diff --git a/quad/qtest/test-kafka-tester.pdf b/quad/qtest/test-kafka-tester.pdf
index 74a2602e..bb2d081e 100644
Binary files a/quad/qtest/test-kafka-tester.pdf and b/quad/qtest/test-kafka-tester.pdf differ
diff --git a/quad/quadwriter/page.rkt b/quad/quadwriter/page.rkt
index 811e6f5d..47e226df 100644
--- a/quad/quadwriter/page.rkt
+++ b/quad/quadwriter/page.rkt
@@ -57,15 +57,18 @@
 
 (define (make-footer-quad col-q page-idx path)
   (define-values (dir name _) (split-path (path-replace-extension path #"")))
-  (define attrs (let ([attrs (make-hasheq)])
+  (define attrs (let ([attrs (make-hasheq)]
+                      [cltq (current-top-level-quad)])
                   (hash-set*! attrs
                               :footer-text (quad-ref col-q :footer-text)
                               :page-number (+ (quad-ref col-q :page-number-start (add1 (section-pages-used))) (sub1 page-idx))
                               :doc-title (string-titlecase (path->string name))
-                              :font-size (* 0.8 (quad-ref col-q :font-size default-font-size))
-                              :line-height (quad-ref col-q :line-height default-line-height)
-                              :font-family "text")
-                  (resolve-font-path! attrs)
+                              ;; we get font & line-height from cltq
+                              ;; because these are not block attrs
+                              ;; so they are not propagated upward from col-q
+                              :font-size (* 0.8 (quad-ref cltq :font-size))
+                              :line-height (quad-ref cltq :line-height)
+                              :font-path (quad-ref cltq :font-path))
                   attrs))
   (make-quad #:size (pt 50 default-line-height)
              #:attrs attrs
diff --git a/quad/quadwriter/param.rkt b/quad/quadwriter/param.rkt
index c90e5fb1..a97c45b9 100644
--- a/quad/quadwriter/param.rkt
+++ b/quad/quadwriter/param.rkt
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 (define current-pdf (make-parameter #false))
 (define current-line-wrap (make-parameter #f)) ; because kp is slow and maybe we want to disable for "draft" mode
+(define current-top-level-quad (make-parameter #f))
 (define section-pages-used (make-parameter 0))
          
 (define quadwriter-test-mode (make-parameter #f)) ; used during rackunit to suppress nondeterministic elements, like timestamp in header
diff --git a/quad/quadwriter/render.rkt b/quad/quadwriter/render.rkt
index f3896ff9..69203275 100644
--- a/quad/quadwriter/render.rkt
+++ b/quad/quadwriter/render.rkt
@@ -172,10 +172,20 @@
   ;; convert our input Q-expression into a useful form.
 
   ;; some typographic niceties
-  (define qexpr (decode qx-arg
+  (define qexpr
+    (let ([qx (decode qx-arg
                         #:string-proc (compose1 smart-ellipses smart-dashes)
-                        #:txexpr-proc smart-quotes))
-
+                        #:txexpr-proc smart-quotes)])
+      (match qx
+        [(list tag attrs elements ...)
+         ;; we insert a dummy element "◊" (irrelevant what it is)
+         ;; to get a sample of the global attrs
+         ;; which we will strip off after atomization
+         ;; but keep the attrs around in case anyone needs to use them
+         ;; for instance, quads added to the layout like footers
+         ;; won't have another way of getting this
+      (list* tag attrs (cons "◊" elements))])))
+  
   ;; apply some default styling attributes.
   ;; These will only be used if the underlying q-expression hasn't specified its own values,
   ;; which will naturally override these.
@@ -194,6 +204,10 @@
                       #:emoji "fallback-emoji"
                       #:math "fallback-math"
                       #:font-path-resolver resolve-font-path!)]
+         [qs (let ()
+               ;; store the dummy element and discard
+               (current-top-level-quad (car qs))
+               (cdr qs))]
          [qs (time-log hyphenate (apply append (map handle-hyphenate qs)))]
          [qs (map generic->typed-quad qs)]
          [qs (drop-leading-breaks qs)]