topic Arbortext DITA2.0 Stylesheet to create different color backgrounds in Arbortext

Arbortext DITA2.0 Stylesheet to create different color backgrounds

JHollis — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 15:45:12 GMT

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?

Re: Arbortext DITA2.0 Stylesheet to create different color backgrounds

bfriesen — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:15:15 GMT

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

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

Re: Arbortext DITA2.0 Stylesheet to create different color backgrounds

JHollis — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:22:03 GMT

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...

Re: Arbortext DITA2.0 Stylesheet to create different color backgrounds

bfriesen — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:33:04 GMT

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

Re: Arbortext DITA2.0 Stylesheet to create different color backgrounds

JHollis — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:59:03 GMT

Bryon,

Our content is reused across all of our brands. The only thing in a different color is the cover (front/rear).

We struggled with page regions to finally get them to make the cover all one color (full color with bleed to the edge) that we have to change every time we switch brands.

Using outputclass may be a viable option. I will investigate and see what it does.

John