MobileRead newsletter - your input is needed! - Page 3

llasram · 02-01-2007, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

While I think I will continue reading about LaTeX, I am not so sure if it's my best choice for the newsletter. The information I pull from our databases has markup (bbcode); I would have to write a bcode->latex conversion script first in order to use LaTeX. Will see if it justifies the work, that is, if you guys don't like how the current newsletter looks like.

I agree that LaTeX is the way to go if you have the time to put into writing the conversion scripts then tweaking the typesetting of each edition. If not, you might find that html2ps+ps2pdf gives better results than htmldoc. You provide html2ps a stlysheet -- it understands most of CSS2 -- so you can control the formatting more precisely, plus it can do justified paragraphs w/ hyphenation.

I did a quick-and-dirty run on the HTML in the main RSS feed so you can see if it maybe looks better, keeping in mind that many details of the look can be easily improved by modifying the applied stylesheet.

Alexander Turcic · 02-01-2007, 09:23 AM

Looks very nice too, Ilasram!

html2ps+ps2pdf is this one, right? http://www.tufat.com/script19.htm

llasram · 02-01-2007, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Looks very nice too, Ilasram!

html2ps+ps2pdf is this one, right? http://www.tufat.com/script19.htm

Oh, interesting -- two people named nomething html2ps. :-) Looks like a PHP port? of the original Perl version. Haven't tried that one, but the web page makes it look like it doesn't support arbitray page sizes (!).

This is the html2ps I meant -- http://user.it.uu.se/~jan/html2ps.html . The ps2pdf script is a part of ghostscript (which I think you may need for html2ps anyway).

RWood · 02-01-2007, 08:48 PM

Back to content and format of the newsletter for a moment. (I only reviewed the Sony version on the Reader.)

While the titles at the top are helpful, please brand each page (perhaps centered at the bottom) with the name "MobileRead Networks" and the date of publication.

The size of the base (text) font is fine even at the "S" setting. Maybe provide the headings in san serif and the body (text) in serif for more contrast between them.

I agree with the comment to remove the "^^" as it is not needed.

This is far more readable and useful than the trial version posted under the Sony Guidelines thread.

Alexander Turcic · 02-02-2007, 03:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWood

Back to content and format of the newsletter for a moment. (I only reviewed the Sony version on the Reader.)

While the titles at the top are helpful, please brand each page (perhaps centered at the bottom) with the name "MobileRead Networks" and the date of publication.

The size of the base (text) font is fine even at the "S" setting. Maybe provide the headings in san serif and the body (text) in serif for more contrast between them.

I agree with the comment to remove the "^^" as it is not needed.

This is far more readable and useful than the trial version posted under the Sony Guidelines thread.

Excellent suggestions, all of them. I'll play with html2ps this weekend and see what I then come up with.

Hadrien · 02-02-2007, 05:17 AM

Using both html2ps and ps2pdf should be a quick way to generate something yes... I'm working on something where I'm totally in control of the .tex file though, I'd rather have limited support first for HTML/CSS but have much more complex control over how everything looks like.

Alexander Turcic · 02-05-2007, 08:35 AM

llasram, I used html2ps over the weekend and I think it's the best solution for the newsletter. Compared to LaTeX, it's much easier to use with the information we pull from the database. Compared to htmldoc, it has more options (with limited CSS) to tweak the output. Alas, it's also considerably slower since it's in Perl and not in C code.

Anyways, I have a problem with the page size. No matter what I enter in my config -- either under @html2ps in the paper block, or under @page -- the page size of the output is 215,9x279.4mm. Could you show me the settings you used for rss-feed.pdf?

Alexander Turcic · 02-05-2007, 09:57 AM

OK, I think I got it... I have to pass the page size also to ghostscript (ps2pdf). Still, if you could share your config file, I'd be very happy

yvanleterrible · 02-05-2007, 10:10 AM

I've just tried the first pdf, it's great! I won't have to spend my time on line to study everything!

Alexander Turcic · 02-05-2007, 11:34 AM

Thanks yvan. It's a starter, but there is still room for improvement, and I received a lot of useful commentary already how to make it better.

Alexander Turcic · 02-06-2007, 06:03 AM

Hm, unfortunately html2ps has a serious bug that doesn't allow me to use headers/footers. It seems you need to add a relatively big margin, like 2cm, for headers and footers to appear (no matter the font size) - which is obviously too much screen asset to give away for our purposes.

yvanleterrible · 02-06-2007, 08:59 AM

Hey Alex! I spent a good half hour reading that newsletter yesterday evening. You gave me a bypass around the 'No computer after 1900h' rule we have.

Funny thing I should say this with the old eyes I have, but you should reduce the font size a bit and put less empty lines.

Having the site as a newsletter like this gave me the time and patience to thoroughly read and understand the techno stuff I usually skip.

Alexander Turcic · 02-06-2007, 09:01 AM

yvan, I am glad you like it! We will definitely have our newsletter soon - I am just evaluating the various suitable options to convert to PDF. Seems like there is no perfect solution ;(

Alexander Turcic · 02-07-2007, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Hm, unfortunately html2ps has a serious bug that doesn't allow me to use headers/footers. It seems you need to add a relatively big margin, like 2cm, for headers and footers to appear (no matter the font size) - which is obviously too much screen asset to give away for our purposes.

