Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal
Why do you want a PDF? In you blog post you say you cant do complex layouts? what complex layouts can you not do with EPUB?
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There are many complex layouts you can do in epub, but you can't do everything. Off the top of my head, double columns. Not something I'd do in the manual (then again, maybe), but it's an option when you're working with LaTeX. Then there's floating sidebars: you can do those with epub, but I've yet to see it done in a way that wasn't ugly.
Then there's code listings: have you looked at code listings on small screens? Did it look nice? It will either wrap like crazy or you have to adjust the code directly, and that again doesn't look right.
Then there's RST itself. I dislike it. And Sphinx won't autonumber my figures, it doesn't let me change headers on a per chapter basis and lots and
lots of other annoyances I've found over the last few weeks.
Bottom line, I didn't enjoy working with RST and Sphinx. It took away a lot of my layouting power, gave me grief and in the end, I don't like the result.
I could write an epub version directly, but I don't want to. It wouldn't look as good as I'd want it to, and it would prevent me from using all the various typesetting tricks I know. I strongly believe that technical manuals (at least the one I'm going to write) need to be read in large page format as a PDF.
I am not saying you can't use any kind of complex layouts with epub, just
some of those layouts. And some of those are something I'd like to use.
"When all you use is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Sometimes (but rarely), a PDF is the right choice.