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List:       lyx-users
Subject:    Re: Help for paper about LaTeX/LyX and the meaning of life
From:       Stefano Franchi <franchi () philosophy ! tamu ! edu>
Date:       2009-03-24 14:11:20
Message-ID: 200903240911.21012.franchi () philosophy ! tamu ! edu
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On Tuesday 24 March 2009 08:52:32 Charles de Miramon wrote:
> stefano franchi wrote:
> > On the other hand:
> >
> > * LyX produces glorious output--through LaTex---but that's not that
> > important to me, because no one in my field would accept a LaTex file. In
> > fact I doubt they would even know what it is. And they would not accept a
> > camera-ready file either. Almost everything is retyped or, most likely,
> > imported from Word into a DTP program. I personally enjoy looking at the
> > beautifully formatted output produced by LaTex, but it is a purely
> > narcissistic pleasure. No added benefit there. I believe this to be
> > pretty much the norm in the humanities (after you graduate: your
> > dissertation may be the last piece of writing you control from beginning
> > to end).
>
> From my point of view (working in the humanities in France) is that copy
> editors and typographical work are quickly disappearing in Academic Press
> in Europe. Nobody is making any money selling books in humanities and even
> serious book publishers  are transforming in a simple book printers.
>
> My experience is that you give a word file that is crudely imported in a
> DTP program by a secretary with little knowledge. Anything complex (tables,
> figures, index) will be hopelessly botched. Somme publishers like
> L'Harmattan in France or Peter Lang in Germany don't even bother anymore
> with DTP, they will just xerox the MsWord printout.
>
> LyX and LaTeX make it possible to create with well documented and open
> source tools quality books. Even if the use in a MsWrod workflow can be
> today limited it is path to the future.
>
> Cheers,
> Charles

Hi Charles,

	you're right, the situation is changing in Europe, although in different ways 
in different countries. In Italy (my home country, and where I publish from 
time to time), we have reached a two tier system (for academic publishing, I 
mean): a handful of publishing houses still use professional typesetters, 
while lower tier houses hand out very detailed typesetting instructions for 
microsoft word. I must say that a devoted and competent editor can actually do 
a reasonable job even with word---provided no complex objects are involved. I 
recently co-edited a collection in Italian and my co-editor slaved away for a 
month with Word until he managed to produce a more than decent-looking output.
The two examples you have chosen are at the very bottom of the spectrum, 
typography-wise. L'Harmattan in particular published some horrendous looking 
books. (Although they do publish very good books, content-wise).
But I am digressing.
Your point is well-taken, though: my remarks apply mostly to the environments 
I know first hand: the North-American situation and  New Zeland.


Cheers,


S.


______________________________________________________________
Stefano Franchi
Department of Philosophy          Ph:  (979) 862-2211
Texas A&M University              Fax: (979) 845-0458
305B Bolton Hall                  franchi@philosophy.tamu.edu
College Station, TX 77843-4237



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