[CLUE-Tech] Sean's questions from Scribus presentation

[Matt Gushee]

Hi, all--

During my KISS session the other night, Sean LeBlanc asked a couple of
good questions which I declined to answer at that time, since they
weren't directly relevant to the topic. Since I didn't get a chance to
talk to him either, here are the answers:

(Sean, I'm assuming you're still on this list. If not, let me know. Uh,
wait a sec ... well, let me know if you are;-)


Q: What's ConTeXt? Where can one get more info about it?

A: ConTeXt is a general-purpose TeX macro package. By "general-purpose,"
   I mean that it is useful for producing a wide variety of documents,
   especially large ones. In some ways ConTeXt is an alternative for
   LaTeX, but in my opinion LaTeX is still best for scientific and
   mathematical texts, whereas ConTeXt is better for non-technical
   works. I find that it is easier to implement my own design ideas in
   ConTeXt than in LaTeX. Also notable: ConTeXt has built-in support for
   XML source files, and there is an extension package for processing
   DocBook XML.

   Like most things in TeX, ConTeXt has a substantial learning curve, so
   it's probably not worthwhile to just play around with it. But if you
   get the ConTeXt manuals, they are of course produced in ConTeXt, so
   they'll give you an idea of what you can do with the system before
   you dive in.

   ConTeXt is bundled with teTeX, but it's a very old version and not
   properly configured, so I wouldn't suggest trying to work with it.
   The latest version and documentation are available at:

     <http://www.pragma-ade.com/>


Q: Where did you get all those nice fonts?

A: Well, I bought most of them. I think you have to if you're serious
   about publishing or typesetting. There just aren't that many really
   good free fonts available.

   Well, let me qualify that. If you just need display fonts, there are
   a lot of decent ones available for free. But text fonts (i.e. ones 
   that are suitable for the body text of a book or magazine) require a
   higher degree of craftsmanship. I can only think of about two free 
   fonts I would want to use for the body of a book: Utopia and Gentium.
   Utopia doesn't seem quite right for the kinds of publications I'm
   working with at the moment, and Gentium has no bold.

   So anyway, most of the fonts I am using now are from the FontSite 500
   collection, which comes from The FontSite (www.fontsite.com). It's a
   CD with mostly clones of well-known and well-regarded typefaces--
   which makes it a bit questionable on ethical grounds. But at least
   the designs are mostly classics, so they're not ripping off current
   designers, and the price is hard to beat: $50. Any single font family
   from a major foundry (e.g. Monotype, Bitstream, Adobe, etc.) would
   cost at least $100, and usually $2-300.

   There are also a couple of good independent designers worth
   mentioning: Ray Larabie (www.larabiefonts.com) and Mr. Chank Diesel
   (www.chank.com). They both produce commercial fonts and some good
   freebies; I've bought the full version of Larabie's Blue Highway
   family, which you've probably seen somewhere.

   One other good resource is Luc Devroye's site, which has links to 
   just about everything in the font world:

     http://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/fonts.html


PS: if you do get the FontSite 500, you will save yourself some trouble
    by using the TrueType fonts for OpenOffice but Type 1 for everything
    else. I can explain why if anybody wants to know.

-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Haven Rock Press            Horses bear manure through
Englewood, Colorado, USA        its fields;   
books at havenrock.com         When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)