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J
JHollis12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
March 13, 2026
Question

Arbortext DITA2.0 Stylesheet to create different color backgrounds

  • March 13, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 124 views

I am using Arbortext to create the manuals for the items we produce.  We currently have four major brands we use, each with it's own brand color (blue/gray/green/red) background.

Is there a way in the stylesheet to use a certain element in the bookmap to select the background color.

I was thinking maybe a variable or something along that line,

 

Has anyone developed a stylesheet that will produce multiple outputs, with different background colors, depending on the brand of the material?

1 reply

B
18-Opal
bfriesen18-Opal
18-Opal
March 13, 2026

I am not a stylesheet expert. I wonder if you could set a page region for each page type and set the background color?

 

Screenshot 2026-03-13 111004.png

 

We do something close to what want. We have multiple stylesheets that are based off a master stylesheet. Then each stylesheet can have its own specific styling done to them, while maintaining the same look across all the manuals.

 

Bryon

 

 

J
JHollis12-AmethystAuthor
12-Amethyst
March 13, 2026

Bryon,

Thanks for the reply.  We currently have one stylesheet for each brand based on a "master". 

I was hoping to be able to set up something in the master that would pick up the background color from the bookmap for a specific brand. 

I'm thinking something in the front matter section of the bookmap, where i can set the background color.

 

Maybe a variable or something that I can put in the bookmap, so the stylesheet would change the background automatically when published.  Maybe something along these lines.  Blue =1, Green =2, Gray =3, Red =4...

B
18-Opal
bfriesen18-Opal
18-Opal
March 13, 2026

You might try creating individual pagesets with the background color set then use an ouputclass to call up the pageset.

under chapter eveywhere else you could a condition that if outputclass+blue then on that condition set it to use the blue page set.

 

Bryon 

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