Software for writing Go books

Bill Spight · **#21**

Alakazam wrote:

I also want to wait until I get stronger, it's kind of a chicken and egg thing. If I'm not stronger, my book may not be as attractive. If I work on a book now, I may not get stronger very quickly

That may be so, but I kind of doubt it. Writing can help you get stronger.

I think I would be about 2 stones weaker if I had not put out a quarterly go newsletter way back when.

Alakazam · **#22**

Well, I guess the problem at the moment is that i don't have time. it would take away from my league games or lessons, which surely make me stronger than writing would.

Phelan · **#23**

At least start taking notes now, so you don't forget the ideas later when you do have time to write it.

unkx80 · **#24**

Using LaTeX is like creating web pages by typing out the HTML source code. It is hard to say whether LaTeX is better than Word for those who never used it before, because the learning curve of LaTeX is really steep. However, having learnt some LaTeX, I will not go back to Microsoft Word for creating mid to large sized documents. LaTeX produced documents usually looks more professional than Microsoft Word documents.

As for diagrams, please use vector graphics over bitmap graphics. A number of SGF editors can export vector graphics. Look for those that export to formats like .svg, .ps, .pdf, .emf, and .wmf. Don't use formats like .jpg, .gif, .png, and .bmp. Bitmap graphics look very grainy when printed.

Whatever tool you use to create your book, please do not use the Comic Sans font. In my opinion, it looks terribly unprofessional.

freegame · **#25**

@ Alakazam

Sounds like nice plans for your book, though I wouldn't put joseki's in there myself

@ unkx80

I presume you are a graphical designer or something close to that. I got exactly the same comment about the Comic Sans font from someone else.
I had just randomly picked it and since you are only the second person to "complain" it seems like a lot of work to change it to please only very few people.
But who knows. If i decide to change the bitmaps to vector diagrams I will pick another font for the letters and numbers.
(By the way, I used it only for the letters and numbers in the diagrams, not the rest of the text

)

Solomon · **#26**

unkx80 wrote:

Using LaTeX is like creating web pages by typing out the HTML source code. It is hard to say whether LaTeX is better than Word for those who never used it before, because the learning curve of LaTeX is really steep. However, having learnt some LaTeX, I will not go back to Microsoft Word for creating mid to large sized documents. LaTeX produced documents usually looks more professional than Microsoft Word documents.

As for diagrams, please use vector graphics over bitmap graphics. A number of SGF editors can export vector graphics. Look for those that export to formats like .svg, .ps, .pdf, .emf, and .wmf. Don't use formats like .jpg, .gif, .png, and .bmp. Bitmap graphics look very grainy when printed.

Whatever tool you use to create your book, please do not use the Comic Sans font. In my opinion, it looks terribly unprofessional.

Personally, I think LaTeX doesn't have such a steep learning curve. There is a lot of depth in what you can learn, but getting started and learning the basics is not so difficult. I learned a lot when I first got introduced to LaTeX simply by looking at source code from PDFs that my professors would post up whom I emailed if I could see the tex file; something I couldn't do if I tried to learn, say, Perl

. There are also some Office-like suites that use LaTeX I think, though I don't think they're available for Windows, to make the experience even easier.

And 100% on your stance regarding Comic Sans, along with Brush...and Papyrus

. Actually, for some reason, I also get just as irked from Arial (why not Helvetica or Verdana?) and Times New Romans (why not Georgia?).

unkx80 · **#27**

freegame wrote:

@ unkx80

I presume you are a graphical designer or something close to that.

Sorry, nowhere close to that.

unkx80 · **#28**

Araban wrote:

And 100% on your stance regarding Comic Sans, along with Brush...and Papyrus

. Actually, for some reason, I also get just as irked from Arial (why not Helvetica or Verdana?) and Times New Romans (why not Georgia?).

Hmm interesting. I thought Arial and Times New Roman are okay, albeit a bit too overused. I actually prefer the Times font over the Computer Modern, which is the default LaTeX font.

Bill Spight · **#29**

unkx80 wrote:

Using LaTeX is like creating web pages by typing out the HTML source code. It is hard to say whether LaTeX is better than Word for those who never used it before, because the learning curve of LaTeX is really steep. However, having learnt some LaTeX, I will not go back to Microsoft Word for creating mid to large sized documents. LaTeX produced documents usually looks more professional than Microsoft Word documents.

Having written for go publication, IMX Word sucks for the task. I spent more time trying to get the graphics placed correctly than writing text or creating the graphics in the first place. (It isn't just that they move around. Strange things happen.

) I never learned LaTex, but my impression is that you have to know it pretty well to make a good layout for go. For self-publication my suggestion is to use a real publishing program.

