Typesetting a death annoucement

Question

In some countries, death announcements are typeset as follows. There is a text, that is subjected to the usual typographic rules and the text is surrounded by a thick black border that leaves no white space.

Here is a quick try on half an A4 page.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\usepackage[papersize={210mm,148.5mm},margin=0mm]{geometry}
\usepackage{tikz,lipsum}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}%
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
\node[coordinate,inner sep=0pt,outer sep=0pt] at (current page.north west)  (nw) {} ;
\node[coordinate,inner sep=0pt,outer sep=0pt] at (current page.south east)  (se) {} ;
\node[coordinate,inner sep=0pt,outer sep=0pt] at (current page.north east)  (ne) {} ;
\node[coordinate,inner sep=0pt,outer sep=0pt] at (current page.south west)  (sw) {} ;
\draw[line width=9mm] (nw) -- (ne) -- (se) -- (sw) -- (nw) ;
\end{tikzpicture}
\vfill
\begin{center}
\begin{minipage}[t]{16cm}
\lipsum[1-2]
\end{minipage}
\end{center}
\vfill
\end{document}

I would like something more flexible, e.g., regarding margins with the black border. I have the feeling that what I have done is quite rough. Can you suggest something?

What you have done looks good in its approach, I think. The other alternative is to set up page margins for the text, and to draw the black lines outside of the page margins. That would eliminate the need for a minipage. — Steven B. Segletes, Mar 09 '18 at 12:44

Steven B. Segletes · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-09T13:06:43.870

As I had commented, the other alternative is to set up page margins to govern the text (optional argument to geometry package), and to then draw the black lines outside of the page margins. Here, I use the approach I used in What are the ways to position things absolutely on the page?.

In the MWE, \brdr defines the thickness of the black border.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\usepackage[papersize={210mm,148.5mm},margin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage{lipsum,everypage}
\pagestyle{empty}
% THESE ARE LaTeX DEFAULTS; CAN CHANGE IF NEEDED.
\def\PageTopMargin{1in}
\def\PageLeftMargin{1in}
\newcommand\atxy[3]{%
 \AddThispageHook{\smash{\hspace*{\dimexpr-\PageLeftMargin-\hoffset+#1\relax}%
  \raisebox{\dimexpr\PageTopMargin+\voffset-#2\relax}{#3}}}}
% VERIFIED THAT SETTING \hoffset AND \voffset DO NOT BREAK SOLUTION.
%\hoffset=0.4in
%\voffset=0.2in
\newcommand\brdr{12pt}
\atxy{0in}{\paperheight}{\rule{\brdr}{\paperheight}}
\atxy{0in}{\brdr}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\brdr}}
\atxy{0in}{\paperheight}{\rule{\paperwidth}{\brdr}}
\atxy{\dimexpr\paperwidth-\brdr}{\paperheight}{\rule{\brdr}{\paperheight}}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-2]
\end{document}

Vertical centering, if desired, can be achieved simply with \vfills, in the manner of \mbox{}\vfill\lipsum[1-2]\vfill\mbox{}:

Yes, a solution avoiding a minipage is quite nice. – Denis Mar 09 '18 at 13:01 — Denis, Mar 09 '18 at 13:01

Henri Menke · Answer 2 · 2018-03-10T04:15:32.553

0

ConTeXt can do this in a few lines. The text block is centred, both horizontally and vertically.

\setuppagenumbering
  [location=none]

\definepapersize
  [obituary]
  [width=210mm,height=148.5mm]

\setuppapersize[obituary]

\setupbackgrounds
  [page]
  [frame=on,
   framecolor=black,
   rulethickness=10pt]

\starttext

\startstandardmakeup[align=middle]
  \input lorem
\stopstandardmakeup

\stoptext

edited Mar 10 '18 at 04:15

answered Mar 10 '18 at 04:09

Henri Menke

109,596

Typesetting a death annoucement

2 Answers2