journal style file challenge

[johnny_canuck]

Recently, a journal I have some editorial involvement with has decided that for its 'rapid publication' outlet, it will no longer accept submissions where LaTeX has been used to format the document. They now demand everything be submitted as a (sigh) Word document.

After much whining, bitching and moaning from me (and some others), they've relented -- partially. They'll take LaTeX submissions *if* we can build a strong stylesheet - one wherein the generated PDF looks "pretty damned close to exactly like the published form" (their words).

The actual (published) format they want isn't particular complex. Fore example, see

http://www.esajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1890/ES12-00286.1


Now, I'm 'good enugh' with laTeX to be able to use this package, and that, a few tweaks here and there, to cobble together something pretty damned close. But, that approach isn't particularly portable. What they want (and I would agree) is a .cls file (and a .bst for the bib) which a user could apply to their document, and presto chango, out comes the paper.


I've never tried writing a .cls file. Those that I've accumulated over the years (e.g., Springer etc), I can follow pretty well, but I'm not quite sure where to start.

Suggestions? Of course, if any of your smart folks who can do this in your sleep wanna take 15 minutes and put it together, ( (and oh, say, 500 or so folks who use LaTeX for this journal) would be forever indebted - virtual beers on us for life. Real ones if we ever crossed carporeal paths.

[Nicola Talbot]

That's certainly do-able in LaTeX. I wrote the Journal for Machine
Learning (JMLR) class, so I could help. The only thing I'm not sure
about is the font. Have they specified the exact font or the closest
match? I've not come across advp/advt before so I don't know if that's
available in TeX (or if it has math fonts). If it does need to match,
you'll need to get help from a TeX font guru.

Regards
Nicola Talbot
--
Home: http://www.dickimaw-books.com/
Creating a LaTeX Minimal Example:
http://theoval.cmp.uea.ac.uk/~nlct/latex/minexample/

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article <4ff32d37-4953-4d17...@googlegroups.com>,
johnny_canuck <evan....@gmail.com> writes:

First, note that you should have short lines in a text-based newsgroup,
and not some base64-encoded garbage. Use the RETURN key if your
newsreader is so broken that it doesn't break lines for you.

> Recently, a journal I have some editorial involvement with has decided that=
> for its 'rapid publication' outlet, it will no longer accept submissions w=
> here LaTeX has been used to format the document. They now demand everything=
> be submitted as a (sigh) Word document.=20

This is a shame, since LaTeX allows contextual information to be
retrieved for cross-referencing, indexing etc.

[johnny_canuck]

On Thursday, March 7, 2013 3:34:17 AM UTC-5, Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:
> In article <4ff32d37-4953-4d17...@googlegroups.com>,
>
> johnny_canuck <evan....@gmail.com> writes:
>
>
>
> First, note that you should have short lines in a text-based newsgroup,
>
> and not some base64-encoded garbage. Use the RETURN key if your
>
> newsreader is so broken that it doesn't break lines for you.

Newsreader. I'm using a browser (chrome) to access Google groups.

>
>
>
> > Recently, a journal I have some editorial involvement with has decided that=
>
> > for its 'rapid publication' outlet, it will no longer accept submissions w=
>
> > here LaTeX has been used to format the document. They now demand everything=
>
> > be submitted as a (sigh) Word document.=20
>
>
>
> This is a shame, since LaTeX allows contextual information to be
>
> retrieved for cross-referencing, indexing etc.

Yes, I know (having used it for 20+ years, and written 2 books and ~100 papers and other such things with it ;-)

But, point taken - and I've relayed such to the powers that be.

[johnny_canuck]

>
>
>
> That's certainly do-able in LaTeX.

I had little doubt of that - and my ~one hour attempt using just packages and tweaks to packages came 'fairly close'. But, not a real class file.

I wrote the Journal for Machine
>
> Learning (JMLR) class, so I could help. The only thing I'm not sure
>
> about is the font. Have they specified the exact font or the closest
>
> match? I've not come across advp/advt before so I don't know if that's
>
> available in TeX (or if it has math fonts). If it does need to match,
>
> you'll need to get help from a TeX font guru.
>

I did broach the font issue, and they implied 'close enough' would be 'good enough'. I know they're using an embedded Type I font, and while I can use LuaLaTeX or XeLaTeX to get all the way there from here, that (again) is not particularly portable. So, 'vanilla LaTeX' with 'typical fonts', which need full maths support.

I'd be well pleased for some help getting me started on developing the class file.

Cheers...

[johnny_canuck]

>
> I did broach the font issue, and they implied 'close enough' would be 'good enough'. I know they're using an embedded Type I font, and while I can use LuaLaTeX or XeLaTeX to get all the way there from here, that (again) is not particularly portable. So, 'vanilla LaTeX' with 'typical fonts', which need full maths support.
>
>
>
> I'd be well pleased for some help getting me started on developing the class file.
>

Font looks like Beckenham or ITC Obelisk (either is pretty close).

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article <41f749e2-af77-45fe...@googlegroups.com>,

johnny_canuck <evan....@gmail.com> writes:

> Newsreader. I'm using a browser (chrome) to access Google groups.

The problem is Google Groups. Many people have been complaining about
it. It looks like they have taken up a tactic formerly used by
Microsoft: Intentionally break standards so things look bad using any
interface but ours, forcing people to use said interface. Pitiful.