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Hi, Paul,<br>
<br>
Thank you! I've joined the texhax list. (Is that pronounced "hack"
or "hacks"?)<br>
<br>
Thanks for your replies. I have some follow-up questions,
specifically about TeX formats (LaTeX, ConTeXt, XeTeX, etc.) I've
actually been a LaTeX user for years, and written a few of my own
macros, mostly cobbled together from examples I found elsewhere.<br>
<br>
The problem I'm now facing is trying to create a server that can
produce results "similar to"[1] InDesign, but much faster. This
would be for documents already created in InDesign and exported to
an XML format, so the task would be to convert the XML to
whatever-TeX (possibly via XSLT), and then compose the results at a
rate of thousands of pages per minute. The server would have to
support TrueType/OpenType and Type 1 fonts, though I could put off
worrying about CID-keyed fonts for a while. It *may* be possible to
convert any required fonts to T1 format, and even extract TFM on the
fly.<br>
<br>
Ideally, I'd like to be able to invoke this server with some style
parameters, box dimensions, and a stream of marked-up text. The
stream could contain TeX mark-up for changing fonts, color, style,
etc. We'd like to have something like longtables also. The server
would return the formatted composed box (in .dvi format?) and a
pointer to how much of the input text stream was able to fit in the
box, so that the server could be re-invoked with another box for
overflow.<br>
<br>
I don't mind the propsect of writing my own macros, but I don't want
to duplicate features that are already available in some existing
format or package.<br>
<br>
Thanks very much!<br>
<br>
-pd<br>
<br>
<br>
[1] I don't have a rigorous definition of "similar to." The goal is
that an InDesign user should not be surprised by the results.<br>
<br>
<br>
On 10/23/2010 5:54 AM, Paul Isambert wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4CC2B0E5.3090903@free.fr" type="cite">
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Hello Peter,<br>
<br>
I've redirected your message to <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:texhax@tug.org">texhax@tug.org</a>,
a mailing list for TeX that is widely frequented (the pdfTeX
mailing list is not really active). You'll find the list archives
here: <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/texhax">http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/texhax</a><br>
<br>
As for the questions:<br>
<br>
1) Thousands of pages per minutes is doable, but the speed really
depends on what you do with pdfTeX. Simply text can go really
fast. Complex operations can take much more time.<br>
2) pdfTeX implements the HZ-program and can do that both in dvi
and pdf.<br>
3) No. There exists complex procedures to use Open- or TrueType
fonts, but you don't want to go into that (me neither). In pdfTeX,
it's either tfm (TeX native font format) or PostScript T1. But:
there exist XeTeX and LuaTeX. Both allow you to use any kind of
font. XeTeX don't produce dvi, though -- but anyway you can't use
any font with dvi.<br>
<br>
No need to apologize, by the way.<br>
<br>
My two cents is: if you want a top-notch typographic system, use
ConTeXt MkIV; ConTeXt is TeX, but with many things on top of it.
You generally don't use TeX as is: instead, you use a set of
macros, often called a format, which perhaps you've written by
yourself (in which case you're free <i>and </i>lonely). ConTeXt
is a format, and it's probably the most powerful of all, at least
when it comes to typography. Speed is not its forte, though. LaTeX
is another format, it's a little bit faster, but if you're looking
for ``InDesign composition, with suitable parameters'', I wouldn't
recommend it. Finally, you can write your own set of macros, but
that's definitely not the better way to start!<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Paul<br>
<br>
<br>
Le 23/10/2010 10:41, Peter Davis a écrit :
<blockquote
cite="mid:AANLkTi=cQO-Ef37FP7_Ft2qwVUSeUnkd4vzEvYpKn8pY@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">I'm looking at the possibility of using TeX as a
composition server, something to compose blocks of text or
pages in a high volume workflow. From what I've learned, TeX,
and in particular pdfTeX, is capable of producing output
that's very similar to InDesign composition, with suitable
parameters. So I have a few question perhaps this audience
can help with.
<div> <br>
</div>
<div>1) Is there any way to gauge roughly what kind of
throughput I could get? Could a single TeX process on a
state-of-the-art Intel box, for example, produce hundreds of
pages per minute? Thousands? Tens or hundreds of
thousands? (I'm assuming A4 or letter pages of just text.)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>2) Is it only pdfTeX which uses hz-program-like
composition, with glyph scaling, etc.? If so, is it
possible to use pdfTeX to produce .dvi (or does .dvi
prohibit the use of glyph scaling)? I'd like to be able to
generate bitmaps for JPEG/GIF/PNG output as well as PDF.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>3) Will pdfTeX work with all the standard font formats? </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Apologies for my ignorance, but I'm eager to learn more.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thank you.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div> -pd</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
--------
Peter Davis
The Tech Curmudgeon - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.techcurmudgeon.com">http://www.techcurmudgeon.com</a>
Ideas Great and Dumb - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ideasgreatanddumb.com">http://www.ideasgreatanddumb.com</a>
</pre>
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