[xep-support] Keeping columns even at the bottom of page

[Michael Sulyaev]

Harvey, Paul wrote:
> I've been handed a complex fo stylesheet which has a two-column layout.
> Content is flowed into a series of <fo:table>'s which populate the
> columns.
> 
> At the bottom of the pages, the columns are not even - the left column
> will end 1/2" higher than the right, and that sort of thing.
> 
> Is there a general solution for achieving even column bottoms?

Hello Paul,

The general solution is to add a span:
<fo:block span="all"><fo:leader/></fo:block>
as the last child of the fo:flow that contains the series of tables in 
two columns. The span is intended to balance the contents of the page 
columns to roughly equal heights, by "pressing from bottom to top".
This is the only solution proposed by the XSL FO Recommendation.

> Will the fact that content is flowed into tables and then columns,
> prevent us from getting even column bottoms?

Yes, it may affect balancing, obviously. For example, there may be no 
such places for page column breaks, so that "unbreakable" tables of 
different height are distributed perfectly equal, in total height per 
page column. E.g. three equal tables in two page columns: it will be 2 
and 1, or 1 and 2, and never make column bottom lines on the same height.

Regards,
Michael Sulyaev
RenderX
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