Directives #

With geometry it’s possible to adjust the page layout. The most basic setup sets the margins to 2.5cm:

{geometry: margin=2.5cm}

Allowed measurments:

• Centimeter (cm)
• Millimeter (mm)
• Inch (in)
• Point (pt)

Parameters:

• landscape : switch to landscape
• portrait : switch to portrait
• twoside : left and right margins are aligned symmetrical for uneven pages
• reversemp : side notes are displayed on left margin instead or right (default)
• nohead : no reserved space for header
• nofoot : no reserverd space for footer
• noheadfoot : both of two items above
• a4paper, a5paper : define paper format
• paperwidth : size of the width. paperwidth=value
• paperheight : size of the height. paperheight=value
• width : size of the text body. width=value or totalwidth=value.
• height : size of the text body. height=value
• left : left edge. left=value
• right : right edge. right=value
• top : top edge. top=value
• bottom : bottom edge. bottom=value
• margin : all edges. margin=value
• textwidth : width of the text. textwidth=value
• textheight : height. textheight=value
• marginpar : size of the margin notes. marginpar=value
• marginparsep : space between margin note and the textbody. marginparsep=value
• head : size of the head. head=value
• headsep : space between head and textbody. headsep=value
• foot : size of the foot. foot=value

Examples:

Set the text body to 10 inch and bottom margin 2cm.

{geometry:height=10in,bottom=2cm}

or same result with:

{geometry:height=10in}
{geometry:bottom:=2cm}

Set left, right, top margins and remove header.

{geometry:left=3cm,right=2cm, nohead,top=2.5in}

or same result with:

{geometry:left=3cm}
{geometry:right=2cm}
{geometry:nohead}
{geometry:top=2.5in}

Set the margin note to 3 cm.

{geometry:marginpar=3cm}

Set the paper size to A5 and orientation to landscape

{geometry:a5paper, landscape} 

Prints the title in bigger text centered. Generates page break with multiple pieces

Example:

{title:Go Down Moses}
{t:Go Down Moses} 

Subtitle is being used to display additional information to the title. i.e writer, singer

Example:

{subtitle:written by John Lennon / Paul McCartney}

The bridge section can start with {bridge} or {sob}. Closing section with {/bridge} or {eob}. It’s printing default in blue color but can be adjusted with {color_bridge} directive.

Example:

{bridge} 
I want her [Ab]everywhere [Fm] 
And if [Bbm]she’s beside me [C7]I know I need [Fm]never care 
[Bb]But to love her [C7]is to meet her 
{/bridge} 

The chorus section can start with {chorus} or {soc}. Closing section with {/chorus} or {eoc}. It’s printing default in black color but can be adjusted with {color_chorus} directive.

Example:

{chorus} 
Oh, I get [C]by with a little [G]help from my [D]friends 
Mm, I get [C]high with a little [G]help from my [D]friends 
Oh, I’m gonna [C]try with a little [G]help from my [D]friends 
{/chorus}

Generates a hard break to a new page.

You can include mono spaced tablature with {tab} or {sot}. Closing section with {/tab} rot {eot}. Default color is black and can be adjusted with {color_tab} directive

Example:

{sot}
Guitar 1
                          A              E(onG#) 
E||--------------------|-----------------------------|
B||--------------------|--------2h3p2----5-----5--2--|
G||--------------------|-----2--------2--4-----4--2--|
D||--------------------|-----------------------------|
A||--------------------|--0--------------------------|
E||----------------0h2-|-----------------4--4-----2--|
{eot}

and this is how it would render:

Every guitartab directive generates one block line. You can even generate an empty one with {guitartab: } Following notation is allowed:

• format [string;fret], i.e. [2;5] for 5th fret A-string
• separator with pipe symbol |
• additional empty space with underscore _
• combine notes to the same line with &

Examples:

{guitartab:[2;3][3;0][3;2][3;3]|[4;0]____[4;2]_____[5;0]_____[5;1]|} {guitartab:[2;3]&[14.5ex;do][3;0]&[14.5ex;re][3;2]&[14.5ex;mi][3;3]&[14.5ex;fa]|[4;0]&[14.5ex;sol][4;2]&[14.5ex;la][5;0]&[14.5ex;si][5;1]&[14.5ex;do]|} {guitartab:[2;3]&[3;5]&[4;5]&[14.5ex;C (power chord)]_________[2;3]&[3;2]&[4;0]&[5;1][14.5ex;C chord]} Tab menu might be helpful to generate such strings a little bit easier:

Default font size is 11. Feel free to experiment with 10 or 12

Example:

{font_size:12}

Change color with R,G,B values (range 0..1) for following sections:

• color_chorus
• color_bridge
• color_tab

Example:

{color_chorus:0.5,0.5,1}

You can print some nice looking chord definitions.

Paramaters:

• chord name
• number of the first fret
• six numbers representing strings

Example:

{define:A 1 x n 2 2 2 n} 
{define:Cm 3 x 1 3 3 2 1} 
{define:Gm/Bb 4 3 2 2 1 x x}

Insert something special between sections.

Example:

{comment: repeat chorus}
{c: repeat chorus}
{a: repeat chorus} 

Default mode is song mode. You have to set book mode in case you want to create a book

For the book mode you have following options to define some items for the cover page:

• {book_author: text}
• {book_title: text}
• {book_date: text}

Example:

{document_class:book}

{book_title: Nice looking page}
{book_author: Written by: Myself}
{book_date: 02/02/2022}

Songs can be in the same file or included as external source:

Example:

{include:/tmp/GuitarTeX2/examples/mySong1.gtx}

Suppress generation of header and footer. (TeX: \pagestyle{empty} )

Example:

{even}

You can set a language for your song which might affect correct line breaks.

Installed on the server:

• ancientgreek
• arabic
• basque
• bulgarian
• catalan
• coptic
• croatian
• czech
• danish
• dumylang
• dutch
• english
• esperanto
• estonian
• farsi
• finnish
• french
• galician
• german
• greek
• hungarian
• ibycus
• icelandic
• indonesian
• interlingua
• italian
• latin
• mongolian
• monogreek
• ngerman
• nohyphenation
• norsk
• polish
• portuguese
• romanian
• russian
• serbian
• slovak
• slovenian
• spanish
• swedish
• turkish
• ukenglish
• ukrainian
• uppersorbian
• usenglishmax
• welsh

Example:

{language: ngerman}

You can include any LaTeX command in your gtx file.

Example:

\marginpar{test}