Page numbers

What Page numbers actually does

Numbering a document is rarely just a counter. The cover should not carry a number, the count usually has to start at something other than one because the file is a chapter of something larger, and half the time the format is not a bare digit but a number over a total. Each of those is a control here, and each behaves the way the command line tool behaves so a document numbered in a pipeline and a document numbered in a tab come out the same. The template takes two placeholders: the value, and the total. The total is worth being careful about. It is the count of pages that get a number, not the page count of the file, so a six page document with two pages of front matter left out reads four of four on its last page rather than four of six. That is the answer a reader needs and it is the one a reimplementation usually gets wrong. Placement is six corners and an editable point size and margin, defaulting to ten points and twenty-eight, which is the command line default rather than a guess. A page that carries a rotation entry gets its number against the edge the reader sees as the bottom, not the edge the page box calls the bottom. The stamped pages are drawn here, and the geometry table beside them names each page's size and rotation, so the numbering can be read before the file leaves the tab.