Page Layout ⇒ Problems with \savebox designing a postcard

[jocom]

Hi,

I am having some problems with \savebox.
My girlfriend likes to make postcards (those folded ones with nifty edges and layers and such).
Now we wanted to design a postcard which we would print and then fold etc...
Check the attachment to get an idea for the design.

So I came up with this draft.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

\usepackage{calc}

\def\totalheight{13cm} % Height of the unfolded card
\def\totalwidth{29.73cm} % Width of the unfolded card

\def\cardheight{13cm} % Height of the folded card
\def\cardwidth{13cm} % Width of the folded card
\def\flapwidth{\totalwidth-2\cardwidth} % Width of the flap

\usepackage[	papersize={\totalwidth,\totalheight},
		body={\totalwidth,\totalheight}
]{geometry}

% Declaration of the boxes
\newsavebox{\frontside}
\newsavebox{\backside}
\newsavebox{\innerleft}
\newsavebox{\innerright}
\newsavebox{\flapinner}
\newsavebox{\flapouter}
% Text in the boxes
\savebox{\frontside}[\cardwidth][l]{The frontside text}
\savebox{\backside}[\cardwidth][l]{The backside text}
\savebox{\innerleft}[\cardwidth][c]{The text on the inside, left.}
\savebox{\innerright}[\cardwidth][c]{The text on the inside, right.}
\savebox{\flapinner}[\flapwidth][l]{Flap inner text}
\savebox{\flapouter}[\flapwidth][l]{Flap outer text}

\begin{document}
% Placement of the boxes
\usebox{\flapouter}
\usebox{\backside}
\usebox{\frontside}
% \newlength{\myboxlen}
% \settowidth{\myboxlen}{\usebox{\flapouter}}
% \noindent
% \rule{\myboxlen}{1pt}\\
% box size: \the\myboxlen
\newpage
\usebox{\innerleft}
\usebox{\innerright}
\usebox{\flapinner}
\end{document}

But in the PDF the \backside and \frontside are vanished. Moreover when uncommenting the 5 commented lines between the \usebox commands, it shows up that all the \savebox'es have width 0.0pt.

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I really need such fixed width boxes (I think).

Greetings,
jocom

[jocom]

Hi everybody,

I've been looking around for a solution. Partly by trying to solve my problem with the use of columns (see the thread http://www.latex-community.org/forum/vi ... =47&t=8822). But that did not succeed.

I'm sure there must be a solution to this by using boxes. But I'm not familiar enough with boxes to see how. Can someone point to a solution, give some hints, or thoughts.

In some sense I would live something analogue to the "<div>" in html. But of course I can't design this in html, because it lacks all the typographic features that TeX supports.

Thanks in advance for any tips or solutions,

jocom