#taggedpdf — Public Fediverse posts

@dougmerritt There will probably be further updates to the annotated ‘Apology’, but I only expect noteworthy textual changes if someone (e.g.) points out another important response that I did not know about, or supplies one of the contemporaneous reviews that I have been unable to obtain.

Other updates will be small fixes or typographical improvements, or changes to the #TaggedPDF structure (hidden extra semantic data to aid screen-readers) as the development of the LaTeX tagging project [https://latex3.github.io/tagging-project/] continues.

Thank you for your interest — and sorry for my reluctance to declare a final version. Maybe in a year or so, if I have not added anything new in that time. :-)

Update to ‘An Annotated Mathematician’s Apology’, with a new section on Wittgenstein’s response: https://archive.org/details/hardy_annotated (accessible #TaggedPDF, #OpenAccess)

My thanks go to Wolfgang Kienzler, professor at Friedrich Schiller Universität in Jena, who pointed me to Wittgenstein’s remarks, sent me notes about relevant sources, and critiqued my draft for the new section.

#GHHardy #Wittgenstein #philosophy #mathematics #MathematicalBeauty

I updated my phone/tablet-sized PDF version of Edward Gibbon’s ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’: https://archive.org/details/gibbon_declineandfall

Previously there were some rough edges: a few awkward spacings and line breaks, some pushing side-headings out of position. I think these are all resolved now, but I might have missed some among the 3858 pages. :-)

LuaLaTeX source code: https://codeberg.org/ajcain/gibbon_declineandfall

The code uses the interfaces created by the LaTeX tagging project, so it is an accessible #TaggedPDF. The font is @mc_wiki’s beautiful Garamontio.

#history #literature #RomanHistory #accessibility #a11y #TeXLaTeX #typography

For newbies feeling hesitant or frustrated about #Emacs and its Lisp flavor. tl;dr #Foss #lifelonglearning victories!

In 2010 or so I watched an interview with the immortal Carsten Dominik, creator of Org mode. He made an offhand remark to the effect of "I just love coding in Emacs Lisp, it's just how I think, it's just so natural, don't you agree?" And I was very unhappy. Because I could not agree. That discouragement stuck with me.

My wife always says "the time is going to go by anyway," and this is wisdom. By 2023 I had written "org-teach" for producing classroom materials, shared it at EmacsConf, actually used it in the wild. Others around here have done similar, @randyridenour @ericsfraga @asilata sorry if I'm forgetting you.

Long story short, the underlying #TeXLaTeX core couldn't do #taggedpdf until 2025. I asked on here for help and @yantar92 went to the mailing list and before I could say meta x @paaguti and @schuemaa had us all sorted out. So grateful!

https://codeberg.org/paaguti/pdf-ua2-tests/src/branch/main/ltx-talk-test

With these significantly changed dependencies I decided to rewrite the jank that was org-teach from scratch. And it feels like lightning shoots from my fingertips now. I can implement functionality almost as fast as I can think of it. Too messy to share quite yet. But this kind of workflow and software self sufficiency feels like a superpower. Emacs Lisp just feels natural now. After only a decade and a half!

But seriously, all my progress is thanks to this community.

#emacslisp

Big update to ‘Form & Number: A History of Mathematical Beauty’: the PDFs are now *tagged* (plus various minor improvements).

A #TaggedPDF contains hidden extra semantic information to assist screen-reading software etc., including alt text for diagrams+images (in the case of ‘F&N’, 552 pieces of alt text were required, some quite lengthy).

The new version is available (#OpenAccess as always) at: https://archive.org/details/cain_formandnumber_ebook_large

Feedback from users of screen readers would be very welcome!

Creating this version has been possible because of the ongoing LaTeX tagging project [https://latex3.github.io/tagging-project/] (thank you to the LaTeX team and other contributors!). I have been adapting my own #LuaLaTeX styles [https://codeberg.org/ajcain/minos] to use the new interfaces.

