornamental" borders and I choose "han4" for instance it shows in a very condensed look no spread out but almost a solid line. Do these ornamental borders work only with specific page sizes?  

The goal is to make a punjabi/Berean Standard Bible  Diglot of the Gospel of John that looks very much styled like the Sihk scripture for outreach.

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Refer to the image in my other answer. Let me know if there is anything else that I can help with as you try to create a Sikh-friendly diglot Gospel of John.

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The ornamental borders are intended to work with any page size, in theory, but as you've discovered, theory and reality don't always match... The corner pieces have a fixed size (set from the borderwidth), and it then allocates what space is left as best it can, according to the rules it's been given.
For Han4, for example, the sides are made of an up-facing and a down-facing element, (depending on how you consider the 'face' of the little repeated units!) and the rules say to put the change of direction in the exact middle of the spread, and then increase/decrease the number of elements above and below the line as makes the most sense, with stretching and shrinking them being permitted as well. But it's not allowed to leave any blank space, or shrink the corner pieces. I guess that you have some pages which are ending up so short (and the border width is so big?) that there's really only space for half an edge element and it's trying to put one up-facing and one down-facing in there.

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Regarding the white space at the bottom of pages... Is this just before a section title? Unless you get very deep into control files, section titles cannot be split up, and nor can section titles be split from the paragraph they introduce. There are also rules that normally prevent "orphan" and "widow" lines at the start/end of a paragraph (there *are* controls to allow those in the user interface). If you have a large section block and then a three-line paragraph, then the default rules mean that the whole lot must be on the same page.
Footnotes are another thing that can push a large block of text onto a new page. We have some (experimental) code to try breaking footnotes in monoglots, but it probably has some bugs, and I don't think there is anything that will allow that to happen reliably in diglots.

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See below, seeing if anyone can help with this after 10+ hours I have gotten nowhere fast :-)

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Hello brethren,

We are starting to work locally with Punjabi peoples in Canada and have applied to SIM missionary society. I am looking to have done 5 small different bible projects for local outreach.

1) Gospel of John (diglot)  -  Berean Standard Bible (BSB) / Punjabi (IRV).  (HAN 2 ornamental border)
5.5" x 8.5" (13.97 x 21.59 cm)

2) Gospel of John (punjabi).  - Punjabi (IRV) double column.   (HAN 2 ornamental border)
5.5" x 8.5" (13.97 x 21.59 cm)

3) 4 Gospels (punjabi) - Punjabi (IRV)  LARGE print single column.  (HAN 2 ornamental border)
6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)

4) 4 Gospels (diglot)  -  Berean Standard Bible (BSB) / Punjabi (IRV). LARGE print. (HAN 2 ornamental border)
6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)

5) New Testament (diglot)  -  Berean Standard Bible (BSB) / Punjabi (IRV).  (single line ornamental border)
5.5" x 8.5" (13.97 x 21.59 cm)

It would be such a blessing if any brothers or sisters had time to help have these done, I could potentially help pay or reimburse for your time. All these are for outreach locally. And I would design the cover and other inside materials to go with it.

Answer 2

If you want to get the big picture about PTXprint before diving in yourself, there happens to be a Webinar taking place later today just a few hours from now.

Please click this URL to join. https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85718766150 

(Jul 25, 2024 08:00 AM Eastern Time US & CAN). Registration is not required.

Description: The successful launch and acceptance of Scripture within a community often hinges on a series of preliminary publications that pave the way for the final release of the New Testament or Bible. PTXprint empowers you to experiment with diverse layouts, fonts, sizes, and numerous other options, enabling you to gauge community preferences well before facing critical decisions at the final typesetting stage. Stimulating interest in God's Word can be fostered through timely releases of individual Gospels or other publications as you progress towards a finalized product.

Answer 3

Here is the link to the recording of the recent Webinar (which provides an overview of what PTXprint can do).

If you want to delve deeper into the recordings of a recent online training event, then check out this document (which contains links to the recordings of those sessions).

Regarding you question about the ornamental borders, follow the steps shown below, and make sure that you set an appropriate border with at step 8. You may also need to adjust the Box/Border Padding in the settings at the bottom of that same dialogue.