As from August 2012 ledmac has been replaced by eledmac. The original ledmac package is still available at CTAN. 

Typesetting Critical Editions with LaTeX: ledmac, ledpar and ledarab

It is easy to typeset your own critical text edition with multiple footnote streams, footnotes keyed to line numbers, paragraphed footnotes, marginal notes, tabular material, verse, etc. Even a bilingual edition is possible. The powerful combination of LaTeX and the ledmac, ledpar and ledarab packages is all you need to produce an edition with a professional layout.
 

ledmac is a package for LaTeX that allows you to produce professional critical editions. With ledmac and the ledpar extension you can typeset your critical edition in parallel columns or on parallel pages. The ledarab extension in combination with ledmac and ArabTeX makes Arabic critical editions possible. You can download ledmac, ledpar and ledarab without cost from the CTAN archive. Please follow the instructions in the ‘README’ file to install.
 

Packages currently available for downloading are:
- ledmac (required; this is the basic package);
- ledpatch (required; contains the latest patches for ledmac);
- ledpar (optional; needed for parallel editions);
- ledparpatch (optional; contains the latest patches for ledpar);
- ledarab (optional; needed for Arabic editions with ArabTeX).
 

Some sample editions are available on the present website.

 

Q & A about Working with LaTeX and ledmac, ledpar and ledarab

1. I am new to LaTeX… what is it, where do I get it?
2. What can LaTeX and ledmac/ledpar do that Microsoft Word cannot?
3. Where do I find documentation for ledmac and friends?
4. What kinds of footnotes and endnotes does ledmac support?
5. How many footnote apparatuses does ledmac support?
6. How do I make a footnote in the style of a critical edition?
7. Can I rename those commands into something more meaningful?
8. May footnote lemmata overlap?
9. May \edtext span across paragraphs?
10. Can I change or suppress the standard right bracket?
11. Can I control whether ledmac prints a right bracket after a lemma?
12. Can line numbers in the footnote apparatus be printed in boldface?
13. I never want to have a lemma in boldface. What do I do?
14. I always want the page number in the footnote. What do I do?
15. How do I change the style of (sub-)line numbers?
16. If two consecutive notes belong to the same line, will ledmac repeat the line number?
17. Can I change or suppress the line number in a footnote?
18. Can I adjust the amount of whitespace between critical notes?
19. How do I set the amount of whitespace between text and footnotes?
20. How do I make a cross reference to an entire passage?
21. Does ledmac support sentence and/or paragraph numbering?
22. Can ledmac distinguish between multiple occurrences of a lemma in one line?
23. Does margin kerning work with ledmac?
24. Help! My footnotes are running off the bottom of the page!
25. Why am I getting “Overfull \hbox” messages?
26. Help! makeindex rejects my index entries!
27. Can I make a bilingual edition with ledmac (e.g., Latin left, English right)?
28. Can ledmac typeset a critical edition of Bible verse?
29. Does ledmac work together with betababel?
30. Which alternatives are there to ledmac, ledpar and ledarab?
31. Who wrote ledmac, ledpar and ledarab?
32. What about licensing?
33. Do you actually use ledmac and friends yourself?
34. I have a question. Where do I go?
Acknowledgements and disclaimer

*

Q 1: I am new to LaTeX… what is it, where do I get it?
A: LaTeX is an easy to learn but full-featured and professional typesetting program that is used by many authors, typesetters and publishers. It runs on practically every operating system. There are web sites for users of Apple Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows where you can read what LaTeX is, how to get it, and how to install it on your own computer.

LaTeX users all over the world have published countless introductions, manuals, and FAQs on the Internet. These materials will help you with your first steps in LaTeX. Two up-to-date and highly recommended books are:
* Frank Mittelbach, Michel Goossens (et al.), The LaTeX Companion. Second Edition, Reading MA: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2004 (xxvii+1092 pp., CD-ROM, ISBN 0-201-36299-6, price ca. US$ 55);
* Helmut Kopka & Patrick W. Daly, Guide to LaTeX. Fourth Edition, Reading MA: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2004 (xii+597 pp., CD-ROM, ISBN 0-321-17385-6, price ca. US$ 45).

*

Q 2: What can LaTeX and ledmac/ledpar do that Microsoft Word cannot?
A: LaTeX has many benefits over conventional word processors, including higher output quality, more versatility, superior handling of long documents (even entire books) and excellent handling of bibliographical references (with BibTeX). In contrast to many word processors, LaTeX is extremely stable and has very few bugs.