1/2

#accessibility #a11y #MathArt #HistMath #HistSci #MathematicalBeauty #aesthetics #typography #TeXLaTeX

My #semigroups lecture notes ‘Nine Chapters on the Semigroup Art’ are now accessible #TaggedPDF files: https://archive.org/details/cain_semigroups_a4_screen

I have been working to update my LuaLaTeX style "minos" [https://codeberg.org/ajcain/minos] to use the new interfaces created by the LaTeX tagging project, and this is the latest outcome [https://latex3.github.io/tagging-project/].

Besides adding "alt" text for the (many!) diagrams, there were only one or two small changes to be made to the LaTeX code of the document itself (which was mostly written in 2012, long before the tagging project started). Essentially all the complicated changes were in the style. This is a testament to the work of the tagging project team.

The files pass VeraPDF validation, but feedback from users of screen readers would be very welcome.

#accessibility #TeXLaTeX #typography #math #OpenAccess

Another update to my #LuaLaTeX style "minos", used in ‘Form & Number: A History of Mathematical Beauty’ and my other books (links in profile).

Git repository: https://codeberg.org/ajcain/minos

Download documentation or source .zip/.tar.gz: https://codeberg.org/ajcain/minos/releases

Improvements mostly concern #TaggedPDF-related features:

- Sidenotes are now tagged as *notes* (same as footnotes), not as "Aside" (the default for marginal content).

- The theorem number appears in the proof heads even when \DocumentMetadata is used — in the previous version I had not integrated this feature into the new interfaces for theorem-like environments.

(The number also appears in the QED symbol, which is a long-standing feature I would like to highlight. I think is useful with nested proofs; example from docs attached.)

#TeXLaTeX #typography

‘Bertrand Russell & Trinity: A college controversy of the last war’ is a pamphlet written by G.H. Hardy in 1942, giving an account of the dismissal of Russell from his Trinity College lectureship in 1916 following his criminal conviction for anti-war political activity. (Hardy was at the time a fellow of Trinity and opposed Russell's ouster.)

Since there was no downloadable ebook, I made a re-typeset version, which I have just updated: https://archive.org/details/hardy_russellandtrinity

Creating this version was an exercise for me to learn how to (start to) adapt my LaTeX styles to the new interfaces created by the ongoing LaTeX tagging project [https://latex3.github.io/tagging-project/]. (A #TaggedPDF contains supplementary information to assist screen reading software, data extraction, etc.)

The updates are mostly behind-the-scenes source code changes, particularly to use the new template interfaces for sectioning. I have made the source available in case it is useful as an example to others: https://codeberg.org/ajcain/hardy_russellandtrinity

#GHHardy #BertrandRussell #WorldWarI #pacficism #literature #TeXLaTeX #Accessibility

New version of my #LuaLaTeX style "minos".

Git repository: https://codeberg.org/ajcain/minos

Download documentation or source .zip/.tar.gz: https://codeberg.org/ajcain/minos/releases

- Many improvements related to creating #TaggedPDF, notably using template code for theorems and sectioning when \DocumentMetadata is used.

- Various new/adjusted/fixed kerning customizations.

#typography #TeXLaTeΧ

@BussedDuck

> Free, open, and self-determined option without the need for self hosting?

Exactly this, especially ‘self-determined’.

I presume most publishers would want me to follow a house style, but I like to have complete control over all aspects of the typography. (I wrote an article about the typography: https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb46-1/tb142cain-setting-form.pdf (open access))

Also, I have been able to make corrections and changes based on readers’ comments and upload new versions without having to seek a publisher’s approval.

In particular, earlier this year I updated my annotated version of Hardy’s ‘A Mathematician’s Apology’ [https://archive.org/details/hardy_annotated] to an accessible #TaggedPDF. I aim to do the same for ‘Form & Number’, but it is a (vastly!) more complicated document and it needs some features that I think are still under development by the LaTeX tagging project [https://latex3.github.io/tagging-project/].

RE: https://mathstodon.xyz/@11011110/116688208890453456

Hey, @11011110 please tell us more about ltx-talk!

I've just heard about it today from @schuemaa and @oantolin and it sounds like just the thing, once we can get org-mode export supported as well as Beamer export has been.

