A book typeset using sphinx and rst2pdf

[Roberto Alsina]

It may be a bit offtopic, but it's something I am very proud about ;-)

Here are a few images of a book that was typeset using sphinx and rst2pdf.

The binding and printing are (intentionally!) cheap, because it's meant as an
experiment to produce programming books for those who can't afford traditional
books: The cost may be as low as U$S 2 per 120-page book, while most
"traditional" 400-page programming books cost, in Argentina, about U$S 50.

Best regards,

--
("\''/").__..-''"`-. . Roberto Alsina
`9_ 9 ) `-. ( ).`-._.`) KDE Developer (MFCH)
(_Y_.)' ._ ) `._`. " -.-' http://lateral.netmanagers.com.ar
_..`-'_..-_/ /-'_.' The 6,855th most popular site of Slovenia
(l)-'' ((i).' ((!.' according to alexa.com (27/5/2007)

[Santiago Suarez Ordoñez]

Hm, looks like the images didn't reach the list. Could you upload them somewhere and share the links?

Saludos
Santi

[Roberto Alsina]

On Monday 07 September 2009 15:53:41 Santiago Suarez Ordoñez wrote:
> Hm, looks like the images didn't reach the list. Could you upload them
> somewhere and share the links?

Just forgot to paste them :-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ralsina/tags/libro/

[Georg Brandl]

Roberto Alsina schrieb:

> On Monday 07 September 2009 15:53:41 Santiago Suarez Ordoñez wrote:
>> Hm, looks like the images didn't reach the list. Could you upload them
>> somewhere and share the links?
>
> Just forgot to paste them :-)
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/ralsina/tags/libro/

Wow! I think I'm just a little bit proud as well...

I also like that it is a really affordable book, and hope that it will
help spread Python in Argentina beyond our expectations :)

cheers,
Georg

[Tim Michelsen]

> Here are a few images of a book that was typeset using sphinx and rst2pdf.

So, is this builder already stable?

[Roberto Alsina]

It is stable in the sense that if it processes your docs, it should not stop
doing it (if I know about them).

Other than that... YMWV.

[Gael Varoquaux]

On Mon, Sep 07, 2009 at 06:01:31PM -0300, Roberto Alsina wrote:

> On Monday 07 September 2009 15:53:41 Santiago Suarez Ordoñez wrote:
> > Hm, looks like the images didn't reach the list. Could you upload them
> > somewhere and share the links?

> Just forgot to paste them :-)

> http://www.flickr.com/photos/ralsina/tags/libro/

This is superb. Do you have any tricks that you learned with regards to
the formatting or composing the text and that you could share?

Also, is there a schedule for merging in rst2pdf? I am sure that
everybody will want to use it after seeing that book.

Cheers,

Gaël

[Georg Brandl]

Gael Varoquaux schrieb:

I think a merging is not required. rst2pdf can be an external dependency
like docutils (but optional), and the Sphinx builder will be contained in
rst2pdf.

Georg

[Roberto Alsina]

On Tuesday 08 September 2009 05:04:20 Gael Varoquaux wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 07, 2009 at 06:01:31PM -0300, Roberto Alsina wrote:
> > On Monday 07 September 2009 15:53:41 Santiago Suarez Ordoñez wrote:
> > > Hm, looks like the images didn't reach the list. Could you upload them
> > > somewhere and share the links?
> >
> > Just forgot to paste them :-)
> >
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/ralsina/tags/libro/
>
> This is superb. Do you have any tricks that you learned with regards to
> the formatting or composing the text and that you could share?

Yes, that printers want things rst2pdf doesn't do yet (like "break chapters to
an odd page" or "start counting from the 12th page", so I will be adding
those.

> Also, is there a schedule for merging in rst2pdf? I am sure that
> everybody will want to use it after seeing that book.

It is now included with rst2pdf in SVN.

I don't expect it to be merged into sphinx. The thinking is, you are going to
need rst2pdf for it to do anything, so it can be a sphinx extension shipped
with rst2pdf.

[Ian Cottee]

On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 7:43 PM, Roberto Alsina <ral...@netmanagers.com.ar> wrote:

It may be a bit offtopic, but it's something I am very proud about ;-)

Here are a few images of a book that was typeset using sphinx and rst2pdf.

