LaTeX in InDesign...

[Michel Raj]

Working on Maths books, authors might give me, in a near future (more than one year), their work in LaTex (although, they are not specialists at all).
I don't know LaTex (I've got one an a half year to learn) or I could recover the work in InDesign...

Simplest for me would be only the formulas in LaTeX, as they can easily be converted as eps.

But I wonder if there are existing solutions ?
Like LaTeX => XML => InDesign
or ?

Any clue for solutions would be from a great help.
TIA

M. Raj

[William Adams]

On Feb 14, 2011, at 8:11 AM, Michel Raj wrote:

> Working on Maths books, authors might give me, in a near future (more than one year), their work in LaTex (although, they are not specialists at all).
> I don't know LaTex (I've got one an a half year to learn)

How 'bout 157 minutes?

http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf

After reading that, I'd suggest looking into the Memoir documentclass:

http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/memoir/

To understand Plain TeX programming there's:

http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/impatient/book.pdf

(which hopefully will soon have the very charming illustrations added to it)

To use OpenType fonts you'll want to use xelatex and Will Robertson's nifty package fontspec:

http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/xetex/latex/fontspec/

> or I could recover the work in InDesign...

The problem w/ re-creating the equations is that they then have to be proofed character for character.

> Simplest for me would be only the formulas in LaTeX, as they can easily be converted as eps.
>
> But I wonder if there are existing solutions ?
> Like LaTeX => XML => InDesign
> or ?

Download and install LaTeXiT:

http://www.chachatelier.fr/programmation/latexit_en.php

Log out and back in.

Open InDesign and set some basic equations:

This is a test
\[e = mc^2\]
More of a test \(a^2 + b^2 = c^2\)

Select each equation in turn, then select either:

InDesign | Services | Typeset LaTeX Maths Display (\[...\])
InDesign | Services | Typeset LaTeX Maths Inline ($...$)

and you'll get in situ .pdfs of the typeset equations. If InDesign had Linkback support you'd be able to double-click on the equations and have them opened as source in LaTeXiT.

There was at one point in time some work done on wrapping up the .pdfs in .rtf code so that they'd come in w/ a proper baseline --- not sure what's become of that.

You'll want to look into setting up LaTeXiT so that it uses xelatex for typesetting, and try the package mathspec:

http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/xetex/latex/mathspec/

So that the math characters are typeset using an OpenType font which matches the text.

> Any clue for solutions would be from a great help.

Hope this helps!

William

--
William Adams
senior graphic designer
Fry Communications
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.

[Michel Raj]

I does help !
Thank you !

157 minutes is a bit optimistic ;-)
But it'll sure help me for choosing the way to go !

I'll seriously try LaTeXiT it my even replace the actual MathType flow I'm using, if I'm fast enough to learn it.
And if I can find my way with the font use easily I need MinionPro, Symbol AND... Lubalin.

Regards
Michel

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[William Adams]

On Feb 14, 2011, at 9:07 AM, Michel Raj wrote:

> I'll seriously try LaTeXiT it my even replace the actual MathType flow I'm using, if I'm fast enough to learn it.

If the authors are providing the equations already set in LaTeX, then you shouldn't need to know anything beyond the basic configuration (just add the right packages w/ the right options) and usage (select the equation source, invoke the Service).

> And if I can find my way with the font use easily I need MinionPro, Symbol AND... Lubalin.

For Minion Pro you're in luck. There's actually a nifty package / font set intended to provide math characters which match Minion:

http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/mnsymbol/

[John Jason Jordan]

On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:11:08 +0100
Michel Raj <mr...@mac.com> dijo:

>But I wonder if there are existing solutions ?
>Like LaTeX => XML => InDesign
>or ?

Scribus can render LaTeX as frames which can then be exported as PDF,
EPS or any of several other formats. You'll need version 1.3.9 or later
(not the version currently labeled "stable," 1.3.3.14). The Scribus
feature you will be looking for is called a Render Frame.

Whenever I need to get LaTeX formulas into InDesign this is how I do
it. But William has added other suggestions as well.

[Michel Raj]

Great info !
Thanks !