Is it possible to insert space between lines to make the text file a column?

I think we might call this vertical justification.

That is the way the NIV 2011 accomplishes having columns balanced in Psalms. They are not concerned about register.

Jim Albright
Wycliffe Bible Translators

I'm not quite sure exactly what you are asking for, but I suspect the answer is no.

Did they call this carding and feathering in the old days? You'd increase the line-height for the page in question only, until the last line reached the bottom margin. It's the vertical analogue of forced justification.

It was also the ultimate typesetting sin!

Thanks for the new vocabulary. I agree that it makes bad register.

The NIV 2011 Thinline Bible that I am trying to model uses it so I am just checking to see if it is easily available. It is VERY low on my priority list.

Jim Albright
Wycliffe Bible Translators

There was a Quark XTension that did this, but that's the only implementation I know of.

This will be do-able soon. Mike Day said in a different forum post that they are working on giving JavaScript access to the post-render document.

Once that's done, this approach should suit you:

1) Render the document. Wait for the post-render to complete.

2) Walk the individual column segments one by one. Make a JS array containing the text and the desired render height per-chunk.

3) Wipe out the column segments and repopulate them one by one, this time surrounding their contents in an interior div onto which you can project calculated line-height.

Once that step is into Prince, get me by email - my handle at yahoo - and I'll help you hammer out an implementation.

John Haugeland is http://fullof.bs/

Thanks.

Jim Albright
Wycliffe Bible Translators

Was a solution for this ever found?

I've attached some files showing what I have and what I want to accomplish.

PrinceTest.pdf shows where I'm at, looking at page 1-4. I would like the spacing between questions to expand evenly so the last question in each column line up at the bottom of every page. PrinceTest.html is my HTML for this file.

Vertical Justification Demo.html shows what I'm looking for, but this solution uses 'display: flex;' which is not yet implemented in Prince

1. PrinceTest.html‎ 67.3 kB
2. PrinceTest.pdf‎ 103.4 kB
3. Vertical Justification Demo.html‎ 1.3 kB

Not yet, I think we would need to implement flex box layout.

There is one special case where you know how many questions there are and you can put them in a table with fixed height divided between the rows, but that breaks down when the questions vary greatly in height or you don't know how many there are.