Fixed it. html2ps had a 40pt margin hard-coded for the header + footer, that's ON TOP of the actual margin settings you define. Will tweak it some more, than post the results here.

Alexander Turcic · 02-09-2007, 03:13 PM

OK, I am back to htmldoc (and possibly LaTeX in the future - when I have more free time to invest). With html2ps I found the following limitations:

hyperlinks converted with html2ps and gs (or ps2pdf) are not working in the PDF viewer of the Sony Reader.
very hard to read code, makes it difficult to customize it

On the other hand, htmldoc suffers from very limited styling capabilities and from the fact, that long links or words get truncated at the end of a line. Also, html2ps supports auto-hypenation, which is quite nice, but not supported by htmldoc. Still, the fact that internal hyperlinks with html2ps didn't seem work for the Reader was a killer for me.

Here I have a new version of the newsletter for you to try. This time I added more text formatting and also a few small tweaks as suggested by others in this thread. Inline images *are* included, and I am not sure if we should do this in the final version of the newsletter, as PDF files with images tend to become quite big. Here are the download links:

Sony Reader version: https://www.mobileread.com/newsletter-sony.pdf
iLiad version: https://www.mobileread.com/newsletter-iliad.pdf

Comments are appreciated!

02-09-2007, 03:13 PM	#45
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	OK, I am back to htmldoc (and possibly LaTeX in the future - when I have more free time to invest). With html2ps I found the following limitations: hyperlinks converted with html2ps and gs (or ps2pdf) are not working in the PDF viewer of the Sony Reader. very hard to read code, makes it difficult to customize it On the other hand, htmldoc suffers from very limited styling capabilities and from the fact, that long links or words get truncated at the end of a line. Also, html2ps supports auto-hypenation, which is quite nice, but not supported by htmldoc. Still, the fact that internal hyperlinks with html2ps didn't seem work for the Reader was a killer for me. Here I have a new version of the newsletter for you to try. This time I added more text formatting and also a few small tweaks as suggested by others in this thread. Inline images are included, and I am not sure if we should do this in the final version of the newsletter, as PDF files with images tend to become quite big. Here are the download links: Sony Reader version: https://www.mobileread.com/newsletter-sony.pdf iLiad version: https://www.mobileread.com/newsletter-iliad.pdf Comments are appreciated!

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02-01-2007, 09:23 AM	#32
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	Looks very nice too, Ilasram! html2ps+ps2pdf is this one, right? http://www.tufat.com/script19.htm

02-01-2007, 08:48 PM	#34
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	Back to content and format of the newsletter for a moment. (I only reviewed the Sony version on the Reader.) While the titles at the top are helpful, please brand each page (perhaps centered at the bottom) with the name "MobileRead Networks" and the date of publication. The size of the base (text) font is fine even at the "S" setting. Maybe provide the headings in san serif and the body (text) in serif for more contrast between them. I agree with the comment to remove the "^^" as it is not needed. This is far more readable and useful than the trial version posted under the Sony Guidelines thread.

02-02-2007, 05:17 AM	#36
Hadrien Feedbooks.com Co-Founder Posts: 2,263 Karma: 145123 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Paris, France Device: Sony PRS-t-1/350/300/500/505/600/700, Nexus S, iPad	Using both html2ps and ps2pdf should be a quick way to generate something yes... I'm working on something where I'm totally in control of the .tex file though, I'd rather have limited support first for HTML/CSS but have much more complex control over how everything looks like.

02-05-2007, 08:35 AM	#37
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	llasram, I used html2ps over the weekend and I think it's the best solution for the newsletter. Compared to LaTeX, it's much easier to use with the information we pull from the database. Compared to htmldoc, it has more options (with limited CSS) to tweak the output. Alas, it's also considerably slower since it's in Perl and not in C code. Anyways, I have a problem with the page size. No matter what I enter in my config -- either under @html2ps in the paper block, or under @page -- the page size of the output is 215,9x279.4mm. Could you show me the settings you used for rss-feed.pdf?

02-05-2007, 09:57 AM	#38
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	OK, I think I got it... I have to pass the page size also to ghostscript (ps2pdf). Still, if you could share your config file, I'd be very happy

02-05-2007, 10:10 AM	#39
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	I've just tried the first pdf, it's great! I won't have to spend my time on line to study everything!

02-05-2007, 11:34 AM	#40
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	Thanks yvan. It's a starter, but there is still room for improvement, and I received a lot of useful commentary already how to make it better.

02-06-2007, 06:03 AM	#41
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	Hm, unfortunately html2ps has a serious bug that doesn't allow me to use headers/footers. It seems you need to add a relatively big margin, like 2cm, for headers and footers to appear (no matter the font size) - which is obviously too much screen asset to give away for our purposes.

02-06-2007, 08:59 AM	#42
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	Hey Alex! I spent a good half hour reading that newsletter yesterday evening. You gave me a bypass around the 'No computer after 1900h' rule we have. Funny thing I should say this with the old eyes I have, but you should reduce the font size a bit and put less empty lines. Having the site as a newsletter like this gave me the time and patience to thoroughly read and understand the techno stuff I usually skip.

02-06-2007, 09:01 AM	#43
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	yvan, I am glad you like it! We will definitely have our newsletter soon - I am just evaluating the various suitable options to convert to PDF. Seems like there is no perfect solution ;(

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