A quick search on Google found this. Keith http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ReSourCe/AuthorGuidelines/Illustrations/sect1. asp http://pubs.acs.org/books/artwork.shtml -----Original Message----- From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl [mailto:ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl] On Behalf Of Mojca Miklavec Sent: 25 October 2005 19:57 To: mailing list for ConTeXt users Subject: [NTG-context] TeX & chemistry (was: alignment of figures) Jörg Hagmann wrote:

I use "Chemdraw", save as .pict and finish it in Illustrator. I will eventually look into PPCHTEX, but at the moment struggling with ConTEXt is all I can do. There is a problem with my method: the formula saved as .pict look awful (bonds shifted, atoms not aligned etc.) and I have to correct everything by hand in Illustrator. I am sure PPCHTEX would do a better job. On the other hand, if I switch the formulae should look the same (bondlength, thickness, font etc.) as the ones I already did (and don't want to do again). I suppose that's feasable?

I may be wrong, but I doubt that PPCHTEX would satisfy your needs. It's a complicated notation which is not flexible enough (I gave up since there were quite some cases for which I wasn't able to draw what I wanted to.) XymTeX is more powerful, but not supported by ConTeXt (although you can still draw single formulas in LaTeX and import them into ConTeXt as pictures) and still with very complex notation. (I would say that all you need is a better export from Chemdraw, but as this is a proprietary software I doubt that there are any specifications how to write an exporting module. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I wish I were.) I'm playing a bit with drawing formulas in metafun, but my question is: are there any guidelines about how a nice formula should look like? (Yes, I have problems to decide how thick the lines have to be, how to draw a triple or a steric bond properly, which size of letters to use). Knuth did a marvellous job with drawing math formulae in TeX, there are many books about typography, but I've never seen anything about chemistry and I haven't found anyone who could answer me this question. Mojca _______________________________________________ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.361 / Virus Database: 267.12.5 - Release Date: 24/10/2005 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.361 / Virus Database: 267.12.5 - Release Date: 24/10/2005

Am Dienstag, 25. Oktober 2005 20:56 schrieb Mojca Miklavec:

Jörg Hagmann wrote:

...

I am sure PPCHTEX would do a better job.

If PPCHTeX is capable of drawing your formulas. I tried it, and apart from complicated notation it can not draw seven rings, and you need "work arounds" for certain bond angles, and there were other things either very complicated to code or not at all. There seems to be no big user community of PPCHTeX and no development.

I may be wrong, but I doubt that PPCHTEX would satisfy your needs. It's a complicated notation which is not flexible enough

Have a look into the PPCHTEeX-manual and see if it covers all your needs.

XymTeX is more powerful, but not supported by ConTeXt and still with very complex notation.

True, and also XyMTeX lacks a lot of possibilities - apart from seven rings many bicyclo-compounds are not possible, if I remember right. Additionally, it is not possible to colorize bonds and atoms or to make them bold etc. (this is possible with PPCHTeX). Then there is ochem by Ingo Klöckl, perhaps the most powerful chemistry solution in terms of possible compounds - but only for LaTeX, and again with a very peculiar notation and a steep learning curve. Colorization of bonds only with PostScript-editing. Finally there is streetex by Igor Strokov - again for LaTeX, more powerful in terms of possible compounds than PPCHTeX or XyMTeX and much easier (more intuitive) to use. However, as with XyMTeX it is not possible to colorize bonds and atoms or to make them bold etc.

I would say that all you need is a better export from Chemdraw

Recent versions of Cambrigde Soft ChemDraw can produce very nice output in various formats. Additionally, ChemDraw has the feature IUPAC name to structure - this is very handy, and no TeX-solution has that. Yours sincerely Tobias Hilbricht

Many thanks for all the suggestions on incorporating chemical formula. PPCHEMTEX now looks like something to play with, but not something I will switch to whith a deadline for writing the book coming closer. From the publisher I got an example of the layout (a book they had published), and they have symbols in the inside-margins. The "binding" (gluing?) seems to allow that. It's not pretty, but the book opens flat on a table. And this might interest or amuse the professionals on this site: half a year ago, I sent in a "test chapter" as a pdf file, accompanied by a tex-file. I expected them (whoever is responsible) to say they wanted it in Word (they had told me that based on the test-chapter, they would prepare a Word-"mask" for me to fill in text and figures), but to my surprise they thought it looked pretty good, and that if I could "do just a few minor changes", they could print it as is - but that they didn't have anybody who "knows TeX". Now of course I'm a bit nervous, not to say afraid, because I'm pretty sure the "minor changes" will be way beyond my capabilities... Cheers, Jörg. Prof. Dr.med. Jörg Hagmann-Zanolari Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics DKBW, University of Basel Mattenstrasse 28 CH-4058 Basel Switzerland Phone +41 (0)61 6953049