#emacs #orgmode #accessibility #taggedPDF

I made a edition of Edward Gibbon’s ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ as a phone/tablet-sized PDF: https://archive.org/details/gibbon_declineandfall (3863 pages!)

LuaLaTeX source code: https://codeberg.org/ajcain/gibbon_declineandfall

The style uses the interfaces created by the LaTeX tagging project, so (at least in theory), it is an accessible #TaggedPDF.

The font is @mc_wiki’s beautiful Garamontio.

1/2

#TeXLaTeX #typography #history #literature #RomanHistory

Yves-Marie André's (1675–1764) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Marie_André] ‘Essay on Beauty’ (‘Essai sur le beau’, 1741) was an important work of 18th-century aesthetics. In the article on beauty in the 2nd volume (1752) of the ‘Encylopédie’, Denis Diderot praised André's system as the best he knew, elevating it above the work of Plato, Augustine, Wolff, Crousaz, Shaftesbury.

In 2010, I released a #CreativeCommons-licensed annotated English translation [https://archive.org/details/EssayOnBeauty]. I have just made an update: the PDF is now an accessible #TaggedPDF.

(The LaTeX tagging system is still under development [https://latex3.github.io/tagging-project/], but I have been adapting my LaTeX styles to be tagging-compatible.)

Although I was a much less practised typographer 16 years ago, I have left the overall design of ‘Essay on Beauty’ unchanged, contenting myself with minor improvements offered by an updated version of the Baskervald font, ensuring that line-end hyphenations follow the OUP standard, and a few other localized improvements.

#accessibility #OpenAccess #aesthetics #HistPhil

Der Löwe und ich machen uns startklar für die #CLT2026 (@clt_news)

Mal sehen was dieses Jahr so für Fragen am #DanteEV Stand vorbeikommen und was wir so dazu lernen. Also falls ihr zufällig gerade die eine oder andere Frage dabei habt... Wir werden versuchen zu helfen. Bei den Themen wie #TeX & Friends, insbesondere #TeXLaTeX, #eRechnung, #ZUGFeRD , #TaggedPdf ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit, relativ hoch, dass das klappt.

My new #LuaLaTeX package: lua-simple-wrap

This package allows easy wrapping of text around small figures, pull quotes, etc. (See attached image.)

Unlike (I think) all other LaTeX packages for wrapping text around things, the wrapped object can be specified at its natural place in the text, and the package works out where it should appear. Virtually all the processing happens on the Lua side.

The package is semi-experimental, and definitely requires more work before I submit it to CTAN, but the basic functionality is in place and seems to be working well. In particular, tagging support (for producing accessible PDFs) is already present.

Git repository: https://codeberg.org/ajcain/lua-simple-wrap

Download documentation and built package: https://codeberg.org/ajcain/lua-simple-wrap/releases

If you try it, feedback would be much appreciated!

#TeXLaTeX #typography #Lua #accessibility #TaggedPDF

[1/2] Ulrike Fischer showed a summary of the #TeXLaTeX News including a preview for the next release in June.

Of course she included achievements of the tagging project which included the new template based implementation of sectioning commands.

And the status of accessible math typesetting using #MathML https://www.latex-project.org/news/2026/03/05/PDFA-press/ which is a huge step towards completely accessible documents.

#Dante2026 #TaggedPDF #a11y

The PDF Association @PDFassociation announced their "all-new" Product Showcase in January. The new interface provides an improved search, and the ability to search by product types, standards, and features.

For example, you can search for only open source or no-cost solutions. Or ones that offer Tagged PDF or PDF/UA-1 or 2. Or filter the results to only list those who offer "Remediate Tagged PDF" service.

https://pdfa.org/product-showcase

2/4

#PDF #TaggedPDF #PDFUA #Database

If you are confused about your schedule, here's a summary. The PDF schedules provided by the City of Toronto and Circular Materials are both correct. Some map areas have changed their pickup schedules: for example, Parkdale used to be Wed Day 2 and they have now switched to Wed Day 1. The PDF versions of the maps show these changes correctly. But the mobile app and website lookup function don't.

