Adding Images and Sub-titles to Pecha with TibetDoc

Very fancy Tibetan pecha often have images on the fancy-style pages at the beginning of the document and occasionally also on the same type of page at the end of the document. TibetDoc V5 (version 5.103 and above) has a complete system for adding images and image captions to pecha. If you have that version of TibetDoc, nothing else is needed to insert images and captions into pecha. However, if you have an earlier version of the program, there is a way to add images and captions to pecha made with TibetDoc and the instructions for that follow.

1) Make the pecha to completion using TibetDoc versions prior to 5.103.

2) Publish the work as a PDF file, using Adobe Distiller (which is part of the full version of Adobe Acrobat). This can be done with any version of Adobe Acrobat, from 4 onwards.

3) Get your images. We provide a number of images on this site including some particular good ones made for own our work in the Drukpa Kagyu Heritage Project.

4)Use an image editor of your choice to size the images for the boxes in TibetDoc. The actual size of the boxes can be found by looking in pecha layout and then at the page type--either fancy or fancy diety--that you will paste the image into (fancy has two boxes, left and right; fancy deity has an additional box in the middle).

The width of the boxes is shown on the fancy or fancy deity tab in pecha layout. However, you need to subtract a small amount to get the exact size. This is because the lines bordering the boxes take up some of the box space. It is like this: if you are using single lines, you need to substract the width of a single line (not two) from the box width. If you are using double lines, you need to subtract the width of (2 times a single line + the spacing between the two lines) from the box width. If you think about it for a moment, you will see that it is because the boxes are centred between two sets of lines, therefore you have to subtract half the width from either side. The line width and spacing between for double lines is found in the options tab of pecha layout in 1/1000ths of an inch.

Once you have created the image to the size needed, publish that image to a PDF file as well.

5) Now, with your PDF of the pecha open in Adobe Acrobat, use document insert page to insert the PDF of the image that you have just made. The image will appear on a page before or after your current location, according to the choice you make when inserting the page. Go to that page. The image will probably be huge; the size of a whole page. Don't be put off. Select the image using the text touchup tools. Copy the image. Now go back to your pecha page. Paste the image and it will appear on the page in the expected size. Use the hand tool to drag the image to the desired box and set it there.

That's it! You now have a PDF, ready to print, or keep, with image installed. Don't forget to delete the inserted page (document delete page) before saving the file.

6) Many pecha have a line of text under the image, giving the name of the image. TibetDoc also cannot do that. However, you can add it using a similar technique to that above. First type the text in the appropriate point size (smallish) in TibetDoc. Then make that into an image using an image editor (e.g., copy to clipboard and then paste into an image). Then, using the same technique as above, the image can be made into a PDF and inserted into the desired PDF.

Note that this does not work by turning the text into a PDF from TibetDoc and then trying to manipulate the text. It only works by making it into an image in an image editor and then following the route given above.

7) We put a lot of time into finding the quickest way to do the above. We tried all of the import/export options in Acrobat, hoping that we could simply import the text/images as RTF/Word or whatever. Unfortunately, the import/export options in Acrobat are not as effective as hoped and the way given above turned out to be the most efficient.

8) It will take you a little while to get the hang of this the first time but, once you have done it, the process is quite fast and does allow for ultimate pecha publishing. You could even take it to the ultimate step of adding very decorative title pages with Lantsa or other lettering and very fancy borders.

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