Building the New Hypermedia Systems
The new edition of Hypermedia Systems was redesigned using Typst, a LaTeX replacement, improving design fidelity. Challenges in PDF generation were overcome, enhancing typesetting quality and design flexibility significantly.
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The new edition of Hypermedia Systems has been redesigned using Typst, a LaTeX replacement, to improve design fidelity. The previous version was challenging to produce in print using AsciiDoc due to limitations in PDF generation tools. Despite difficulties with Paged.js and HTML-to-PDF conversion, a usable PDF was eventually created. The transition to Typst involved converting the manuscript from AsciiDoc to DocBook XML and then to Typst, with additional adjustments required. Notably, Typst lacks features like code block callouts and indexing, which had to be implemented manually. The new edition showcases improved typesetting and design flexibility, allowing for finer control over layout elements like paragraph indentation and emphasis styling. Typst's advanced typesetting capabilities, akin to TeX, offer a superior reading experience compared to browsers. While Typst excels in print production, the lack of HTML output necessitates separate strategies for online publishing. Despite challenges and manual interventions during the migration process, the use of Typst has enhanced the overall design and typesetting quality of Hypermedia Systems.
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9 commentsAnd the results have been fantastic when compared with the asciidoc version we created initially. The repo is here if you want to see how he uses it:
https://github.com/bigskysoftware/hypermedia-systems-book
You can fork it and build either a pdf or epub using the just commands: `just build-pdf` and `just build-epub`. I also uploaded the epub to libgen.
We also had a pixel artist do a new cover for the paper back version:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSsMjBra4AAOQZ_?format=jpg&name=...
p+p {text-indent:5em} seems pretty simple? I just did a quick test and it seemed to work when I broke up a few paragraphs with an h1, a ul, and a div. This isn't anything esoteric, it's CSS2 stuff that's been working for twenty years. Though "typst breaks lines 500% better than most browsers" is a compelling argument on its own.
I've been waiting for Typst to get HTML output. It's been under development for quite a while but seems to suffer from some bikeshedding [1].
Glad to see there's Pandoc support for Typst HTML (and LaTeX) export as a workaround. Gotta try it for my next paper!
Typst is a better 70s answer for a 70s-level ambition, which is a fine level of ambition when you're just out of punch-card programming.
The only reason to learn Latex is the same reason to learn C++: Everyone else uses it
And honestly, I think that is the better way to go. You don't have to chase down weird commands (how do you set LaTeX to use Lato as the main font again?) and you get instant feedback on how things look.
I haven't found a way to mark text up as "this is a blockquote" and then have that mapped to the correct style, and it seems to lack a few of the more esoteric font features LaTeX does support. The fact that you get instant feedback and can tweak the relevant knobs as much as you like? That means you get a much nicer layout.
If you have a Windows machine with the Office package, you get Microsoft Publisher, which I believe can import Word documents and extract the style from that.
Scribus can map styles from imported files, but last time I checked I couldn't get it to auto update the view when you changed the font.
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