Folks affected by Day switches should have received special printed mail notices about these changes, but some didn't.

One disappointing note about the PDF calendars: while those on the city's site are visually identical to those on Circular Materials site, the ones used by Circular Materials are inaccessible and untagged. Why don't they use the same tagged versions that are on the city site? Who knows! Does Circular Materials even know about the AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act)? No they don't.

2/5

#Accessibility #AODA #a11y #TaggedPDF #recycling #calendars #Toronto #CircularMaterials

@ctietze I need to be able to make slides from #OrgMode files. But #Beamer cannot (and will not) be made to produce #taggedPDF output (thanks, @mxp). So rather than bang my head against #TeXLaTeX, I took a step back.

Check this out:

pandoc why-yes-i-am-a-wizard.org -o why-yes-i-am-a-wizard.pptx && soffice --headless --convert-to pdf why-yes-i-am-a-wizard.pptx

https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/guide/start_parameters.html

No Haskell noodling required.

#libreoffice #accessibility

NEW POST (as promised): "Org mode, LaTeX, and tagged PDFs: producing accessible documents"

https://jamesendreshowell.com/2025-12-29-org-mode-latex-and-tagged-pdfs-producing-accessible-documents.html

@rangek

#Emacs #OrgMode #accessibility #a11y #debian #TeXLaTex #taggedPDF

[Howell breathes a long relieved sigh]

Before and after.

Canvas' infamous automatic ratings of #accessibility. In the proud bean-counting brain-dead tradition of provosts and deans, the thing they can measure is the thing we must make number-go-up.

Lots of steps to get Debian to run #texlive2025. Then a few steps to configure Org properly to export #TeXLaTeX that produces #taggedPDF output.

I promise the Fediverse I will write up all the steps and make a blog post.

tl;dr thanks to Dr. Kenny Ballou at Cal State San Marcos https://kennyballou.com/blog/2025/08/tagged-pdfs-org-export/index.html

@rangek

#OrgMode #Emacs

Okay, gang, more vacation-work. Going all-in on #accessibility, and it appears I need #texlive2025 to produce semantically #taggedPDF output from #TeXLaTeΧ. I'm still on #Debian12 so here goes.

# may take several hours to run

LOL

Advice or pointers to resources welcome. Obviously the final goal is #OrgMode export in #Emacs.

https://tug.org/texlive/quickinstall.html

#debian #a11y

A couple recent PDF software releases you might have missed:

1. PAC 2026:
A new version of the free PAC (PDF Accessibility Checker) includes AI-assisted checks. [1]

2. Stirling PDF v2:
This open source set of PDF manipulation tools is now available as a desktop app [2]. Download available for Windows/Mac/Linux. [3]

[1] https://pac.pdf-accessibility.org/en/resources/ai-checks/technical-details-about-ai-assisted-checks

[2] https://www.heise.de/en/news/Stirling-PDF-2-0-Major-update-of-the-open-source-alternative-to-Adobe-Acrobat-11095732.html

[3] https://www.stirling.com/download

@heiseonlineenglish

#PDF #PAC #TaggedPDF #Accessibility #StirlingPDF #AdobeAcrobat

Big update to the annotated edition of G.H. Hardy's ‘A Mathematician's Apology’: the PDF is now *tagged* (plus various minor improvements).

(A #TaggedPDF contains extra semantic information to assist screen-reading software etc.)

The new version is available (#OpenAccess as always) at https://archive.org/details/hardy_annotated

The LaTeX tagging system is still under development [https://latex3.github.io/tagging-project/], but I have been making progress in adapting my LaTeX styles to be tagging-compatible.

For the annotated ‘Apology’, I also had to re-implement a subset of the functionality of the "manyfoot" package (which is currently not tagging-compatible), because there are two different kinds of footnotes in the annotated ‘Apology’. (Hardy's original footnotes and the annotations.)

Although the PDF passes VeraPDF validation, there may of course be mistakes in the tagging. Feedback, especially from users of screen readers, would be much appreciated, especially because I now hope to add tags to ‘Form & Number: A History of Mathematical Beauty’ [https://archive.org/details/cain_formandnumber_ebook_large].

