Types of content require special processing:

Pictures

Pictures format either column width or page width in Scripture. There is often a range of verses to which the picture might apply. Normally it can be placed within or close to that range. In Dictionaries, pictures are connected to an entry or a sense of the entry.

In addition to the placement of pictures, there are rights associated with pictures. These rights often require that permission be requested (and obtained) and that acknowledgment be included in the publication.

Headers

The header helps the user of the publication find the content contained on that page. The headers may be the same on the left and right pages, or they may be different so that the reference material is kept toward the outside of the page. Often in scripture and dictionary, there is a header but not a footer since adding a footer we take an additional two lines away from the possible content on each page. Electronic publications normally do not have headers at all!

So there are a number of useful scenarios. One typical one for a dictionary puts the first headword on the left page on the outside margin and the last headword on the right page on the outside margin (of the right page). The page number is frequently put on the inside margin. This works well if the dictionary is kept in an alphabetical order and the users will know the alphabetical order. If, on the other hand, the dictionary is in a non-Roman script like Chinese and it will be accessed from an index using a stroke count, then the index will often give the page number of the character in question. So it makes sense to put the page number on the outside margin of the left and right pages.

For scripture, the book and chapter, or book, chapter, and verse are often used as a reference for the header. The book name used in the header is often not the entire title of the book. So if the Main title is “The epistle of Paul to the Romans”, the header would just be “Romans”. This short name for the book is defined in the Book properties of the Translation Editor.

Scripts

All of the Roman script (like English) publications done by SIL, use the Charis SIL font. This font contains all the Roman Unicode characters and diacritics. Non-roman scripts could simply contain the code points and glyphs needed to render text in another language, or they could be Graphite enabled, meaning they have additional information in the font which gives rules how code points will be rendered based on the context. For example, in an Arabic script, the code point can change forms when it is word initial, word medial (middle of a word), or word final. Similarly, a diacritic in the script used in Myanmar might become bigger to include more base characters depending on how many there are in a sequence.

One major goal of Pathway has been to favor publishing solutions that allow users the full power of the Graphite technology.

Next topic: Style sheet