With ledmac, a package to be used with LaTeX, you can typeset professional critical text editions with footnotes keyed to line numbers, multiple footnote apparatuses, paragraphed footnotes, index references referring to line numbers, etc. With ledpar you can typeset parallel editions, e.g., a critical Latin text on the left and a synchronized English translation on the right. All this cannot be done in Microsoft Word.

Apart from all these benefits there is also a financial advantage. LaTeX and ledmac/ledpar are open source software and, therefore, will cost you absolutely nothing. A commercial word processor license usually sets you back a few hundred euros, plus the cost of any upgrades.

*

Q 3: Where do I find documentation for ledmac and friends?
A: ledmac, ledpar and ledarab come with excellent documentation. You will probably find most of your questions answered in the manuals ledmac.pdf, ledpar.pdf and ledarab.pdf, all three of which you can download from CTAN or (recommended) produce yourself by compiling ledmac.dtx, ledpar.dtx and ledarab.dtx. All three manuals contain an easy-to-understand user guide as well as a detailed technical explanation of the entire ledmac, ledpar and ledarab source code, and an appendix with sample critical editions with their complete .tex source. You can really learn a lot from them. If the manuals do not solve your questions, you could also point your newsreader to comp.text.tex or surf to Google Groups.

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Q 4: What kinds of footnotes and endnotes does ledmac support?
A: With ledmac you can produce familiar footnotes, paragraphed footnotes, footnotes in two or three columns, and endnotes. Every note apparatus can have its own format independently of other apparatuses.

*

Q 5: How many footnote apparatuses does ledmac support?
A: In theory, ledmac supports a maximum of 255 footnote apparatuses. Fifteen apparatuses are available by default: five critical apparatuses numbered \Afootnote through \Efootnote, five familiar apparatuses numbered \footnoteA through \footnoteE, and five endnote apparatuses numbered \Aendnote through \Eendnote. If you need more, you can easily define additional apparatuses.

If you really need a lot of apparatuses and LaTeX reports the error message “! No room for a new \count .”, then you should load the etex package to allow for more counters:

\usepackage{etex}

*

Q 6: How do I make a footnote in the style of a critical edition?
A: To make a footnote in apparatus X and have it referred to by line number, use the \edtext and \Xfootnote commands (“X“ stands for the letter that identifies the apparatus), and optionally the \lemma command. Make sure that you have defined apparatus X as a paragraphed footnote apparatus (put \footparagraph{X} in the preamble), and that you have turned line numbering on. The syntax of \edtext is as follows:

\edtext{<main text>}{\Xfootnote{<footnote text>}}

Here is an example. If your text reads “timorem Domini” in line 14, and you would like to add a variant reading “florem philosophiae” of some text witness P in the first footnote apparatus, then you would write:

\edtext{timorem Domini}{\Afootnote{florem philosophiae P}}

and the result in the A footnote apparatus will look like this:

14 timorem Domini] florem philosophiae P

By default, the lemma that it is printed in the main text (i.e., the first argument of \edtext, in this case “timorem Domini”) is used as the lemma in the footnote. If you would like to have a different lemma in the footnote, then simply define the text of the footnote lemma yourself:

\edtext{<main text>}{\lemma{<lemma>}\Xfootnote{<footnote text>}}

The \lemma command comes in handy if you have a long lemma that you wish to abbreviate in the footnote apparatus. For example, if the main text reads “in parte quae” in line 23, which you would like to abbreviate to a lemma “in…quae” in the third (“C”) apparatus, and there is a variant reading “parte qua” in source Q, then you would write:

\edtext{in parte quae}{\lemma{in\ldots quae}\Cfootnote{parte qua Q}}

and the result in the C footnote apparatus will look like this:

23 in…quae] parte qua Q

*

Q 7: Can I rename those commands into something more meaningful?
A: Yes, you can. For example, if you prefer to write \variant instead of \Afootnote, then just add this line to your preamble:

\let\variant=\Afootnote

which allows you to write things like this in your text:

\edtext{timorem Domini}{\variant{florem philosophiae P}}

If you really want to, you could also define < as a shorthand form of \edtext. This will work in all but nested footnotes. Put this into your preamble:

\catcode`\<=\active
\let<=\edtext

This allows you to write in your text:

<{timorem Domini}{\variant{florem philosophiae P}}

Alternatively, you could combine the \edtext and \Xfootnote commands into a single new command. In the following example we combine \edtext and \Afootnote into a single command that we call \variant. More precisely, we define \variant{<main text>}{<footnote text>} as the two commands \edtext{<main text>} and {\Afootnote{<footnote text>}} issued consecutively. Please note that although this procedure can save you some typing, it is rather illogical to let the \variant command introduce the lemma instead of the variant reading.

