2

How can I achieve typesetting a long multiline equation across a double page, like this:

________________
| 1     |     2 |
| ----  | ----  |
| ----  | ----  |
|     E=|mc^2   |
|_______|_______|

?

More precisely, this is a matrix with long entries that should be spanned over two pages:

________________
| 1     |     2 |
| ----  | ----  |
| ----  | ----  |
|  aa ab| ac ad |
|  ba bb| bc bd |
|_______|_______|
Yrogirg
  • 313

1 Answers1

5

Here's an answer using Tikz:

I created two new environments, spanrecto and spanverso, which should be placed on their respective pages with identical content, to create the appearance of something spanning both pages.

What's actually going on is I'm making a minipage 16 inches wide, and then positioning it so that half the text is on the page, and half is running off into empty space, then doing this again for the recto page. The end result is the minipages connect, creating one big page 16inches wide across the center of the page. 

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage{tikz}

\newsavebox\versospanbox
\newenvironment{spanverso}{%
    \begin{lrbox}{\versospanbox}
        \begin{minipage}[t]{16in}
            \noindent%
            \hspace{-5pt}%
            \centering
}
{%
        \end{minipage}%
    \end{lrbox}%
    \begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
        \node [xshift=-8.05in,yshift=0] at (current page.east)
            [text width=16in,right]
            {\usebox{\versospanbox}
            };
    \end{tikzpicture}
}

\newsavebox\rectospanbox
\newenvironment{spanrecto}{%
    \begin{lrbox}{\rectospanbox}
        \begin{minipage}[t]{16in}
            \noindent%
            \hspace{-5pt}%
            \centering
}
{%
        \end{minipage}%
    \end{lrbox}%
    \begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
        \node [xshift=8.05in,yshift=0] at (current page.west)
            [text width=16in,left]
            {\usebox{\rectospanbox}
            };
    \end{tikzpicture}
}


\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]
\begin{spanverso}
    \resizebox{16in}{!}{
    Span Content!}
\end{spanverso}
\vspace{3in}\\
\lipsum[4]

\pagebreak

\lipsum[2]
\lipsum[2]
\begin{spanrecto}
    \resizebox{16in}{!}{
    Span Content!}
\end{spanrecto}
\vspace{2.5in}\\
\lipsum[3]

\end{document}

enter image description here

The biggest downside at the moment is that leaving space in the text for the span content must be done manually, unfortunately.

enter image description here

Ryan
  • 2,914
  • 1
    Does anyone know why my syntax highlighting doesn't work? – Ryan Dec 07 '14 at 23:11
  • actually, there may be a bigger downside if this is going to be put into a printed and bound book -- the middle is likely to get mutilated and part of it lost. don't have an easy answer for that. – barbara beeton Dec 08 '14 at 16:35
  • Yeah, I agree, but hopefully the binding depth (not sure what to call it) is known and can be compensated for; shifting the mini pages back would give it some overlap for the spine to 'eat'. Of course, putting things down in the spine isn't always the best for legibility though! – Ryan Dec 08 '14 at 18:03