#GHHardy #HistPhil #Mathematics #MathematicalBeauty #TeXLaTeX #Accessibility

‘Bertrand Russell & Trinity: A college controversy of the last war’ is a pamphlet written by G.H. Hardy in 1942, giving an account of the dismissal of Russell from his Trinity College lectureship in 1916 following his criminal conviction for anti-war political activity. (Hardy was at the time a fellow of Trinity and opposed Russell's ouster.)

I have uploaded a re-typeset version of Hardy's pamphlet to the Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/hardy_russellandtrinity].

Creating this version was an exercise for me to learn how to (start to) adapt my LaTeX styles to the new interfaces created by the ongoing LaTeX tagging project [https://latex3.github.io/tagging-project/]. (A #TaggedPDF contains supplementary information to assist screen reading software, data extraction, etc.)

Also, Hardy's work is in the public domain; there seemed to be no downloadable ebook version of this pamphlet; and I thought that it would be a useful companion to the ‘Annotated Mathematician's Apology’ [https://archive.org/details/hardy_annotated].

I have made available the #LuaLaTeX source code on #Codeberg, in case anyone is interested in how the style was created: https://codeberg.org/ajcain/hardy_russellandtrinity

#GHHardy #BertrandRussell #WorldWarI #HistPhil #TeXLaTeX #Accessibility

@djwudi Thanks for sharing your initial thoughts. I haven't taken the new Affinity for a test drive yet, but I'm hoping that the new integration of components gave them a chance to rework the native file format and code.

Old Canva was very frustrating for PDF tagging and accessibility, despite years of work to improve it. I always figured that part of Canva's challenge came from technical debt owing to not having had accessibility in mind at the start.

#Canva #a11y #TaggedPDF #PDFUA #PDF

A new version of my LuaLaTeX package ‘marginalia’ is now available on CTAN. [https://ctan.org/pkg/marginalia]

This package allows the placement of marginal notes (or other marginal content) anywhere, without \marginpar’s limits, and automatically adjusts positions to prevent either overlaps or content being pushed off the page, and uses key–value settings that allow fine-grained customization.

The main change in this new version is tagging support. (A tagged PDF contains supplementary information to assist screen reading software, data extraction, etc. #LaTeX is in the midst of a multi-year development project to add tagging support. [https://latex3.github.io/tagging-project/])

Credit for explaining how to add tagging support is due to Ulrike Fischer of the LaTeX team.

#TeXLaTeX #TaggedPDF #Accessibility

Are you the kind of person who has always wondered how to tag a subtitle, or whether a Title in a PDF should be tagged as a Heading 1, or what to do with tags when a heading breaks across several lines?

Then you might want to check out the free webinar offered by the @PDFassociation on May 15.

Free Webinar – Techniques for Accessible PDF: Headings
https://pdfa.org/event/webinar-techniques-for-accessible-pdf-headings/

2/2

#PDF #Accessibility #TaggedPDF #BestPractices #Headings

Last month, the @PDFassociation released their second set of "Techniques for Accessible PDF". This set focuses on Headings. [1]

The Techniques series provides pass/fail conditions for various tagging structures demonstrated in pared down sample PDF files. The first set covered 5 Fundamentals. [2]

[1] https://pdfa.org/techniques-for-accessible-pdf-headings/

[2] https://pdfa.org/techniques-for-accessible-pdf/

1/2

#PDF #Accessibility #TaggedPDF #BestPractices

[1/2] Die zweite Präsentation bleibt beim Thema Barrierefreiheit und Ulrike Fischer zeigt einige unterschiedlichen Varianten um #TeXLaTeX nach #HTML zu wandeln.
Ein Ansatz, den ich zum Beispiel für das frühere Backend der @datenschleuder umgesetzt hatte, um epub mitzuliefern.

Es wird #tex4ht, #Pandoc, #LaTeXML, #lwarp und auch der Weg via #NGPDF (HTML aus den #TaggedPDF) gezeigt und verglichen.

#DANTE2025 #TeX #LaTeX