Thanks to all for your replies. They have all been enlightening. Your advises will all be well taken by me.<br><br>Later in the day I will address George's questions (I'm in as rush now!).<br>Best wishes,<br clear="all">
<br>Nicolas Vaughan<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 7:17 AM, George N. White III <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gnwiii@gmail.com" target="_blank">gnwiii@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div>On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 12:34 AM, Nicolas Vaughan<<a href="mailto:nivaca@gmail.com" target="_blank">nivaca@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
> Hello,<br>
> I have been commissioned by a university to design a collection of<br>
> monographs on mathematics. I should be providing a class file, a user manual<br>
> and a typeset example.<br>
<br>
</div>This leaves out the workflow. What steps are needed to go from the<br>
author's files to the press-ready files? Will there be resources to make<br>
corrections to crummy artwork, check bibliographic references, redo<br>
crummy tables, etc? Are you working with an existing university press?<br>
Do they have experience with TeX and mathematics?<br>
<div><br>
> At the outset, I decided to work in XeLaTeX, since this is the system I have<br>
> been working with lately, and with which I feel quite comfortable.<br>
> However, some folks have told me that, since I know not what the precise<br>
> content of the monographs will be (apart from the usual LaTeX packages and<br>
> AMS commands and environments), there is a risk there might be a clash<br>
> between XeLaTeX and the content (e.g., with commutative diagrams, perhaps?).<br>
> What do you suggest? Should I stick to plain old LaTeX, or should I go all<br>
> the way through with XeLaTeX?<br>
<br>
</div>Others have provided good advice, but it would help to know more about the<br>
background. If you expect authors to provide source documents you should<br>
consider what they are doing now, e.g., publishing in English language journals<br>
using LaTeX with eps figures and try to stay close to their existing workflows.<br>
<br>
In an environment were the source documents are mainly unicode (e.g., Word<br>
and not using English) and no legacy LaTeX workflow, XeLaTeX might be easier<br>
for the authors.<br>
<br>
Ross Moore mentioned problems with author-generated figures. Do you have<br>
any control over how figures are created? Many publishers still want "EPS",<br>
by which they mean Adobe Illustrator files. I find that older authors have some<br>
experience with EPS, but that it is a mystery to those who have only used<br>
MS Office. PDF is much more accessible (everyone has a PDF viewer)<br>
so you should be prepared to consider a PDF workflow if EPS is not<br>
something your authors have experienced.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
George N. White III <<a href="mailto:aa056@chebucto.ns.ca" target="_blank">aa056@chebucto.ns.ca</a>><br>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br>