[XeTeX] XeLaTeX and math --- a structural design query

[Nicolas Vaughan]

Hello George,

> This leaves out the workflow.   What steps are needed to go from the
> author's files to the press-ready files?   Will there be resources to make
> corrections to crummy artwork, check bibliographic references, redo
> crummy tables, etc?   Are you working with an existing university press?
> Do they have experience with TeX and mathematics?

The collection will be based initially on Ma and PhD monographs from the
last five years. It is expected that, at the very least, a LaTeX (AMS
compliant) source is still available.
Artwork is prone to be redone. (See e.g. this one real-life case:
http://i41.tinypic.com/rw2lx0.jpg)
I will be dealing with an existing university press, but one with almost no
experience with LaTeX.

I will surely be supervising directly the first numbers in the
collection---and perhaps, if time allows, I will be producing them myself.
As for the new monographs, I will provide an author guide, dealing with
basic graphics and typesetting requirements. That ought not to be an issue.

I do not expect to deal with fancy Unicode typography. But I do wish to use
semibold weight faces, real small caps, and the like.

What do you gather?
Best wishes,

Nicolas


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