\newcommand{\variant}[2]{\edtext{#1}{\Afootnote{#2}}}

After this definition the following two expressions yield the same result:

\edtext{timorem Domini}{\Afootnote{florem philosophiae P}}
\variant{timorem Domini}{florem philosophiae P}

*

Q 8: May footnote lemmata overlap?
A: Yes, ledmac accepts overlapping footnote lemmata. This is easiest when footnotes are nested properly, i.e., when a nested \edtext{…}{\Xfootnote{…}} is enclosed completely inside another \edtext{…}. For example:

\edtext{A \edtext{nested}{\Afootnote{hard}} note}{\Afootnote{phew}}

If you need overlapping but unnested lemmata in the apparatus, then you can simulate these with clever use of ledmac’s built-in commands. Suppose you have the following text:

Use ledmac for editions

and you would like to attach footnote 1 to the words “Use ledmac for”, and footnote 2 to the words “ledmac for editions”. In this case lemma 2 is not completely enclosed inside lemma 1, so putting the second \edtext{…} inside the first is not going to work. To solve this with ledmac, you begin with entering footnote 1 as a normal critical footnote. You should already mark the first word of lemma 2 with an \edlabel so that you can refer to it later on. You will write something like this:

\edtext{Use ledmac\edlabel{X} for}{\Afootnote{note 1}} editions

Now add footnote 2 to this code. The footnote should be attached to the word “editions”. The result will look like this:

\edtext{Use ledmac\edlabel{X} for}{\Afootnote{note 1}}
\edtext{editions}{\Afootnote{note 2}}

Next, set the starting line number for footnote 2 by means of an \xlineref command, i.e., a reference to the preceding \edlabel{X}. Finally, you can set the lemma in footnote 2 with the \lemma command. The whole line will look like this (enter it as one continuous line without line breaks):

\edtext{Use ledmac\edlabel{X} for}{\Afootnote{note 1}}
 \edtext{editions}{\linenum{|\xlineref{X}}\lemma{ledmac\ldots\
 editions}\Afootnote{note 2}}

*

Q 9: May \edtext span across paragraphs?
A: No, both arguments of \edtext must be closed before declaring \pend. Of course, you can attach a critical footnote to multiple paragraphs by using ledmac’s built-in commands. In the following example the critical footnote is keyed to the first word of the first paragraph and the last word of the second paragraph. The lemma is changed accordingly.

\pstart
First\edlabel{one} line of the example.
\pend
\pstart
This is the second \edlabel{two}\edtext{paragraph}{%
{\xxref{one}{two}}\lemma{First\ldots\ paragraph}\Afootnote{test}}.
\pend

The result will look like this:

First line of the example.
This is the second paragraph.
line
1–2 First…paragraph ] test

Alternatively, you could use the following solution to obtain the same result:

\pstart
First\edlabel{mult} line of the example.
\pend
\pstart
This is the second \edtext{paragraph.}{\linenum{|\xlineref{mult}}%
 \lemma{First\ldots\ paragraph}\Afootnote{test}}
\pend

*

Q 10: Can I change or suppress the standard right bracket?
A: Yes. For example: to change the right bracket into a colon, just add this line to the preamble (adjust to suit):

\renewcommand{\rbracket}{\textnormal{\thinspace:}}

If you want to suppress the delimiter altogether, then write this instead:

\renewcommand{\rbracket}{}

*

Q 11: Can I control whether ledmac prints a right bracket after a lemma?
A: In the footnote apparatus, ledmac prints a right bracket after each lemma by default. In some situations you would want to suppress the delimiter without killing it for all lemmata, e.g., if a text-critical footnote contains a palaeographical remark rather than a variant reading. To handle this case you can define the \abb command. Copy and paste the following five lines into your preamble:

\newcommand{\abb}[1]{#1%
\let\rbracket\nobrak\relax}
\newcommand{\nobrak}{\textnormal{}}
\newcommand{\morenoexpands}{%
\let\abb=0}

… and then redefine the format(s) of the relevant footnote apparatus(es) (adjust to suit):

\renewcommand{\Bparafootfmt}[3]{%
\ledsetnormalparstuff
\notenumfont\printlines#1|\enspace%
{\select@lemmafont#1|#2\rbracket}\enskip   % mind the braces!
\notetextfont
#3\penalty-10}

In the first sample edition you can see how this works in practice. Once you have defined the \abb command, it is used as follows:

\edtext{\abb{<main text>}}{\Xfootnote{<footnote text>}}

For example:

\edtext{\abb{cotidianum}}{\Bfootnote{\em{om.}\ P}}

74 cotidianum om. P

Or, if you wish to define the text of the footnote lemma yourself:

\edtext{<main text>}{\lemma{\abb{<lemma>}}\Xfootnote{<footnote text>}}

For example:

\edtext{in ea die}{\lemma{\abb{in\ldots die}}\Bfootnote{\em{om.}\ P}}

26 in…die om. P

*

Q 12: Can line numbers in the footnote apparatus be printed in boldface?
A: Yes. Put this into your preamble:

\renewcommand{\notenumfont}{\bfseries\footnotesize}

*

Q 13: I never want to have a lemma in boldface. What do I do?
A: By default, ledmac prints the lemma in the footnote in the same font encoding, family, series and shape as the lemma in the main text. If the lemma in the main text is set in boldface, then it will also be printed in boldface in the apparatus. To prevent this behavior you can redefine \select@@lemmafont in the preamble of your document. In the example below, you can see how the original command \fontseries{#3} that caused the boldface lemmata has been removed altogether.

\makeatletter
\def\select@lemmafont#1|#2|#3|#4|#5|#6|#7|%
  {\select@@lemmafont#7|}
\def\select@@lemmafont#1/#2/#3/#4|%
  {\fontencoding{#1}\fontfamily{#2}\fontshape{#4}%
  \selectfont}
\makeatother

*

Q 14: I always want the page number in the footnote. What do I do?
Copy the definition of the \printlines#1|#2|#3|#4|#5|#6|#7| macro from ledmac.sty (lines 1087 through 1120) into your preamble and change this line:

\ifl@d@pnum #1\fullstop\fi

into this:

#1\fullstop

*

Q 15: How do I change the style of (sub-)line numbers?
A: You can change the style of line numbers and/or sub-line numbers with the commands \linenumberstyle{<style>} and/or \sublinenumberstyle{<style>}, respectively, in your preamble. These commands take one of the following as their argument: arabic (=default), Alph, alph, Roman, or roman. You may use different numbering styles for line numbers and sub-line numbers.

Argument(Sub-)line numbering styleExample 
arabicnumbers (=default)1, 2, 3, …
Alphuppercase lettersA, B, C, …, X, Y, Z
alphlowercase lettersa, b, c, …, x, y, z
RomanRoman numerals uppercaseI, II, III, …
romanRoman numerals lowercasei, ii, iii, …

Please note: do not try to use Alph or alph for texts that are longer than 26 lines, or you will get a “Counter too large” error message.

To change the appearance of the (sub-)line numbers, please see Q. 12.

*

Q 16: If two consecutive notes belong to the same line, will ledmac repeat the line number?
A: By default, ledmac prints the line number before every critical footnote. If you would like to prevent repeated line numbers within one apparatus, then copy and paste the following code into the preamble (assuming that you are using paragraphed footnotes):

\makeatletter
\renewcommand*{\para@vfootnote}[2]{%
\insert\csname #1footins\endcsname
\bgroup
\notefontsetup
\footsplitskips
\l@dparsefootspec #2\ledplinenumtrue  %%%% FIRST ADDED LINE %%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\ifnum\@nameuse{previous@#1@number}=\l@dparsedstartline\relax
\ledplinenumfalse
\fi
\ifnum\previous@page=\l@dparsedstartpage\relax
\else \ledplinenumtrue \fi
\ifnum\l@dparsedstartline=\l@dparsedendline\relax
\else \ledplinenumtrue \fi
\expandafter\xdef\csname previous@#1@number\endcsname{\l@dparsedstartline}
\xdef\previous@page{\l@dparsedstartpage}  %%%% LAST ADDDED LINE %%%%%%%%%%
\setbox0=\vbox{\hsize=\maxdimen
\noindent\csname #1footfmt\endcsname#2}%
\setbox0=\hbox{\unvxh0}%
\dp0=0pt
\ht0=\csname #1footfudgefactor\endcsname\wd0
\box0
\penalty0
\egroup}
\makeatother

