Twocolumn: count columns instead of pages

Question

I have a document in twocolumn mode. Is there a way to print column numbers in the footer instead of page numbers? Like so:

Page 1, Column 1: 1 (left-aligned)
Page 1, Column 2: 2 (right-aligned)
Page 2, Column 1: 3 (left-aligned)
Page 2, Column 2: 4 (right-aligned)
etc.

MWE:

\documentclass[ngerman,12pt,twocolumn]{article}
\begin{document}
Column 1
\newpage
Column 2
\newpage
Column 3
\newpage
Column 4
\end{document}

touhami · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-06T15:34:14.757

1

Here is a solution

\documentclass[ngerman,12pt,twocolumn]{article}
\makeatletter
\def\ps@plain{\ps@empty%
 \def\@oddfoot{\reset@font\the\numexpr2*\value{page}-1\relax
 \hfil\the\numexpr2*\value{page}\relax}\let\@evenfoot\@oddfoot}
\makeatother
\pagestyle{plain}
\begin{document}
Column 1
\newpage
Column 2
\newpage
Column 3
\newpage
Column 4
\end{document}

Update For left aligned column numbers

\def\ps@plain{\ps@empty%
 \def\@oddfoot{\reset@font\the\numexpr2*\value{page}-1\relax
 \hfil\hspace{\columnsep}\the\numexpr2*\value{page}\relax\hfil}\let\@evenfoot\@oddfoot}

edited Sep 06 '15 at 15:34

answered Sep 06 '15 at 15:15

touhami

19,520

that looks pretty good. Can you give an alternative in case you want the right column number appear left-aligned, too (in the right column)? – musicman Sep 06 '15 at 15:28
@musicman answer updated – touhami Sep 06 '15 at 15:34

Twocolumn: count columns instead of pages

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