[FM Discuss] MYOSA printed book received, some problems

[adam]

hey James :)


Glad you got the book!


On Sun, 2010-08-22 at 07:28 -0500, James Simmons wrote:
> Yesterday I got the printed "Make Your Own Sugar Activities!" from
> Lulu.  There are some issues with this book that I hope we can
> correct.
> 
> The biggest problem is the font size of Normal and Formatted text.
> It's very small.  This book contains lots of formatted text, both as
> Python program listings and command line examples.  The formatted text
> is very small and quite faint.  That's a real problem for anyone
> trying to understand the code, or worse still trying to type in the
> code.  The normal text is not as bad, but that too really should be
> one size higher too.  Headings and even page numbers are quite large,
> but the rest really needs to be one size larger.
> 

your book is generated with the default CSS but if you dont like it then
your option is to swap to the new Objavi. FLOSS Manuals currently uses
Objavi 1 but if you want css control you need to use Objavi 2 -
http://objavi.flossmanuals.net

Objavi 2 works for booki books (through booki) AND for FM. 

The issue here is that you have to start with a template for the css
that has not been refined and work with that since we are not using
Objavi 2 yet for production of FM books...

If you use Objavi 2 then please change with the CSS in the 'advanced
options', regenerate and upload to lulu.com

i think you and Anne should work out what works best with the style
sheets. but be prepared that it might take a little bit of tweaking to
get right.

Eventually we will make a nice way that you can save your style sheets
for use with Objavi 2 - therefore you can (eventually) have personal
'default' style sheets for yourself and also groups within booki will
have shared default style sheets...but we dont have this yet

> The other problems are my fault.  In the "About The Authors" chapter I
> made a remark about my alma mater that my wife objected to.  I have
> removed it on the site, and would like this chapter to be
> re-published, and even if we can do nothing about the font issues I'd
> like a revised PDF sent to Lulu to correct this.

ok...I think Anne is helping you with this...

> 
> The cover is really, really bland.  I'm thinking that since everyone
> seemed to like the cover the RDC did for the second book I could ask
> them to put together something for this book. 


sounds excellent :)

>  If you could tell me
> what the actual constraints are: image size, number of colors, etc.
> that their artist could come up with something more visually appealing
> that still would fit in with the rest of the FLOSS Manuals.  I would
> be willing to pay her for this work myself.  The cover as it is is
> tolerable, but there's an awful lot of plain white.  Since this is the
> only use of color in the whole book I wish it was a little nicer.

when you have generated the pdf lulu then stipulates the size of the
cover. It needs to do this because the number of pages effects the width
of the spine. Anne will be able to help you with this once the new
content is uploaded.

> 
> The interior illustrations are grayscale, which is OK for this book
> because they're all screen grabs.  That works fine for this book.  I
> don't know how well it would work for the E-Book book. 

Objavi can generate greyscale images for printing for books, and
preserve color for ebooks or color if you wish to produce a color book
(expensive to print)

>  The RDC will
> be printing off a batch of these themselves, more likely than not with
> color illustrations.  They'll also be doing some fancy style sheets.
> If the book needs that to work, and I think it might, then maybe
> putting it on Lulu would be pointless.

i think putting it on lulu still gets it to people who might want it
that would not otherwise have access to it

> 
> The font issue could affect the Booki project too.  

as mentioned above, Objavi 2 is built for booki but it works for FM too.
so if you make a good style sheet for this book using Objavi 2 then we
could look at using it for other books made in either Booki or FM.


in some weeks of course, FM will use booki...so this distinction will
collapse

> I thought Booki
> might be a good tool for OLPC users to use for class projects.  There
> was some interest in the "It's An Education Project" mailing list
> about tools that students could use to create printed books.  Booki
> would fill the bill nicely if the font size was larger in the default
> style sheet.
> 

it might be nice to see if there is anyone on that list that wants to
help style it as you like


> Anyway, it's a real thrill for an author to see his work in print, and
> none of this changes that.  I'm just thinking that FM sometimes prints
> off books to sell at Linux conferences, etc. and that this book would
> sell better to that audience with more readable text, especially for
> the code examples.

very glad you send this feedback here. i hope my notes are of
help...without wanting to speak for Anne, if you can convince her to
stay onboard and help you refine it i think that the best path forward.
if Anne cant do it let me know and I might be able to help...


cool!
adam

> Thanks,
> 
> James Simmons
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