Quote:

As for diagrams, please use vector graphics over bitmap graphics. A number of SGF editors can export vector graphics. Look for those that export to formats like .svg, .ps, .pdf, .emf, and .wmf. Don't use formats like .jpg, .gif, .png, and .bmp. Bitmap graphics look very grainy when printed.

EPS files work well, IMX.

kirkmc · **#30**

I've used Word professionally with many complex documents, and it does work well, if you really now what you're doing. Placing graphics involves a bunch of tricks that most people don't know. This said, it's not a layout program, and I agree with Bill that one should use a tool designed for the job. On the Mac side, there's Pages, which is quite good; I think Publisher on Windows would probably do the trick. But if the book's not complex, Word will work, once you figure out how to get the graphics right.

unkx80 · **#31**

Bill Spight wrote:

EPS files work well, IMX.

Don't know why I missed .eps when I always turned my graphics files into .eps for LaTeX usage... :roll:

CheeseNPickle · **#32**

One more vote for LaTeX. Yes it does produce nice output but there are some other reasons I think. LaTeX will keep track of numbering your figures very nicely. Delete one figure and all the rest get renumbered. You can give a figure a label in the code, then instead of remembering "figure 123" you can type \cite{lgroupdead1} or similar and the number gets updated. Word can do this but I think you need to buy the Endnote software. Also, against copy and pasting the figures in - it's great (apart for quality issues) if you never want to change them, triangles to squares, typos etc but if you need to fix that stuff it can probably get a bit dull redoing them from scratch. Also, there are some easy-to-use user interfaces to make using LaTeX easier. Copying then modifying a figure is easy when its just text. Finally, with regards the learning curve I'd get a working example of a tex file then modify it (e.g. the igo manual that comes in tex format). Fine tuning the appearance can come later.

edit: not cite, ref (ugh!)

Solomon · **#33**

Helel wrote:

Some things you may look at:
MikTeX. (LaTeX for Windoze)
AUCTeX. (To customize the Emacs editor to LaTeX. The imao best/easiest way to use LaTeX.)
CTAN. (Free repository of all things TeX and LaTeX, including free user guides)

On OS X, TeXShop is just fantastic.

unkx80 · **#34**

I am primarily a Windows user. On Windows, MikTeX is fantastic.

You need to include some package on CTAN that's not already installed in your MikTeX installation? Just do it, and during compilation the program can offer to download and install it automatically for you. This feature is too convenient for me to pass up.

(Yes, LaTeX users compile their documents. This term sure sounds scary to non-LaTeX users!)

Caroliano · **#35**

Quote:

And 100% on your stance regarding Comic Sans, along with Brush...and Papyrus

. Actually, for some reason, I also get just as irked from Arial (why not Helvetica or Verdana?) and Times New Romans (why not Georgia?).

Obligatory xkcd reference:

Alt-Text:"I secretly, deep in my guilty heart, like Papyrus and don't care if it's overused. [Cue hate mail in beautifully-kerned Helvetica.]"

Freegame, for undesrtanding the comic and the graphic designers feelings you may start here and then click on Comics Sans to understand the problem.

Imagine someone when discovers that the WHOLE book he BOUGHT and WANTED TO READ is using comic sans? Arght, it is too horrible to imagine! So, some people may not cope very well with this... If you treasure your life, or at least the well being of others, please don't do this. :evil:

As the title says, we need more dialog boxes like this: http://www.globalnerdy.com/2007/06/21/t ... like-this/
The coments on this blog entry are also very good.

unkx80 · **#36**

Caroliano wrote:

Imagine someone when discovers that the WHOLE book he BOUGHT and WANTED TO READ is using comic sans? Arght, it is too horrible to imagine! So, some people may not cope very well with this... If you treasure your life, or at least the well being of others, please don't do this. :evil:

I had something close to this. Some years ago, I attended a course taught by two lecturers, one of them a visiting professor from Stanford. All his PowerPoint slides were formatted in Comic Sans, every single word of it... :roll:

freegame · **#37**

I'm half way through changing all diagrams to vector graphics (eps) and helvetica font.

It is a lot of work redoing all the diagrams...

Elesthor · **#38**

A great +1 for Latex =D

In order to write a book, the learning curve isn't too long (you've just to master the basic of it) =)

On OsX, the best choice is Textmate+Latex if you are familiar with advanced text editors.

I've also heard about TexMaker on Windows, but i think it is more for scientific publishes.

Your printing looks nice :cool:

freegame · **#39**

Elesthor wrote:

Your printing looks nice :cool:

hehe, all new diagrams are boring vector graphics. so no textured stones anymore.
the old bitmaps were fine for 90+% of the times. but there were a few grainy diagrams.
I hope that with the new vector diagram they will all have the same quality.

Software for writing Go books

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