Re: Org as a book publisher

[Diego Zamboni]

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