Hi ConTeXt community. While looking for free (preferably open-source) tools which I could use for typesetting a planned internal newsletter-booklet for a non-profit organization (to be released in printed form in regular intervals - each issue with new content of course, but same/similar style), I came across ConTeXt. I usually use Inkscape and various WYSIWYG word processing software for designing and layouting flyers/leaflets/etc., but in this case (many pages, varying and regularly updated content, consistent style) I'm afraid those tools simply don't cut in in terms of professional-quality typesetting capabilities and content//style separation. So programmatic typesetting might be the answer. I thought of LaTeX first, but I read from various sources that using ConTeXt might be easier for typesetting book-like things, especially if you want to design your own styles. Before I delve in deeper, though, I would like to ask you (the ConTeXt community) some questions: a) Is the ConTeXt project alive? The newest PDF documentation I could find seems to be from 2007; most of it is dated 2003 or older. b) Do you think that ConTeXt is an appropriate tool for the use case I described (be honest please ;-)), and easy enough to learn for someone with almost no TeX experience? The requirements are: - Support for elaborate, colorful, graphics-heavy design, which I would preferably create in Inkscape and then export as vector graphics (or port to ConTeXt's own graphics language) as necessary. - Ability to write a style *once* (with reasonable effort), and "outsource" it to an external file (or files), so that for each new release of the newsletter, only a simple content TeX file (or files) with minimal amount of markup is required (which e.g. even a non-tech-savvy writer/editor could edit) - Ability to easily include pictures in the content, and let the typesetting engine automatically position them (either in the main text area with text floating around them, or in special margin areas). c) Are there any full-featured examples of design-heavy booklets/magazines/etc created with ConTeXt., for which the full source code is publicly available? That would be *really* helpful in order to assess how much work would be required, and also to learn how exactly it's done in practice. Thanks! Sanja C.
On 2011-05-31 "Sanja C."
a) Is the ConTeXt project alive?
Yes
The newest PDF documentation I could find seems to be from 2007; most of it is dated 2003 or older.
http://pmrb.free.fr/contextref.pdf is from 2011-03-25
b) Do you think that ConTeXt is an appropriate tool for the use case I described (be honest please ;-)),and easy enough to learn for someone with almost no TeX experience? The requirements are: - Support for elaborate, colorful, graphics-heavy design, which I would preferably create in Inkscape and then export as vector graphics (or port to ConTeXt's own graphics language) as necessary.
Context is well suited for good typography and technical graphics. It's maybe not the perfect tool for DTP like magazines with very fancy layout. However it's no problem to include the graphics you create with inkscape, etc. Check http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/metafun-s.pdf for graphics related stuff.
- Ability to write a style *once* (with reasonable effort), and "outsource" it to an external file (or files), so that for each new release of the newsletter, only a simple content TeX file (or files) with minimal amount of markup is required (which e.g. even a non-tech-savvy writer/editor could edit)
Yes
- Ability to easily include pictures in the content, and let the typesetting engine automatically position them (either in the main text area with text floating around them, or in special margin areas).
Yes
c) Are there any full-featured examples of design-heavy booklets/magazines/etc created with ConTeXt., for which the full source code is publicly available?
I don't know about magazines created with ConTeXt. But you can check the manuals at http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Official_ConTeXt_Documentation there's also a link to the sources. Marco
On Tue 31 May 2011, Sanja C. wrote:
a) Is the ConTeXt project alive? The newest PDF documentation I could find seems to be from 2007; most of it is dated 2003 or older.
Very much alive! See http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Release_Notes for a list of recent releases (though betas come along much more frequently). While the documentation is voluminous it can be hard to navigate -- my order of searching tends to be wiki, manuals, mailing list. The old reference manual is indeed a little dated, but there's a new one under development at http://foundry.supelec.fr/gf/project/contextman/scmsvn/?action=browse&path=%2Fcontext-reference%2F .
- Support for elaborate, colorful, graphics-heavy design, which I would preferably create in Inkscape and then export as vector graphics (or port to ConTeXt's own graphics language) as necessary.
