5 ms·

What kind of software did you use to write your book?

schneems 2y ago
It was a mix of markdown, liquid, scss and ruby scripts via a Rakefile to tie it together to generate html. I bought a prince XML license for PDF generation. It was a hodgepodge of stuff.
luv2code 2y ago
Check out https://typst.app/ https://typst.app/ if you're looking to write a book yourself. https://hypermedia.systems/ https://hypermedia.systems/ was written with it.
- tenacious_tuna 2y ago
  edit: the github page directly includes an example of PDF output, so maybe the site is just out of date. ---- I'm a bit confused; the site claims HTML and PDF outputs are "Coming soon" what export formats are supported? HTML and PDF seem very significant to me, and are how I'd likely share most documents with non-tech inclined people.
  - a_gray 2y ago
    I started using it a few days ago, but I've been under the impression that PDF has been possible in Typst since mid-2023 at least. As of 0.4.0, Typst supports PDF, SVG and PNG outputs. The Typst team seem to be rapidly adding features, but I don't think HTML support is coming soon.
    - flokl 2y ago
      There is currently work done to support basic HTML support. PDF is supported since day one of the public release in march 2023 (before v0.1). The roadmap mentions tagged PDF which is mainly needed for accessibility.
larperdoodle 2y ago
I'm writing my book in Markdown files in IntelliJ and pushing it to GitHub. Use the tools you know.
Daub 2y ago
For very long documents Word can be very difficult to maintain. Anything that requires you first write in simple text and then compiles is preferred. I tried Skrivenr, but found it old, clunky, buggy and poorly designed. I was far more productive in LaTex, but encountered problems when converting to Word (which most publishers prefer). Sure I tried Pandoc, but maintaining flow between versions of my book was a small hell. In the end, I believe that there is no easy solution. Typst has excellent collaboration tools. Both Typst and Overleaf do not support Doc export, but pdf to doc is relatively easy.

It was a mix of markdown, liquid, scss and ruby scripts via a Rakefile to tie it together to generate html. I bought a prince XML license for PDF generation. It was a hodgepodge of stuff.

luv2code 2y ago

Check out https://typst.app/ https://typst.app/ if you're looking to write a book yourself. https://hypermedia.systems/ https://hypermedia.systems/ was written with it.

tenacious_tuna 2y ago
edit: the github page directly includes an example of PDF output, so maybe the site is just out of date. ---- I'm a bit confused; the site claims HTML and PDF outputs are "Coming soon" what export formats are supported? HTML and PDF seem very significant to me, and are how I'd likely share most documents with non-tech inclined people.
- a_gray 2y ago
  I started using it a few days ago, but I've been under the impression that PDF has been possible in Typst since mid-2023 at least. As of 0.4.0, Typst supports PDF, SVG and PNG outputs. The Typst team seem to be rapidly adding features, but I don't think HTML support is coming soon.
  - flokl 2y ago
    There is currently work done to support basic HTML support. PDF is supported since day one of the public release in march 2023 (before v0.1). The roadmap mentions tagged PDF which is mainly needed for accessibility.

larperdoodle 2y ago

I'm writing my book in Markdown files in IntelliJ and pushing it to GitHub. Use the tools you know.

Daub 2y ago

For very long documents Word can be very difficult to maintain. Anything that requires you first write in simple text and then compiles is preferred. I tried Skrivenr, but found it old, clunky, buggy and poorly designed. I was far more productive in LaTex, but encountered problems when converting to Word (which most publishers prefer). Sure I tried Pandoc, but maintaining flow between versions of my book was a small hell. In the end, I believe that there is no easy solution. Typst has excellent collaboration tools. Both Typst and Overleaf do not support Doc export, but pdf to doc is relatively easy.