[Solved] Repeating Graphics on each page of a Long Document

[gunjet]

I am having a challenging time combining a graphic (rectangular border / frame made of small graphics elements) that I have made in Draw, with a 1,500 page Writer document. The graphic is to be printed on every page with the text of that page being unaltered. This is printed as double sided printing.
I have tried many different ways to achieve this but have not found a solution.
I am sure some one must have come across this before.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?

With Thanks,
Gunjet

[acknak]

Print 1500 copies of the graphic, load the sheets back in the printer... Sorry, couldn't resist.

One way to do this would be to paste your graphic into the header or footer. It will appear on every page that uses that header/footer. Set the wrap setting to "Through" or "Through. in background" and it won't affect any of the layout.

The more straightforward way to do it is to use the graphic as the page background in the page style. However, that is limited to images--drawings are not supported--so you have to convert your drawing to an image. That can be done easily, but you'll need to be careful to preserve enough resolution so as to avoid sacrificing print quality. It may also slow down printing to have a page-sized image on every page.

[foxcole]

It may also slow down printing to have a page-sized image on every page.

It will also significantly increase the cost of printing, even if it's just a very pale greyscale image. I'm not sure I could read 1500 pages containing a background image, let alone the same background image.

[gunjet]

The Graphic is only around the perimeter of each page like a frame around a picture. So the text and graphic are separated and do not overlap.

Gunjet

[Hagar Delest]

I fear the 2 steps print will be the quickest way.

For information, there is a enhancement request that approach your need, you should subscribe and vote for it (up to 2 votes per issue) : Issue 24923 - Borders as graphics. You can add a comment to allow the feature to handle custom shapes for example.

[JohnV]

The Graphic is only around the perimeter of each page like a frame around a picture. So the text and graphic are separated and do not overlap.

Here are the basics for you to fool with.

Let's assume your Writer document has 1 inch margins all around. This should mean that your graphic's design elements are located outside of the 1 inch margins (this means I assume only 1 graphic that in fact looks like a picture frame).

In the Writer document do Format > Page:
on the Page tab change the margins to 0 all around and ignore OOo's complaint,
on the Border tab set a thin border all around and set its color as white,
on the Border tab set Spacing to Contents to the 1 inch margins you you want,
on the Background tab change Color to Graphic, put the bullet in Area and browse to your graphic.

[foxcole]

The Graphic is only around the perimeter of each page like a frame around a picture. So the text and graphic are separated and do not overlap.

I would still find it distracting. Graphics draw the eye, no matter where they are on the page. They never become invisible content like the word "the" or the dialog notation "said." A different part of the brain processes graphic information, even things as simple as a line at the bottom of the page. The normal margin white space would be much friendlier to the reader's cognitive process. And to the cost of printing.

Just for whatever that's worth... probably not much.

[gunjet]

Thank you one and all for your useful suggestions. Here is some feedback.

Printing of the document twice, once with the graphics and then turning the paper around for the second printing of the 1500 page document. This can have registration problems, but I shall keep this in reserve.

Using the page styles as suggested by Acknak, almost works! When the graphic page style is applied to the document, the correct result is obtained except that the document margins are overwritten by the new page style. For my 1500 page document this is a problem.

JohnV's suggestion works the best except that the margin values from the white border (spacing to contents) in page styles, are not exactly the same as the margin values. They need to be tweeked a bit. I don't know why Writer takes this so. I am using this method.

This Post may be closed.

Thank you again,

Gunjet

[acknak]

How did it work to add the graphic (as a drawing object) to the header or footer? That would be my first choice but I haven't tried it with a large document.