Please note that this procedure does not alter ledmac’s behavior inside a ledgroup environment, i.e., in a minipage. To prevent repeated line numbers inside a ledgroup environment you can modify the definition of \mppara@vfootnote in the same way as the definition of \para@vfootnote: insert the ten added lines (indicated above) inside the definition of \mppara@vfootnote, between the commands \footsplitskips and \setbox0=\vbox{\hsize=\maxdimen.

In addition to your redefinition of \para@vfootnote and/or of \mppara@vfootnote you should issue a \renewcommand of the format of the relevant footnote apparatus(es), and tell ledmac to remove unnecessary space following any suppressed line number. Just copy and paste this into your preamble and adjust to your needs:

\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\Bparafootfmt}[3]{%
\ledsetnormalparstuff
\notenumfont\printlines#1|% % new from here
\ifledplinenum
  \enspace%
\else
  {\hskip 0em plus0em minus.4em}%
\fi % to here
{\select@lemmafont#1|#2}\rbracket\enskip
\notetextfont
#3\penalty-10}
\makeatother

By issuing the commands above you tell ledmac not to print the space indicated by “whitespace 1” in the picture below unless the line number is printed, too (defined here for the B footnote apparatus). Because of the parameters of the \hskip command, the space preceding the first footnote belonging to a particular line will have a slight tendency to be larger than the space preceding subsequent lemmata belonging to the same line.
[Image: Controlling whitespace in ledmac]

Notice that ledmac is smart enough not to suppress the line number if it is part of a range of lines. For example, if a note belongs to line 14 and the next note belongs to lines 14–15, then ledmac will not suppress the second instance of “14”, but will print the line numbers “14” and “14–15”, respectively.

*

Q 17: Can I change or suppress the line number in a footnote?
A: Yes, you can. We have seen above how to use the \lemma command to change the lemma text. In a somewhat similar fashion you can use the \linenum command to change the line number that gets printed in front of the lemma. For example: if a footnote is keyed to some text on lines 18–19, but for some reason you want ledmac to write “13–20” in the apparatus, then you could use the following command:

\edtext{<main text>}{\linenum{|13|||20||}\Afootnote{<footnote text>}}

The \linenum command takes one argument that consists of seven optional parameters separated by a vertical bar:

\linenum{#1|#2|#3|#4|#5|#6|#7}
#1 starting page number
#2 starting line number
#3 starting sub-line number
#4 ending page number
#5 ending line number
#6 ending sub-line number
#7 font specifier for the lemma

In order to omit the line number in an individual note, you cannot simply leave the parameters #2 and #5 empty: ledmac will interpret an empty parameter as an instruction not to change the computed parameter. Instead, you should first redefine \printlines#1|#2|#3|#4|#5|#6|#7| in the preamble, as indicated here (just copy and paste the following code into your preamble):

\makeatletter
\def\printlines#1|#2|#3|#4|#5|#6|#7|{%
\begingroup
\setprintlines{#1}{#2}{#3}{#4}{#5}{#6}%
\ifnum#2=-1 \ledplinenumfalse \fi       % This line is new
\ifl@d@pnum #1\fullstop\fi
\ifledplinenum \linenumrep{#2}\else \symplinenum\fi
\ifl@d@ssub \fullstop \sublinenumrep{#3}\fi
\ifl@d@dash \endashchar\fi
\ifl@d@pnum #4\fullstop\fi
\ifl@d@elin \linenumrep{#5}\fi
\ifl@d@esl \ifl@d@elin \fullstop\fi \sublinenumrep{#6}\fi
\endgroup}
\makeatother

\newcommand{\killnumber}{\linenum{|-1|||-1||}}

This allows you to kill an individual line number as follows:

\edtext{<main text>}{\killnumber\Afootnote{<footnote text>}}

There is also a thread in comp.text.tex about this question.

