Re: Org as a book publisher

[Vikas Rawal <vikasrawal@gmail.com>]

A few years ago, I had produced this book entirely on orgmode: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/ending-malnutrition/9789382381648. The source files of the book are here: https://github.com/vikasrawal/endingmalnutrition.

This was some years back, and there has been some change in the org mode syntax since then and the files would need some fixing before they could be compiled with the current versions of orgmode.

Vikas


On Sun, Mar 07, 2021 at 01:08:20PM +0100, Diego Zamboni wrote:
> Hi Juan Manuel,
>
> Thanks for sharing this - the output looks very nice.
>
> I think with Org and a setup like you describe, we are one step closer to
> separating content (what) from form (how) in a document. This was one of
> the original goals of LaTeX, but of course in a LaTeX document much of the
> "how" is still visible through the "what". With Org the separation becomes
> clearer, by hiding the LaTeX structures (almost) completely, and by
> allowing to produce multiple formats from the same source document.
>
> I have done something similar with my books, which I publish through
> Leanpub. I keep the source of each book in Org, and from there the exporter
> takes care of producing the Leanpub markup and format, which in turn takes
> care of converting it to PDF, ePub or other formats.
>
> Best,
> --Diego
>
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 6, 2021 at 8:35 PM Juan Manuel Macías <maciaschain@posteo.net>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I would like to share here two samples of one of the most intense uses
> > that I give Org Mode: for typesetting, layout and editorial design. In
> > other words, I use Org (and Org-Publish) where publishers today use DTP
> > proprietary software like InDesign or QuarkXpress (a type of software,
> > on the other hand, that was never intended to compose books but rather
> > magazines, posters, brochures and so on). The samples are from a book
> > on classical philology, recently published here in Spain, and from a
> > fairly extensive dictionary, still work in progress:
> >
> > https://imgur.com/gallery/yxAVkrY
> >
> > Naturally, what acts in the background here is TeX and LaTeX
> > (specifically Lua(La)TeX), so what I really do is use Org and
> > Org-Publish as a sort of high-level interface for LaTeX. But I don't
> > mean to avoid LaTeX: in fact, I've been working with LaTeX for a long
> > time. I like LaTeX and behind these jobs there is a lot of LaTeX code.
> > But Org gives me a much more light and productive workflow, allowing me
> > to work at two levels.
> >
> > The main advantages that I see for this workflow with Org/Org-Publish
> > are:
> >
> > 1. Lightness: LaTeX is too verbose.
> > 2. Control of the composition process at various points. One of the
> >    qualities of LuaTeX is the possibility to control TeX primitives
> >    through scripts in Lua, and to act at various points in the pre- or
> >    post-process. But I have realized that with the happy fusion of Elisp
> >    and Org we can be much more precise and "surgical" ;-). Here,
> >    Org/LaTeX is much more powerful than LuaLaTeX.
> > 3. Org's synaptic and org-anizational ability to control and manage the
> >    entire process of the creation of a book, from when the originals are
> >    received until everything is prepared to send to the printer.
> > 4. An unique origin. The book can be produced on paper from a single
> >    source, but you can also export, from that source consistently, to
> >    other formats (HTML or Epub).
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Juan Manuel
> >
> >