Quote:
Originally Posted by salamanderjuice
There's tools to generate SVG equations from LaTeX. Like this one. Pandoc will also spit out MathML from LaTeX with zero effort into an ePub. I can create better ePubs from my own stuff in 30 seconds than I can buy.
MathML being written in essentially plain text means file sizes are considerably smaller as opposed to images. It's also easier for accessibility as screen readers can be set up to deal with it while SVG or pngs means somebody has to write the proper alt tags for them. While SVG is better than PNG the increased file size from using hundreds of images makes a lot of readers choke in my experience which is well not a great experience. Often the ePub is bigger than the PDF. |
Yes, but to get back to reality, in which eBooks sold via Amazon outsell pretty much everything else and nobody wants to pay a small fortune for an eBook that is unsupported, or worse, for which Amazon will give you a KQN (Kindle Quality Notice), the reality is, you can't "only" use MathML. You can't "only" use SVG.
You either use MathML+JPGs or SVG+JPGS. Them's the choices. And that's a whole other thang.
BTW, our experience with Pandoc "spitting out" MathML from LaTEX--yeah, maybe that works for you, on YOUR own work. We get files that are ancient, or using a version of LaTEX from when Fred & Barney were riding Brontosauruses to work and the cruft we get out is fugly. Just saying.
I have yet to see one single laTEX conversion--ever--from some typical walk-in-the-door guy's files that wasn't a goddamned nightmare. It's all well and good if the person using it, is the person who will be making the final file. However, I seem to have a magic ability to attract half-baked college professors that suddenly find themselves without their latest TA or PA or whatever and only know how to do things ONE way and it's invariably the bloody WRONG way.
/rant.
(Sorry, listen, I'm all for someone, some genius, somewhere, coming up with a supported way to do MathML. I really am. But in the meantime...)
Hitch