If you're generating graphics externally they can be as elaborate as you like -- just export as a PDF and include in your document. If you have complex design that needs to be integrated with the text -- e.g. non-rectangular columns or text flowing around arbitrary shapes -- I think this is possible but it might take a lot of work.
- Ability to write a style *once* (with reasonable effort), and "outsource" it to an external file (or files), so that for each new release of the newsletter, only a simple content TeX file (or files) with minimal amount of markup
I regard this as a major strength of ConTeXt, and I certainly found it much easier to produce a ConTeXt style than to do the equivalent when I was using LaTeX. See http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Project_structure for the recommended way to structure such things.
- Ability to easily include pictures in the content, and let the typesetting engine automatically position them (either in the main text area with text floating around them, or in special margin areas).
Yes.
c) Are there any full-featured examples of design-heavy booklets/magazines/etc created with ConTeXt., for which the full source code is publicly available?
I think the sources for the manuals themselves are probably the biggest publicly available example of ConTeXt in action. Magazines seldom release their source code, alas. You may want to look at http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Biochemistry_textbook and the linked example output for an idea of what a style file looks like and how it is applied. Demonstrates figure positioning nicely too. The source code for the book itself is not available, though. Hope this helps, Pont
On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 12:38 PM, Sanja C.
Hi ConTeXt community.
While looking for free (preferably open-source) tools which I could use for typesetting a planned internal newsletter-booklet for a non-profit organization (to be released in printed form in regular intervals - each issue with new content of course, but same/similar style), I came across ConTeXt.
I usually use Inkscape and various WYSIWYG word processing software for designing and layouting flyers/leaflets/etc., but in this case (many pages, varying and regularly updated content, consistent style) I'm afraid those tools simply don't cut in in terms of professional-quality typesetting capabilities and content//style separation.
So programmatic typesetting might be the answer. I thought of LaTeX first, but I read from various sources that using ConTeXt might be easier for typesetting book-like things, especially if you want to design your own styles.
Before I delve in deeper, though, I would like to ask you (the ConTeXt community) some questions:
a) Is the ConTeXt project alive? The newest PDF documentation I could find seems to be from 2007; most of it is dated 2003 or older.
It is very active, as you will soon see from the list traffic.
b) Do you think that ConTeXt is an appropriate tool for the use case I described (be honest please ;-)), and easy enough to learn for someone with almost no TeX experience? The requirements are: - Support for elaborate, colorful, graphics-heavy design, which I would preferably create in Inkscape and then export as vector graphics (or port to ConTeXt's own graphics language) as necessary.
- Ability to write a style *once* (with reasonable effort), and "outsource" it to an external file (or files), so that for each new release of the newsletter, only a simple content TeX file (or files) with minimal amount of markup is required (which e.g. even a non-tech-savvy writer/editor could edit) - Ability to easily include pictures in the content, and let the typesetting engine automatically position them (either in the main text area with text floating around them, or in special margin areas).
c) Are there any full-featured examples of design-heavy booklets/magazines/etc created with ConTeXt., for which the full source code is publicly available? That would be *really* helpful in order to assess how much work would be required, and also to learn how exactly it's done in practice.
Have a look at http://pragma-ade.com/showcase.pdf. If you can find
a sufficiently insecure system (the Windows XP system at my work
qualifies) you will be able to browse into the sample documents. I
think the Magazines entry deals with complex
layouts.
I'm involved with a scientific report series. We hired a professional
who did the initial design in Pagemaker. We then implemented this in
ConTeXt, mostly for the maths support, but the page layout was
superior too. The implementation was a big job, but the professional
did a lot of the work and was very pleased at the quality of the
result. It was not as hard as writing the LaTeX style we now use
(because authors already use LaTeX for journal articles but found it
difficult to get context working).
For projects that don't need maths we tend to use In Design or other
commercial tools, partly because printers understandably don't like
dealing with unknown software. It takes some time to train the
printers to trust ConTeXt or LaTeX produced documents, and then the
company goes under or is bought out by a bigger company and you have
to start over.
--
George N. White III
participants (4)
-
George N. White III -
Marco -
Pontus Lurcock -
Sanja C.