*

Q 18: Can I adjust the amount of whitespace between critical footnotes?
A: Yes. Issue the \interparanoteglue command in the preamble, like this (adjust values to suit):

\interparanoteglue{1em plus.4em minus.4em}

*

Q 19: How do I set the amount of whitespace between text and footnotes?
A: Use the \footins command in the preamble. For example, to add 1.5 mm to the whitespace above the A footnote apparatus, you would write this:

\addtolength{\skip\Afootins}{1.5mm}

To set the length rather than add some amount to it, use \setlength instead of \addtolength. For example:

\setlength{\skip\Afootins}{1.5mm}

Of course, if you need whitespace above the B footnote apparatus, then replace \Afootins by \Bfootins. You can use any unit that LaTeX understands: em, ex, in, pt, pc, cm, mm, dd, cc, bp, or sp.

Please note: to set the footnote spacing inside a ledgroup environment (i.e., in ledmac’s minipage environment) you should use

\setlength{\skip\mpAfootins}{1.5mm}

rather than \setlength{\skip\Afootins}{1.5mm}. The letters “mp” in the command name mean “minipage”.

*

Q 20: How do I make a cross reference to an entire passage?
A: It depends on how you are referring to the passage. There are two possibilities:

  1. the note itself is attached to a passage by means of a cross reference to two \edlabels:
    28–42 text] footnote
  2. inside the footnote text a reference occurs to a passage that you have marked with two \edlabels:
    39 text] See also 1.19–2.37

In the first case you need the built-in \xxref command, which changes the line numbers that precede a footnote. It is used like this:

\edtext{text}{\xxref{edlabel1}{edlabel2}\Afootnote{variant}}

In the second case you need a command that can be used inside the argument of \Xfootnote{...}. In this situation \xxref will not work. Instead, you should define a new command that checks the page and line numbers of both labels and then prints and/or suppresses the appropriate numbers and punctuation:

\newcommand{\refpassage}[2]{%
 \xpageref{#1}\fullstop\xlineref{#1}%
 \ifnum\xpageref{#1}=\xpageref{#2}
  \ifnum\xlineref{#1}=\xlineref{#2}
  \else
   \endashchar\xlineref{#2}%
  \fi
 \else
  \endashchar\xpageref{#2}\fullstop\xlineref{#2}%
 \fi
}

You can modify the definition to suit: for example, you could add support for sub-line numbers. The command \refpassage is used like this:

\edtext{text}{\Afootnote{See \refpassage{mouse}{elephant}.}}

*

Q 21: Does ledmac support sentence and/or paragraph numbering?
A: Yes, it does. I have posted an example featuring sentence numbers on comp.text.tex in the thread titled “Is it possible to use \startlock and \endlock in Ledmac to number sentences instead of lines?” You can adapt it to use paragraph numbers. There are also a few threads on comp.text.tex that deal with using paragraph numbers in the text and/or the footnotes: thread 1 (August 2003), thread 2 (September–October 2004), thread 3 (February 2005).

*

Q 22: Can ledmac distinguish between multiple occurrences of a lemma in one line?
A: No, it cannot. For example, if you have a footnote keyed to the word est in line 38, and the word est occurs twice more in the same line, then ledmac will not mark the lemma in the footnote to indicate which occurrence of est the footnote belongs to (you would want to see, for example, est¹ for the first occurrence, est² for the second, and est³ for the third).

If ledmac were forced to check for multiple occurrences of all lemmata in their lines, typesetting the text could become very slow indeed. You will gain a lot of time if you proofread the footnotes manually and, if necessary, adjust the \lemma yourself. For example, to add a superscript number to the B footnote lemma of the second occurrence of the word est in line 38, you could type:

\edtext{est}{\lemma{est\textsuperscript{2}}\Bfootnote{erat Q}}

38 est²] erat Q

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Q 23: Does margin kerning work with ledmac?
A: Yes, it does if you use version 1.30 or later of pdfTeX and version 1.8 or later of the microtype package. To learn more about the principles behind margin kerning (also known as character protrusion), a typographic nicety that can make your text look a lot better, see the article Hàn Thê Thánh, ‘Micro-typographic Extensions of pdfTeX in Practice’, TUGboat 25 (2004), 35–38.

