Thanks. But typography books are not the problem. I've seen many, many, many of them, and each one makes me unhappy because I have nowhere to try what they say. My dad is very good at typesetting, but he can draw very well (everything he writes is manuscript, he don't drust a computer to do anything after a few bad experiences). I can't draw, so I need software that gets what I describe and makes it into PDF. The problem is: understanding everything about PDF file format, reading font files, knowing about all available implementations of typesetting algorithms is far beyond my habilities. Original Tex is not an option, since PDF, today's font formats (and Unicode) and many algorithms didn't exist when Knuth decided no features would be added anymore. Maybe I should hack the source code of pdftex or luatex? I can try that, but that's going to be hard work and I would like to know how far I can get before starting, or if there are easier options (like libraries to write PDF and read OpenType and books or example code of typesetting algorithms). Thanks for your tips, Maurício
Hi Maurício,
(...)
Others will have different suggestions but you could start out reading the TeXbook by Knuth
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/abcde.html
and any basic book about typography.
Enjoy the trip!
Frans
Hi,
I would like to ask you some advice on what should I learn. (...)
Context is where I get the best results, but what I really would like is something that allows me to do things in my own way, not something that's always great for reasons I don't understand. (...)
Do you think I could get what I want if I write or translate typography functions to that language, and then write programs to generate documents? Where could I find or where could I learn about such functions?