Quick update on Haiola and electronic Scripture publishing
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Kahunapule Michael Johnson
Jan 26, 2016, 4:33:06 PM1/26/16
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Usually I send out an email when I have some new feature or bug fix
in Haiola ready for release. Sorry, but not so this time.
I'm in the process of having Haiola generate typeset-quality PDF files via XeLaTeX. I'm also shifting to a new Windows installation system, given that the last one was buggy and resulted in many complaints. Hopefully both things will be done for the next release.
By "typeset-quality", I mean that the main text of a Bible without illustrations could be literally sent to a printer as is. It would probably be necessary to manually tweak the front and back matter, adding such things as ISBNs and bar codes and tweaking the layout of the table of contents to really do that instead of just reading on screen. Also, if illustrations are included, picture placement won't always meet manual typesetting expectations. However, since the primary use is for electronic publishing, we normally have to strip out all of the illustrations anyway for copyright reasons. Also, unless you are a TeX wizard, tweaking the output to fit your taste beyond simple page geometry and font adjustments is not something you will want to do. For that kind of flexibility, there is the WordML output of Haiola, combined with Microsoft Word (or maybe LibreOffice Writer), but that doesn't currently support tables. Or, go with SIL InDesign Controller and Adobe InDesign and the manual labor that goes with that. But if you want to rapidly and inexpensively create decent-looking PDF files for electronic distribution, this is pretty nifty. See http://ebible.org/pdf/ for sample outputs. Note that I currently offer different page and type size geometries for different uses: U. S. Letter, A4, and A5 size, with the A5 size being best for on-screen reading.
Currently, the left-to-right languages are working properly in the PDF conversion. There is still some work going on for right-to-left languages.
For an update of what I have been doing in 2015, see the eBible.org annual report at mpj.cx/2015rpt. This includes work on the Pacific Area web sites, like PNGScriptures.org and VanuatuBibles.org.
I'm in the process of having Haiola generate typeset-quality PDF files via XeLaTeX. I'm also shifting to a new Windows installation system, given that the last one was buggy and resulted in many complaints. Hopefully both things will be done for the next release.
By "typeset-quality", I mean that the main text of a Bible without illustrations could be literally sent to a printer as is. It would probably be necessary to manually tweak the front and back matter, adding such things as ISBNs and bar codes and tweaking the layout of the table of contents to really do that instead of just reading on screen. Also, if illustrations are included, picture placement won't always meet manual typesetting expectations. However, since the primary use is for electronic publishing, we normally have to strip out all of the illustrations anyway for copyright reasons. Also, unless you are a TeX wizard, tweaking the output to fit your taste beyond simple page geometry and font adjustments is not something you will want to do. For that kind of flexibility, there is the WordML output of Haiola, combined with Microsoft Word (or maybe LibreOffice Writer), but that doesn't currently support tables. Or, go with SIL InDesign Controller and Adobe InDesign and the manual labor that goes with that. But if you want to rapidly and inexpensively create decent-looking PDF files for electronic distribution, this is pretty nifty. See http://ebible.org/pdf/ for sample outputs. Note that I currently offer different page and type size geometries for different uses: U. S. Letter, A4, and A5 size, with the A5 size being best for on-screen reading.
Currently, the left-to-right languages are working properly in the PDF conversion. There is still some work going on for right-to-left languages.
For an update of what I have been doing in 2015, see the eBible.org annual report at mpj.cx/2015rpt. This includes work on the Pacific Area web sites, like PNGScriptures.org and VanuatuBibles.org.
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Your partner in
electronic Bible publishing, |
| MICHAEL JOHNSON PO BOX 881143 PUKALANI HI 96788-1143 USA |
eBible.org MLJohnson.org Mobile: +1 808-333-6921 Skype: kahunapule |
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