[ale] Print vs electronic: Was: Remove systemd network handling
Steve Litt
slitt at troubleshooters.com
Mon Sep 27 19:41:48 EDT 2021
Thanks Liam!
I always thought of Calibre as just an infinite bookshelf, and had no
idea it had anything to do with LaTeX. I'll look into it.
As far as Pandoc, everyone recommends it, but I've never encountered a
person who claimed to be fluent and competent in it. I did enough
reading and experimentation on Pandoc to conclude I wasn't going to go
through that jungle without somebody in front of me cutting a trail.
SteveT
Leam Hall via Ale said on Mon, 27 Sep 2021 17:46:12 -0500
>Steve, have you looked at Calibre? In my "big plan" is to learn more
>LaTeX so I can format for Calibre better. It's not a high priority yet
>since I'm just doing fiction, and there's no real need for markup. Of
>course, you have to dive into Calibre to realize they actually do
>conversions like that. I found out on IRC, I think.
>
> https://calibre-ebook.com
>
>Supposedly Pandoc does better HTML for docs, but I haven't tried it.
>
>Leam
>
>On 9/27/21 4:53 PM, Steve Litt via Ale wrote:
>> Good information Liam, thank you!
>>
>> Yeah, I carried 1st edition "The C Programming Language" by K&R, in
>> my backpack, for about 10 years, kept taping it up as it fell apart,
>> and finally it just shredded and I bought the 2nd edition.
>>
>> I'll carry a $20.00 book to the beach, and if somebody rips it off or
>> it gets sand or water on it, oh well. I couldn't say the same thing
>> for a $400.00, 8x10" reading device, which is how big you'd need to
>> make it to even hope that the graphic and the text referencing it
>> are on the same page.
>>
>> I'm writing a diagram-heavy book right now, to be sold as a 3"x5"
>> PDF, and entire pages are consumed by a single diagram. I wonder if,
>> for every order, I should produce an additional 8.5"x11" copy.
>>
>> The obvious solution, ePub, is impractical right now because LyX
>> outputs atrocious HTML and therefore atrocious ePub, and I haven't
>> yet found a tool chain good enough to write the kinds of books I
>> write, output to ePub. But this could change.
>>
>> Thanks for your input.
>>
>> SteveT
>>
>>
>> Leam Hall via Ale said on Sat, 25 Sep 2021 20:07:24 -0500
>>
>>> For me it's more choice than issue. I mostly read technical books,
>>> and have to flip back and forth between the graphic description and
>>> the text. Harder to do with an ereader. With fiction I get through
>>> a page fairly quickly, though I'm by no means super fast. Reading
>>> on my computer is less desirable; my office is always the warmest
>>> room in the house, and I haven't talked myself into a comfortable
>>> chair yet. Since I spend most of the day here, being elsewhere is a
>>> nice break. I can sit in the living room with a book, and not have
>>> to stare at a screen.
>>>
>>> Which is kind of funny, since the few books I've published are
>>> ebooks only. :)
>>>
>>> Leam
>>>
>>> On 9/25/21 5:18 PM, Bob Toxen via Ale wrote:
>>>> Uh, I swap foreground/background colors to show white text on a
>>>> black background, for decades. MUCH EASIER on the eyes!
>>>>
>>>> As I've aged I increase font size.
>>>>
>>>> Bob
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Sep 25, 2021 at 04:09:48PM -0400, Steve Litt via Ale
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> Leam Hall via Ale said on Fri, 24 Sep 2021 18:36:18 -0500
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 9/24/21 6:10 PM, Steve Litt via Ale wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> And who in 2021 would write a document on printed
>>>>>>> paper?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> SteveT
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *raises hand slowly*
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Easier on my old eyes, and I read fast enough that a kindle slows
>>>>>> me down.
>>>>>
>>>>> Yeahhh, for the most part the dead trees argument was sparring
>>>>> between two guys with a very different view of the world, and can
>>>>> safely be ignored. But because one of the things I do for a living
>>>>> is write, produce and publish books, I'm very interested in your
>>>>> preceding sentence.
>>>>>
>>>>> It sounds to me like printed documents are actually easier on your
>>>>> eyes, I presume giving you less eye strain, headaches, etc. Is
>>>>> this because of the glaring white background, or some other
>>>>> reason? If the glaring white background, do your devices give you
>>>>> the option of using a light tan background? Does that help?
>>>>>
>>>>> Some people (like me) have no choice but to read electronic docs,
>>>>> because we can't comfortably focus on anything less than 15
>>>>> point. A normal paperback printed in a font I can read would be
>>>>> five or six inches thick, whereas on a device I can crank it up
>>>>> to clock face type size and read comfortably. Does your eyesight
>>>>> restrict the font size you can read?
>>>>>
>>>>> Are you one of those people able to read line by line instead of
>>>>> word by word? If so, I can well imagine that five or six words per
>>>>> line would slow you down. On mobile devices, have you tried
>>>>> turning the device landscape so you get longer lines? Of course,
>>>>> doing so means you have to page down much too often, and that
>>>>> would slow you down.
>>>>>
>>>>> Do you ever consider reading on your computer monitor? Doing so
>>>>> would solve the words per line and lines per page problems, but
>>>>> would eliminate the portability most people require.
>>>>>
>>>>> I can't go back to printing my books; it's economically infeasible
>>>>> now that I have to compete with PDF and ePub books. But I *can*
>>>>> work to bring the benefits of printed books to my PDFs and ePubs.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> SteveT
>>>>>
>>>>> Steve Litt
>>>>> Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the
>>>>> Successful Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques
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>>> Systems Programmer (reuel.net/resume)
>>> Scribe: The Domici War (domiciwar.net)
>>> General Ne'er-do-well (github.com/LeamHall)
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>General Ne'er-do-well (github.com/LeamHall)
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