Can I produce a PDF for an .sfm file that is not in a Paratext project?

Question

I've heard for a long time that PTXprint does not require Paratext to be installed. But the process of using PTXprint without Paratext isn't very obvious.
When I asked the PTXprint AI Support Agent, it hallucinated all sorts of non-existent functionality, like: When prompted to select a project, look for an option such as “Other USFM file(s)” or a “Browse…” button.

On the Basic tab in PTXprint, you have to select the Paratext Project ID in the drop-down menu, and that menu has a promising "Import..." option at the bottom. But that only opens DBL bundles.

When I asked the AI Agent about processing a single SFM file with the command line, it hallucinated the non-existant: ptxprint --usfm /path/to/yourfile.sfm --out /path/to/output.pdf

So the question remains... If I have an .sfm Scripture file that I want to print (in this case I actually want to include some images as well), is there a way to print that with PTXprint short of creating a dummy Paratext project?

Thanks, Jeff

Answer 1

Sigh! The support agent is so eager to please, that it seems to have no qualms inventing non-existent ways of solving your problem for you.

Fortunately this question has already been answered in this (relatively recent) video: Typesetting Scripture without Paratext. (Note that there are several new short videos that might be worth watching in the PTXprint showcase.)

The video explains 4 different ways of using PTXprint without Paratext installed. If, after watching the 90-sec intro, you want to skip ahead to the scenario you describe above (just one or more USFM files in a folder) then join at 8m50s to show you how to make it work.

Comments

Mark - thanks for the clear instructions. I can confirm that even if I do have Paratext installed (with a \My Paratext 9 Projects folder), I can simply create a folder under My Paratext 9 Projects and add the sfm files that I want to print. It was not necessary for me to actually create a new project.

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Thanks, Mark. That's very helpful. There's one scenario you didn't cover directly. (The one I need!) There are people who have Paratext, but they want to typeset something that they don't have a project for. I'm thinking, for example, of Language Technology training, where you want to typeset a book for practice, but you don't have a Paratext project for the book to typeset. In that case, it appears that you can create a unique sub-folder under C:\My Paratext 9 Projects\, and as long as there is at least one *.sfm file in the folder, PTXprint will make that folder available as a valid Project ID.

Does that sound correct? Seems to work for me... and I'm able to do typesetting of my sample book.

One note about the training video. You create a ScriptureProjects folder under C:\Data at the beginning of the video. When you create a folder for SFM files in the last section of the video, you put it in C:\Documents\ScriptureProjects. None of those other projects that you loaded (DBL, etc.) are there in that folder, so it seems clear that that is not the active PTXprint data folder. I'm guessing you already had a copy of the SFM folder in C:\Data\ScriptureProjectSo and that's why it showed up in the PTXprint project list. If that's where PTXprint is looking for projects, it's not going to be able to find the folder you put in Documents. Not a big deal, but could confuse some people - something to fix in the next version of the video...

Thanks for all your good work!  Jeff

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Yes, that is correct. If you (already) have a "My Paratext 9 Projects" folder, you can easily just create a folder in there with 1 or more USFM files and it will see them on the next startup.

You were very observant about the Documents\Data difference. However, on my machine, I have "My Documents" mapped to C:\Data so they actually point to the same place regardless of how I get there :-)  Hopefully it isn't too confusing for others.

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So if they are mapped to the same place, then why weren't there folders for the other projects (DBL, etc.) you had already created? Or were those somehow stored in the sub-folder (that you said it might be tempting to put things in there, but don't)?

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Great question! The _PTXprint folder contains any projects that can be used for typesetting that are NOT strictly Paratext projects. So we have intentionally chosen to keep them (together) in their own sub-folder under the main base folder (usually "My Paratext 9 Projects") and away from "standard" Paratext projects that show up in Paratext's list of projects and can be Sent/Recd etc.

This does raise an issue, however... If you create Configurations for projects in _PTXprint (which are primarily downloaded DBL resources) then there isn't an automatic way for those settings to be backed up with S/R. You need to think about how you do that manually. And if you ever move to a different machine, you would need to take your "_PTXprint" folder with you to the new machine.