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I was editing a text that carries a watermark and decided to add an index. Everything was going fine until at some point an error message came out. After debugging I could identify the issue.

There is some incompatibility between packages imakeidx and xwatermark when more than one page with indexes are presented, but not always. I mean, it seems to have a certain event, which I don't know, that returns an error when there is more than one index page AND a certain number of indexes. I must say this because sometimes there are two index pages and no error appears.

The erro mensage is something like:

Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item. {\bf P

I checked the lines of the generated .ind file and nothing seemed to be wrong. All blocks follow the same structure.

 \indexspace {\bf P}\nopagebreak% \indexspace\nopagebreak% \item p, \hyperpage{1}

If I change the number of columns to more than one, it won't have any error since all indexes fit in only one page. That's a nice workaround, but not a general solution. Another workaround is to prevent the watermark to be printed over index pages, by changing allpages for something like pages=1-3.

The following MWE reproduces the problem.

\documentclass{article} \usepackage{imakeidx} \makeindex[columns=1, options=-s style_file_imakeidx_alfa_01.ist] % columns=2 works fine, since it doesn't need more than one page \usepackage{tikz} \usepackage[printwatermark]{xwatermark} \newsavebox\myboxr\savebox\myboxr{\tikz[color=red!80,opacity=0.4]\node{\huge{Watermark}};} \newwatermark[allpages, angle=45, scale=6, xpos=-10, ypos=10]{\usebox\myboxr} % Another workaround: Don't print wateermark over index. Example: allpages <-> pages=1-3. \begin{document} Text. \clearpage a\index{a} \clearpage b\index{b} c\index{c} d\index{d} e\index{e} f\index{f} g\index{g} h\index{h} i\index{i} j\index{j} k\index{k} l\index{l} m\index{m} n\index{n} o\index{o} After letter p, if columns = 1, error. % Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item. {\bf P % (Un)comment these lines to change from error/no error when columns = 1 p\index{p} q\index{q} r\index{r} \printindex \end{document}

This is the file style_file_imakeidx_alfa_01.ist to generate the formatted index list (I don't if this setup contributes to the error).

quote '+' headings_flag 1 symhead_positive "Symbol" numhead_positive "Number" heading_prefix "{\\bf " heading_suffix "}\\nopagebreak%\n \\indexspace\\nopagebreak%" delim_r "~--~" suffix_2p "\\,f" suffix_3p "\\,ff" preamble "\\markright{Index}\n\n\\begin{theindex}\n\\thispagestyle{headings}\n" postamble "\n\n\\end{theindex}\n"

Of course I can continue working with or watermark or printindex, but not both at the same time, or even limiting the pages with watermark.

The question is: know what is going on and how to correct it? If possible.

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    It seems that the issue arises during the output routine. I get no error and essentially identical output with draftwatermark instead. Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 19:47
  • I also get no error. what is your TeX version? Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 20:03
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    I wouldn't use xwatermark, it loads catoptions which is incompatible with various other packages and LaTeX code, and will probably not work at all with the next LaTeX release. Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 20:41
  • 1
    @C.F.G, Off topic: Versions of TeX are numbered by adding additional digits of pi, because Knuth doesn't want to add new features: it's supposed to be stable and only bug-fixed, so the idea is it's approaching a limit. Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 21:40
  • 2
    I normally use eso-pic to print stuff below or above text. With the next latex release I will perhaps use the new shipout/background and shipout/foreground hooks. Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 21:40

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I followed @Ulrike Fischer's advice about eso-pic and now the watermark works with imakeidx and can be printed above the text (stamped).

Although it is still not clear the reason behind xwatermark's issue, I shall say this solution is very nice.

The following MWE show the answer.

\documentclass{article} \usepackage{lipsum} \usepackage{imakeidx} \makeindex[columns=1, columnseprule, options=-s style_file_imakeidx_alfa_01.ist] % columns=2 works fine, since it doesn't need more than one page \usepackage{tikz} \newsavebox\myboxr\savebox\myboxr{\tikz[color=red!80,opacity=0.4]\node{\huge{Watermark}};} \usepackage{eso-pic} \AddToShipoutPictureFG{% \AtPageCenter{\put(-320,-230){\scalebox{7}{\rotatebox{45}{\usebox\myboxr}}}}% \AtStockLowerLeft{\put(0,0){\scalebox{7}{\rotatebox{45}{\usebox\myboxr}}}}% } \begin{document} Text. \includegraphics{example-image-a} \clearpage a\index{a} \clearpage b\index{b} c\index{c} d\index{d} e\index{e} f\index{f} g\index{g} h\index{h} i\index{i} j\index{j} k\index{k} l\index{l} m\index{m} n\index{n} o\index{o} p\index{p} q\index{q} r\index{r} \lipsum[1-2] \printindex \end{document}

The following figures show the results.

enter image description here

enter image description here

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