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List:       lyx-users
Subject:    Re: Help for paper about LaTeX/LyX and the meaning of life
From:       Les Denham <ldenham () hal-pc ! org>
Date:       2009-03-25 17:03:16
Message-ID: 200903251203.16673.ldenham () hal-pc ! org
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On Wednesday 25 March 2009 03:32:56 am Manveru wrote:
> All that and previous discussion leads me to the conclusion, that every
> publisher preparing books for the market (in does not matter wheter it is a
> book for bookstore or some publication for professors), who does not invest
> in professional human-driven typesetting do the assassination of the six
> hunderd years history of typesetting. Please keep than on mind.

Manveru,

Perfection is very nice until it runs into economics.  The ultimate example of 
your goals is William Morris's Kelmscott Press.  Morris treated a printed 
book as a work of art.  Kelmscott Press  operated from 1891 to 1898, and 
produced 18,000 copies of 53 different books.  The books were and are works 
of art.  Few readers could afford them when they were printed; few collectors 
can afford them now.  The Press ceased operations because Morris ran out of 
money.  It never made a profit, never broke even, in spite of the high prices 
charged for its books.

Software like LaTeX and LyX allows non-experts to approximate some of the 
goals of typographers like Morris without incurring his costs.  The software 
solutions do not reach the standards of the best book designers and 
typographers, but they can get closer than many (most?) published books do.

Les
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