How do I specify single-side pagination with "DITA Map PDF"?

[HaifaTechWriter]

I am using XML Author 18.1 to produce PDF output for a DITAmap.

The PDF is paginated by default as double-sided, and I get lots of empty pages in the PDF (when the chapters end with a odd-numbered page).

I would really love to have the PDF generated with single-sided pagination settings, because the empty pages create confusion when the PDF is displayed on-screen (it is not generally intended for print).

I searched the forum and the web, with no success...

Is there a way to specify a single-side pagination, so that I don't get empty pages in the PDF?

Your help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[radu_pisoi]

Hi,

Yes, the PDF produced by the default DITA-OT PDF transformation uses a double-sided page numbering style. This means that chapters will always start on odd numbered pages and blank pages will be added when a chapter does not end on an even page number.

This behavior is implemented in XSL-FO by setting the force-page-count="even" attribute on the fo:page-sequence element.

Unfortunately, there is no simple parameter to change this behavior. The single option that you have is to develop a PDF customization plugin that sets the force-page-count attribute to auto so that no blank pages are produced.

If you are new to DITA PDF customization, a starting point could be our DITA-OT PDF Customization Plugin for oXygen User Manual, https://github.com/oxygenxml/com.oxygenxml.pdf2.ug. Besides other customizations like Cover page or page footer/header, this plugin customizes the page numbering so that no blank pages are produced. There is a WIKI page that explains this customization:
https://github.com/oxygenxml/com.oxygen ... nd-footers

However, if you are new to DITA-OT PDF customization, a good discussion channel is DITA users list http://dita.xml.org/dita-users. This list is monitored by many DITA specialists, so the chances to get a fast and good answer are higher. We are also registered and active to this list.