dustin1114

There is a bit of manual tweaking required in LaTeX that I haven't figured out how to automate yet. It's mainly related to chapter endings: if there are only 2 or 3 lines on the last page, I can subtly tighten the tracking from a paragraph on the second to last page and eliminate an almost-empty page. Also, I have PNG maps that currently need some one-off LaTeX directives to lay them out how I want. I could probably embed some properties in the ODT image, but that seems kind of janky. If I needed to regenerate from the ODT source, I use a Git three-way merge to update it (also janky, but it's expedient).

Last I checked, typst doesn't have baseline grid support (i.e., assures vertical lines of text across spreads are aligned, thus text doesn't bleed through recto to verso).

Asciidoctor was in the running months ago. I like the idea of a single set of files, but yes, word processors are my weakness.

typst is great. I experimented with it, it I simply didn't have the fine-tuning and maturity LaTeX. For example, window/orphan control is a binary on/off, while LaTeX calculates by penalties at a much lower level. Pandoc is also great (I used it often for unrelated workflows), but it can't map custom styles from ODT files (not sure about Word).

I use VS Code soft-wrapping, and `git diff --word-diff` does all I need, though there probably are better methods.

Author here. You're exactly right. All of my pre-grad education was liberal arts. I had never once heard of LaTeX until I entered the software world years later, and even then only from a coworker with a CS PhD.

Author here. Yes, I wrote the books and glued everything together. If I failed to mention it in the article, it's because I was trying not to self-promote so much. Thanks for the compliment. It really was fun to figure it all out, if that wasn't clear :)

This was an early inspiration for me that I failed to mention in the article. I'm glad you mentioned it. It really does have a lot of good examples, especially the complex lists and diagrams it implements in TeX.

I saw typst in my explorations but LaTeX had a few more of the controls I was looking for in print, and I really wanted a Standard Ebooks compliant EPUB. I might revisit at some time though. Thanks for bringing it up.

Yes! All the typographical techniques and terminology is fascinating (and confusing at times). Widow and orphan control really fight against text justification. Finding the right balance is tricky, but LaTeX has all the little knobs to tweak and find what's right for your uses (fiction for me).

Hi, OP here. I'm glad you enjoyed the writeup.

Amateur...you're probably right. It reminds me of my home improvement project I've been working on this evening: interior painting. My ceiling lines are probably perfect to houseguests (if they notice at all). But if a professional painter got up on a ladder and looked closely, he'd probably shake his head and chuckle.

As for InDesign and EPUB, I've found the auto-generated output not up to the standard I was after. Worse, I've seen output differ between InDesign versions, which scared me.

I have an acquaintance who works for a "Big 5" publisher, and he recounted their process to me once. In short, the indd file became the source of truth. They would generate an EPUB from it but then hand edit it for many hours to bring it up to their house style. If there was a text change (rare in fiction) they update the indd and EPUB separately. Going back to the Word file is basically non-existent. If the author, copyeditor, proofreader had more extensive changes (like a full revision), it was close to a brand new publication.

The visual styling from the word processer isn't interesting. It's the "tagging" that paragraph and character styles bring that's helpful. It's not dissimilar from an HTML class, which scripting can transform into truly semantic text. I hope that clarifies some points. BTW, it's pretty cool to hear from people in the real print industry. I'm always fascinated by their workflows.