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Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?
From: |
Peter Schaffter |
Subject: |
Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible? |
Date: |
Sun, 23 Oct 2016 18:45:27 -0400 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) |
On Sun, Oct 23, 2016, Gerard Lally wrote:
> > Would I consider tackling the illustrated page? No way, my
> > sense of responsible typography forbids it.
>
> Well the sample is meaningless; I searched for a "desktop publishing"
> image and chose that one at random as a reasonably complex example of
> what I had in mind.
Good thing you said that. I had to bite my tongue not to comment on
the extraordinarily poor layout. :)
> Good typography is one of the reasons I am hoping to standardize
> on *roff. It's going to be a lifetime commitment for me. I can see
> its value with regard to normal document formatting, but I was
> curious to know whether it could be pushed to handle more complex
> DTP, brochure and business card layouts.
Further to my other reply, I worked extensively with both page
layout programs and "blind" typesetting systems (formatting inserted
into plain text, like groff) when I was at Les Maîtres Typographes
in Montréal. We found it was orders of magnitude faster to do
catalogue pages, brochures, DVD covers, and the like with a page
layout program. Equally, it was vastly more efficient to do things
like books, annual reports, and technical documentation using a
groff-like system.
IOW, neither a page layout program nor groff is one-size-fits-all,
although, bottom line, groff will provide you with better control
over the typography.
If you're truly committed to groff for this kind of work, consider
using the mom macros, which provide a very fine-grained "front-end"
to the typographic side of things.
Hope this, and everyone else's comments, are of assistance.
--
Peter Schaffter
http://www.schaffter.ca
- [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, Gerard Lally, 2016/10/23
- Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, Robert Thorsby, 2016/10/23
- Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, Gerard Lally, 2016/10/23
- Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?,
Peter Schaffter <=
- Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, Damian McGuckin, 2016/10/23
- Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, Gerard Lally, 2016/10/24
- Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, Damian McGuckin, 2016/10/24
- Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, Gerard Lally, 2016/10/24
- Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, Ted Harding, 2016/10/24
- Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, John Gardner, 2016/10/24
- Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, Werner LEMBERG, 2016/10/24
Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, Ted Harding, 2016/10/23
Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?, Peter Schaffter, 2016/10/23