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Q 24: Help! My footnotes are running off the bottom of the page!
A: TeX (and also LaTeX) occasionally reserves too little space for the footnotes. If this happens you will get the error message “overfull \vbox” in the console. See for example the following critical text edition, that was done with LaTeX and ledmac and contains many variant readings in a relatively long footnote apparatus. The figure shows how the apparatus prints right over the page number:

[Image: Illustration of footnotes printing over page number]

The solution to this problem is easy. Simply increase the value of \footfudgefiddle in the document preamble, for example from the standard value of 64 to 71:

\renewcommand{\footfudgefiddle}{71}

Another solution is to increase the value of \Xfootins. The optimal value for \Xfootins may be different for every footnote apparatus. You will have to try and see which values work best in your own critical edition. The default value is 1000. You can increase or decrease it as necessary. For example:

\count\Bfootins=1250

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Q 25: Why am I getting “Overfull \hbox” messages?
A: An “Overfull \hbox” message usually indicates that (La)TeX is having difficulties with hyphenation. These errors can occur in the main text, in the footnote apparatus, or in both. To solve them, make sure that you have loaded the babel package with the appropriate language(s) and that you declare the hyphenation of any problematic words with the \hyphenation command in the preamble. For example:

\documentclass{...}
\usepackage[latin]{babel}
\usepackage{ledmac}
\hyphenation{au-ro-ra cur-sus pro-ve-hit}
...
\begin{document}
...

*

Q 26: Help! makeindex rejects my index entries!
A: First make sure that you have loaded ledmac and makeidx in the right order:

\usepackage{ledmac}
\usepackage{makeidx}
      \makeindex

If your index entries are still rejected, then probably you have not compiled your document three times before running makeindex. If you have made your index entries with the \edindex command, then the raw index file (*.idx) should refer to them with a combination of page number and line number. For example, an entry ‘Stemmatology’ that occurs on page 4, line 16 of your edition and that you have indexed as follows:

Mary likes stemmatology\edindex{Stemmatology} and codicology.

will show up in the raw index file (*.idx) as:

\indexentry{Stemmatology}{4-16}

and in the final index as:

Stemmatology, 4-16

See also the first sample edition on this website. The inclusion of the line numbers is not problematic for makeindex if you first compile your edition several times to stabilize page and line numbers (remember that LaTeX always requires several runs to get them straight) before you start compiling the index with makeindex. If makeindex complains with an error message like: “Scanning input file edition.idx....done (0 entries accepted, 18 rejected)”, then you should [1] delete the auxiliary files (*.ind, *.idx, *.aux, *.1 etc.); [2] compile your document several times until the page numbers and line numbers have stabilized; [3] run makeindex to generate a new index; [4] compile the document once more to incorporate the index.

*

Q 27: Can I make a bilingual edition with ledmac (e.g., Latin left, English right)?
A: Yes, you can. With ledpar, an extension to ledmac that you can download from CTAN, you can typeset synchronized parallel editions. You can typeset the parallel texts either in facing columns or on facing pages. The parallel texts can contain critical footnotes, and verse is also supported. The ledpar manual contains some examples that show you how to make the parallel edition.

If you are typesetting a bilingual critical edition of an Arabic text then you should have a look at ledarab.

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Q 28: Can ledmac typeset a critical edition of Bible verse?
A: Yes. The ledmac package makes the difficult typographical task of typesetting Bible verse—with references keyed to verses rather than line numbers—easier. Copy and paste the following code into your preamble:

\newcommand{\startledbibleverse}{%
   \startlock
   \setcounter{firstlinenum}{999}
   }
\newcommand{\ledbibleverse}[1]{%
   #1%     % change the verse number appearance to suit
   \setline{#1}%
   }
\newcommand{\stopledbibleverse}{%
   \endlock
   \setcounter{firstlinenum}{5}
   }

This code makes available the \ledbibleverse command that defines the verse number, which in turn is used automatically by the \edtext macro. Precede the Bible fragment that you are typesetting by \startledbibleverse and close the fragment with \stopledbibleverse. Inside the fragment issue the command \ledbibleverse{<number>} in front of each verse instead of just the verse number. Please note that the \startledbibleverse command above will suppress any line numbers below 999 in the margin (the longest Bible chapter, Psalm 119, actually contains 176 verses that are very often typeset on 373 lines). A quick and dirty trick to get the verse numbers in the left margin would be to add \ledleftnote{#1} to the \ledbibleverse definition (does not work in two column lay-outs). Here is an example:

\startledbibleverse
\ledbibleverse{1} In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. \ledbibleverse{2} And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. \ledbibleverse{3} And God said, ``Let there be light:'' and there was light.
\stopledbibleverse

See also question 21 of this Q&A.

