How to put Front Matter PDF(s) between the Local Front Matter and the scripture material?

Question

I noticed that when I add Front Matter PDF(s), those pages will be added before everything being typeset, including the local front matter. I wonder if it is possible to insert the additional PDF(s) after the local front matter and before the scripture material.

I've tried the steps mentioned in Inserting an entire PDF to add TeX command to insert the PDF before my first book, but it's not working. Specifically, here's what I've tried:

\setbookhook{start}{GEN}{\includepdf{../../mypdf.pdf}}

I put the PDF file in the right folder, that is two directories above the working directory, so PTXprint should be looking for the file in `.../PROJECT/local/`. But nothing is inserted into the final PDF. I'm using Windows, but it shouldn't be a problem since I used relative path as suggested. Can anybody help?

Answer 1

The latest version 3.0.32 includes an enhanced way of including PDFs exactly where you need them within Front Matter. Here are some notes on how to use this \zpdf command which functions as a milestone:

This \zpdf code can go anywhere within SFM text, including in your Front Matter (FRTlocal.sfm), and will insert the PDF file specified. Notice that you must use /forward/slashes (not\back\slashes) for your path separators; and it is ideal to place the PDFs in the project's "shared" folder so that they get shared using send/recv in Paratext and so that PTXprint can find them in the same place regardless of user.

The simplest form of the command is this:

\zpdf|file="../../../shared/IntroPages.pdf"\*

or if you really need a hardcoded path (which isn't relative to PTXprint's settings) you can also do this:

\zpdf|file="C:/Temp/IntroPages.pdf"\*

And if you need to scale, or rotate or select just one page from a longer PDF, then that's also possible with the extra parameters:

\zpdf|file="../../../shared/Filename.pdf" page="3" scale="750" rotate="270"\*

Note here that for scale, 1000 = 100%, so 500 would be 50% etc. So in the above example, only page 3 from the Filename.pdf will be inserted, scaled to 75% size, and rotated 270 degrees.

Within the context of your Front Matter material you may want to add one or more Intro Pages like this:

...
\pc \zimagecopyrights
\rem ----------Page 3----------------
\periph Intro Matter|id="importedpdf"
\zpdf|file="../../../shared/IntroPages.pdf"\*
\rem ----------Page 4----------------
\periph Table of Contents|id="contents"
\mt3 \zvar|toctitle\*
\ip \ztoc|main\*
...