Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
From where I sit, we're waiting on Adobe. Publishers all use InDesign to do typeset and markup. The output from InDesign is a PDF that goes to the printer and is used to make plates. InDesign can output ePub as well as PDF, but the ePub output is terrible.
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I can understand the attachment to InDesign. It is doing its job well, and "everybody knows how to do it". It is impossible to eliminate it, really. For both PDF and plates.
However, ePub is new requirement for that process, and insisting on ePub production from InDesign is just one of the choices.
The second one is going the DocBook route. The extra step, conversion from Microsoft word to DocBook (XML, really) pays off, as one can early strip off all extra formatting in Word file (which happens at some point, anyway), and then proofreading process can more efficiently fix the structure of the publication (things like chapters, sections, etc.). By the time that one is finished with the conversion, result is very "tame" for importing into InDesign, and typesetting
The result is, also, very "tame" for ePub production, as conversion (with predefined template) from DocBook to ePub is yet another script. And not overly complex at that.
O'Reilly deals with publications that are way more complex than Baen books when it comes to typesetting. They are tech savvy, aren't they? And they did go with the DocBook.