*

Q 29: Does ledmac work together with betababel?
A: Yes, it does. To enable the \bcode command within critical footnotes, you should write the following in the preamble of your document:

\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\morenoexpands}{%
  \let\bcode=\relax
  \let\Bet@code=\@gobble}
\makeatother

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Q 30: Which alternatives are there to ledmac, ledpar and ledarab?
A: The only alternative to ledpar is paracol; please note that the parallel package allows parallel typesetting but does not synchronize paragraphs. There exists no alternative to ledarab. TeX/LaTeX alternatives to ledmac include:
* EDMAC, a Plain TeX package of which ledmac is a port to LaTeX;
* ednotes, a LaTeX package for critical editions (see article based on TUGboat 24 (2003), 224–236);
* poemscol, for typesetting poetry (see articles in TUGboat 22 (2001), 353–361 and The PracTeX Journal 3/2005);
* bigfoot, a bundle of packages (under development; see article from EuroTeX 2005);
* CET (Critical Edition Typesetter), a so-called “WYSIAWYG” front-end to TeX & EDMAC;
* Mauro-TeX (February 2003).

The Italian TeX Users Group (GuIT) has a web page in Italian about typesetting critical editions with LaTeX; there is also a Corso di Edizione Critica al Computer at Santa Croce University in Rome. See also the German web page ‘Editionstechnik’ at the University of Göttingen.

*

Q 31: Who wrote ledmac, ledpar and ledarab?
A: I am not the author of ledmac, ledpar or ledarab. All three packages were written by Dr Peter R. Wilson. The ledmac package is based on earlier work of Dr John Lavagnino and Dr Dominik Wujastyk (the authors of EDMAC), of Dr Nora Gädeke and Dr Herbert Breger (the authors of TABMAC), and of Dr Wayne Sullivan (the author of EDSTANZA).

*

Q 32: What about licensing?
A: The ledmac, ledpar and ledarab packages and their concomitant files are professional software that may be acquired, used and distributed without cost under the terms of the LaTeX Project Public License (LPPL) version 1.3 or later. You are allowed to modify the software under the terms of the same license.

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Q 33: Do you actually use ledmac and friends yourself?
A: Well… I did. I used ledmac for two years to produce critical text editions in the fields of medieval philosophy and medieval history. Titles include: Iohannes Buridanus, Quaestiones super IV Physicorum Aristotelis; Iohannes Buridanus, Quaestio de dependentiis, diversitatibus et convenientiis (published in Vivarium 42 (2004), 109–149); Guillelmus de Berchen, Chronicon Geldriae; and Guido Terreni, Quaestiones super libros Ethicorum.

I used ledmac under Apple Mac OS X. My favorite LaTeX aware text editor under Mac OS X is BBEdit; for actual typesetting I use TeXShop and XeLaTeX.

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Q 34: I have a question. Where do I go?
A: Usenet newsgroups like comp.text.tex are an excellent place to post your questions about ledmac, ledpar and/or ledarab. Before posting, please check at CTAN whether you have got the latest version of ledmac, ledpar and/or ledarab, and do not forget to search the newsgroup for questions that are similar to yours.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND DISCLAIMER
THIS Q & A IS BASED ON THE MANUALS LEDMAC.PDF, LEDPAR.PDF AND LEDARAB.PDF, SEVERAL THREADS IN NEWSGROUP COMP.TEXT.TEX, TIPS THAT I RECEIVED FROM LEDMAC/LEDPAR/LEDARAB AUTHOR PETER R. WILSON, AND TIPS AND QUESTIONS FROM LEDMAC/LEDPAR/LEDARAB USERS AROUND THE WORLD. ANY ERRORS ON THIS WEB PAGE ARE MINE.
THE CONTENT OF THIS WEB PAGE IS PROVIDED WITHOUT WARRANTY. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT OF ANY EXTERNAL WEB SITES LINKED TO FROM THIS WEB PAGE.
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I DO NOT UPDATE THIS WEB PAGE FREQUENTLY ANYMORE. THE LAST UPDATE WAS ON NOVEMBER 11, 2012.