# PDF Header and Footer Generation PD4ML has long supported three levels of header/footer complexity: a plain text-only template, rich HTML-formatted content, and inline tags with fine-grained per-page-range scoping. This page first documents that original, pre-v4 approach -- built around a `PD4PageMark` object -- exactly as it has existed for a long time, then walks through how each of the same four patterns looks under the current v4 API, which replaces `PD4PageMark` with direct, string-based calls. ## The legacy approach: `PD4PageMark` ### 1. Text-only headers/footers The simplest form sets a page-number template plus a handful of presentation properties -- alignment, color, font size -- either as attributes on the `` JSP tag or as setters on a `PD4PageMark` object from the Java API: ```jsp ``` ```java PD4PageMark footer = new PD4PageMark(); footer.setPageNumberTemplate("page $[page] of $[total]"); footer.setTitleAlignment(PD4PageMark.LEFT_ALIGN); footer.setPageNumberAlignment(PD4PageMark.RIGHT_ALIGN); footer.setColor(new Color(0x008000)); footer.setInitialPageNumber(1); footer.setPagesToSkip(1); footer.setFontSize(14); footer.setAreaHeight(18); pd4ml.setPageFooter(footer); ``` `pagesToSkip` excludes the given number of leading pages from getting a footer at all, and `initialPageNumber` lets the visible page count start somewhere other than 1 -- both useful for documents with an unnumbered cover page. ### 2. HTML-formatted headers/footers (PD4ML Pro) For anything beyond plain text, the same tag/object pair instead takes a full HTML fragment. Setting `areaHeight` to `-1` asks PD4ML to compute the reserved height automatically from the content, rather than specifying it up front: ```jsp page $[page] of $[total] ``` ```java PD4PageMark footer = new PD4PageMark(); footer.setHtmlTemplate("page $[page] of $[total]"); footer.setAreaHeight(-1); pd4ml.setPageFooter(footer); ``` ### 3. Inline headers/footers with scope control (PD4ML Pro) Rather than going through the Java API or a single JSP tag at all, `` can be declared directly in the source HTML. Without a `scope`, it applies to every page; with one, it targets a specific page or range, and a later occurrence in the document overrides an earlier one from that point on: ```html footer: $[page] of $[total] ``` ```html first page footer: $[page] of $[total]
 footer: $[page] of $[total]
 ``` The example above defines one footer for the first page and a different one from the second page onward. `scope` also understands `even`, `odd`, and `skiplast` modifiers, combinable with explicit pages and ranges in one comma-separated expression: ``` scope="2,5-10,even,skiplast" ``` ### API-based per-page conditional content For logic too dynamic to express as a static scope string, subclassing `PD4PageMark` and overriding `getHtmlTemplate(int pageNumber)` computes different markup for every page individually -- alternating left/right-aligned content by odd/even page, in this example: ```java PD4PageMark footer = new PD4PageMark() { public String getHtmlTemplate(int pageNumber) { if (pageNumber % 2 == 0) { return "some left aligned stuff..."; } else { return "some right aligned stuff..."; } } }; pd4ml.setPageFooter(footer); ``` `PD4PageMark` exposes the same per-page override pattern for other properties too, when a single static value across the whole scope isn't enough: ```java PD4PageMark.getPageNumberTemplate(int pageNr); PD4PageMark.getPageNumberAlignment(int pageNr); PD4PageMark.getTitleTemplate(int pageNr); ``` See also this [PDF header/footer forum discussion](http://old.pd4ml.com/support/html-pdf-faq-f1/pdf-page-headers-footers-definition-options-t41.html) from PD4ML's own support archive for further worked examples of this API. ## The current (v4) API v4 removes the `PD4PageMark` object from this picture entirely. A header or footer is just an HTML string passed to `setPageHeader(...)`/`setPageFooter(...)`, together with a pixel height and an optional scope string -- the same scope grammar used elsewhere in v4 for page size and margins (see the Programmer's Manual's [§7, Page layout](https://app.gitbook.com/s/33dI66uC6sTAcaPjppX2/)): a single page number, a range, `"N+"` for "this page onward", and modifiers including `odd` (the Programmer's Manual's own scope-grammar examples show `odd`; whether `even` and the legacy `skiplast` modifier specifically carry over is worth confirming against the current Javadoc before depending on them). The same content can equally be declared inline via ``/``, which take effect for the current and all following pages until superseded by a later occurrence -- a positional form of scoping, rather than an explicit `scope` attribute on the tag itself. ### Text-only becomes plain HTML plus CSS There's no dedicated "text-only" mode in v4 -- the individual `PD4PageMark` properties (`titleAlignment`, `pageNumberAlignment`, `color`, `fontSize`) are simply ordinary CSS on whatever HTML string is passed in, and `pagesToSkip` becomes a matter of choosing a scope that starts later rather than a dedicated property: ```java pd4ml.setPageFooter( "
page $[page] of $[total]
", 18, "2+"); // "2+" skips the footer on page 1, in place of pagesToSkip="1" ``` `initialPageNumber` -- relabeling page 1 as some other starting number -- has no documented v4 equivalent as of this writing; a deployment relying on it should confirm current support before migrating. ### HTML-formatted footer The `areaHeight="-1"` auto-sizing behavior doesn't carry over -- a v4 footer's height is always given explicitly, as the second argument: ```java pd4ml.setPageFooter("page $[page] of $[total]", 24); ``` ### Inline, scoped headers/footers ```html footer: $[page] of $[total] ``` ```html first page footer: $[page] of $[total]
 footer: $[page] of $[total]
 ``` Or, from the API, with an explicit scope string instead of relying on document position: ```java pd4ml.setPageFooter("first page footer: $[page] of $[total]", 18, "1"); pd4ml.setPageFooter("footer: $[page] of $[total]", 18, "2+"); ``` ### Per-page conditional content, without a callback Where the legacy API needed an anonymous `PD4PageMark` subclass overriding `getHtmlTemplate(int pageNumber)` to alternate content by page, v4's plain-string API reaches the same result with two scoped calls instead of a callback -- odd/even is exactly what the scope grammar's modifiers are for: ```java pd4ml.setPageFooter("
some left-aligned stuff...
", 20, "even"); pd4ml.setPageFooter("
some right-aligned stuff...
", 20, "odd"); ``` ## See also * [PD4ML Programmer's Manual](https://app.gitbook.com/s/33dI66uC6sTAcaPjppX2/) -- §8 covers `setPageHeader`/`setPageFooter`, the built-in `$[page]`/`$[total]`/`$[title]` placeholders, and `setDynamicData(...)` for custom placeholders beyond those three. * [PD4ML v3 to v4 Migration Guide](broken-reference) -- §4 walks through the same `PD4PageMark`-to-string-API change side by side.