How to get a footer with alternating alignment and custom text per page?

Questions
1

I would like to have a footer in my document. The footer should consist of a text and the page number, separated by a pipe symbol. On odd-numbered pages, the page number should be on the right side, and the entire footer should be right-aligned. For example:

         lorem ipsum | 45

On even-numbered pages, the footer should be left-aligned, and the page number should be on the left:

46 | lorem ipsum

I would like to set the displayed text differently on each page.

2

You can set the footer to be a contextual expression and check for page parity manually, for example:

#set page(
  footer: context {
    let val = counter(page).get().first()
    if calc.even(val) [
      #counter(page).display("1") | #lorem(2)
    ]
    else [
      #h(1fr) #lorem(4).slice(12, -1) | #counter(page).display("1")
    ]
  },
)
3

Sounds like a duplicate of How to combine the title of the document with the page counter in the footer - #7 by sijo, even though the main topic and solution are different. The question uses the same problem.

4

Thank you very much for your answer. It solves one half of my problem. The other part is that I want to place an additional text next to the page number. I would like to be able to redefine this text per page.

5

@Olaf , is the text to set next to the page number a heading? Where is it coming from? Do you have an example to work with?

Perhaps have a look at the Typst documentation to give you some ideas? Some hints: How to use a double-sided document layout? - #2 by vmartel08

Both hydra and chic-hdr packages may be doing what you are looking for.

6

The footer text should be defined individually for each page. I don’t know the best way to do this. Do you set a variable for this? Do you call a function?

I’ve come this far now. The pseudo code is only intended to give you an idea of what I have in mind:

#set page(
  width: 10cm,
  height: 5cm,
  footer: context {
    let footer-text = [footer-text]
    let val = counter(page).get().first()
    if calc.even(val) [
      #counter(page).display("1") | #footer-text
    ]
    else [
      #h(1fr) #footer-text | #counter(page).display("1")
    ]
  },
)

= Page 1

// pseudo code:
// footer-text = [footer text for page 1] 

#pagebreak()

= Page 2

// pseudo code:
// footer-text = [footer text for page 2]
7

@Olaf, there seems to be a pattern here. Are you going to use headings for that purpose?

Perhaps you could inspire yourself with How to add an invisible Heading to an outline?, which has 2 good solutions for that, using either:

  • a heading…
    • do you want to use one?
    • perhaps you could use a hidden one?
      or
  • a state variable.

In any case, although you have provided a bit more insight, it is still unclear what means you would like to use, which would help suggesting a more complete solution… and avoid duplication.

1 Like
8

A working solution, which involves state (avoids using a heading, which would have been showing in the outline by default).

Code (solution with `state`) 
// Example using state
#let footer-text = state("footer-text", "oops we forgot to set the text")

#set page(
  width: 10cm,
  height: 5cm,
  footer: context {
    let val = counter(page).get().first()
    if calc.even(val) [
      #counter(page).display("1") | #footer-text.get()
    ] else [
      #h(1fr) #footer-text.get() | #counter(page).display("1")
    ]
  },
)

= Page 1
This page shows the default footer as we didn't set it.
//#footer-text.update([footer *text* for page 1])

#pagebreak()

= Page 2
#footer-text.update([footer _text_ for page 2])

#pagebreak()

= Page 3
#footer-text.update([footer _text_ for page 3])

#pagebreak()

= Page 4
This page still shows the footer from page 3 because we forgot to change it. 
//#footer-text.update([footer _text_ for page 4])
Output

image
image556Ă—836 27.9 KB

2 Likes
9

For page specifically, if no custom numbering is needed, it can be skipped in the .display(). For heading, you probably want something other than "1.1", but the same thing applies.

1 Like
10

Many thanks for your support. I have tweaked the solution a little more:


#let footer-text = state("footer-text", none)

#let set-footer-text(content) = footer-text.update(content)

#set page(
  width: 10cm,
  height: 4cm,
  footer: context {
    let text = footer-text.get()
    footer-text.update(none)
    let (page-num,) = counter(page).get()
    let val = counter(page).get().first()

    if calc.even(page-num) {
      if text == none [
        #counter(page).display("1")
      ] else [
        #counter(page).display("1") | #text
      ]
    } else {
      if text == none [
        #h(1fr) #counter(page).display("1")
      ] else [
        #h(1fr) #text | #counter(page).display("1")
      ]
    }
  },
)

= Page 1

#set-footer-text([footer text for page 1])

#pagebreak()

= Page 2

#set-footer-text([footer text for page 2])

#pagebreak()

= Page 3

#pagebreak()

= Page 4

#pagebreak()

= Page 5

#set-footer-text([footer text for page 5])
1 Like
11

You can make it much simpler. There are also some variations that depend on the document structure.

code 
#let footer-text = state("footer-text")

#let set-footer-text(content) = footer-text.update(content)

#set page(
  width: 10cm,
  height: 4cm,
  footer: context {
    let text = footer-text.get()
    footer-text.update(none)
    // let page-num = here().page() // Physical page
    let page-num = counter(page).get().first() // Logical page
    // let num = counter(page).display("I") // If custom numbering is needed.
    if calc.even(page-num) {
      text = if text != none [ | #text]
      [#page-num#text]
    } else {
      text = if text != none [#text | ]
      [#h(1fr)#text#page-num]
    }
  },
)

= Page 1

#set-footer-text[footer text for page 1]

#pagebreak()

= Page 2

#set-footer-text[footer text for page 2]

#pagebreak()

= Page 3

#pagebreak()

= Page 4

#pagebreak()

= Page 5

#set-footer-text[footer text for page 5]
1 Like