That is awesome! Congrats!

Ian 

[Georg Brandl]

Roberto Alsina schrieb:

> On Tuesday 08 September 2009 05:04:20 Gael Varoquaux wrote:
>> On Mon, Sep 07, 2009 at 06:01:31PM -0300, Roberto Alsina wrote:
>> > On Monday 07 September 2009 15:53:41 Santiago Suarez Ordoñez wrote:
>> > > Hm, looks like the images didn't reach the list. Could you upload them
>> > > somewhere and share the links?
>> >
>> > Just forgot to paste them :-)
>> >
>> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/ralsina/tags/libro/
>>
>> This is superb. Do you have any tricks that you learned with regards to
>> the formatting or composing the text and that you could share?
>
> Yes, that printers want things rst2pdf doesn't do yet (like "break chapters to
> an odd page" or "start counting from the 12th page", so I will be adding
> those.
>
>> Also, is there a schedule for merging in rst2pdf? I am sure that
>> everybody will want to use it after seeing that book.
>
> It is now included with rst2pdf in SVN.
>
> I don't expect it to be merged into sphinx. The thinking is, you are going to
> need rst2pdf for it to do anything, so it can be a sphinx extension shipped
> with rst2pdf.

Exactly. I didn't even think of distributing it this way, but now it seems to
me to be the most natural one :)

Georg

[Gael Varoquaux]

On Tue, Sep 08, 2009 at 12:27:16PM +0200, Georg Brandl wrote:
> Exactly. I didn't even think of distributing it this way, but now it seems to
> me to be the most natural one :)

Sounds great. Both of you have done an excellent job.

Gaël

[Roberto Alsina]

On Monday 07 September 2009 21:18:17 Roberto Alsina wrote:
> On Monday 07 September 2009 18:56:09 Tim Michelsen wrote:
> > > Here are a few images of a book that was typeset using sphinx and
> > > rst2pdf.
> >
> > So, is this builder already stable?
>
> It is stable in the sense that if it processes your docs, it should not
> stop doing it (if I know about them).
>
> Other than that... YMWV.

Some data points:

* It's stable enough to process the Python docs from SVN, including a 1000+
page library reference guide.

http://www.freedrive.com/folder/236380

* It can process the Django manual, which is over 800 pages.

http://www.freedrive.com/folder/236385 [I will be adding more manuals here]

This is without wordaxe, which has some issues right now, so there is no
hyphenation or kerning.

[Tim Michelsen]

>>> So, is this builder already stable?
>> It is stable in the sense that if it processes your docs, it should not
>> stop doing it (if I know about them).

Thanks. Cool.
Where could I find a tutorial on how to activate this builder?

Thanks,
Timmie

[Roberto Alsina]

Get rst2pdf from SVN at http://rst2pdf.googlecode.com, then check the manual
(use manual.txt, manual.pdf is only generated on releases), specifically the
"Sphinx" section.

[Tim Michelsen]

> Get rst2pdf from SVN at http://rst2pdf.googlecode.com, then check the manual
> (use manual.txt, manual.pdf is only generated on releases), specifically the
> "Sphinx" section.

Great. I will try in the next days.

Thanks.

[Guenter Milde]

On 2009-09-08, Roberto Alsina wrote:

> On Tuesday 08 September 2009 05:04:20 Gael Varoquaux wrote:
>> On Mon, Sep 07, 2009 at 06:01:31PM -0300, Roberto Alsina wrote:
>> > On Monday 07 September 2009 15:53:41 Santiago Suarez Ordoñez wrote:

>> This is superb. Do you have any tricks that you learned with regards to
>> the formatting or composing the text and that you could share?

> Yes, that printers want things rst2pdf doesn't do yet (like "break
> chapters to an odd page" or "start counting from the 12th page", so I
> will be adding those.

This is why for "large" projects like a book I still recommend the way
via LaTeX. You get more than 20 years of expertise in desktop
publishing for free.

Günter

[Roberto Alsina]

Right. However, it's not as if those things are horribly hard, and I think
there is a niche for a non-latex typesetting tool in the free software world,
and I really don't think open office is it ;-)