MARK book as epub?

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MARK book as epub?

Postby Jasja » Mon Jun 25, 2018 7:23 am

dear MARK users,
the MARK-book is great for reading on computerscreens, but less so on ereaders or tablets. Are there plans to also make the book available as epub or mobi file? Those reflow on ereaders and tables, improving readability on those media, and many dtp programmes have a option to export documents as epub now.

thanks - Jasja
Jasja
 
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Re: MARK book as epub?

Postby cooch » Mon Jun 25, 2018 9:23 am

Jasja wrote:dear MARK users,
the MARK-book is great for reading on computerscreens, but less so on ereaders or tablets. Are there plans to also make the book available as epub or mobi file? Those reflow on ereaders and tables, improving readability on those media, and many dtp programmes have a option to export documents as epub now.

thanks - Jasja


The MARK book is 100% typeset using LaTeX, which I've tweaked/contorted enough over the years to make it work like a DTP program. LaTeX is easy, supremely elegant, and works well for most everything -- that is, until you have screen captures on every other page (like a certain book). Formatting around 'fixed-size objects' that can't break across pages (like screen captures) is an 'art form'. As an aside, <whine> the single biggest pain in the butt in formatting *big* documents is pagination. Exacerbated by 'fixed objects' (like screen captures). </whine>

Having said that, the short answer to the question is...no. There is no built-in capacity to export from LaTeX -> ePub, or anything like that. You can export simple plain text in some fashion, but fixed-width images, equations, and tables, not so much. The workaround is to go from LaTeX to HTML, then HTML to ePub, but in the one afternoon I spent fussing with it, it didnt work particularly well (a lot of *bits* got left out of the conversion -- analogous to taking a heavily formatted PDF and trying to save as 'Word' -- it works, sort of -- the simpler the document, the better the conversion works. But, vice versa). There are also some tools to go from PDF -> ePub (Calibre being the best known open-source program I'm aware of), but my one attempt to use it with even a relatively short, simple MARK book chapter didn't go so well.

If there was a huge 'user demand' for an ePub (or equivalent version), I might pursue further, but this is the first time anyone has asked. I actually have a tablet with an (small-ish) 8.5 inch screen, and have no problem reading the PDF files (in either landscape or potrait mode), which makes me somewhat even less inclined (i.e., if my old eyes can read it on a little tablet, then so can most users, I suppose...), but still...
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Re: MARK book as epub?

Postby Jasja » Tue Jun 26, 2018 3:21 am

Thank you for your clear and quick reply. That is quite a bit more complicated than I pictured it would be, and sounds more trouble than it is worth!
I gave converting the pdf with calibre a try last week, but here also the images and formulae were too complicated to properly convert the document ... :-)

This morning I've now cropped out all the surrounding white space in the pdf and it now is readible on my ereader without to much squinting. :-)
all the best - Jasja
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