Tooling: About to start my book using LaTex. Good Idea or No-Go?

#33

Thanks @Lari! Cool that you like the style. If you want more of this, I posted some aFoD art in the blades forum

Regarding 2 months ago: Praising is always in time :slight_smile:

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#34

These look amazing! How did you achieve the effects on the first page? Can you share some of the resources you used? I am somewhat familiar with LaTeX, but these kind of tricks always eluded me!

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#35

Snippet Time! Happy to share them. Often I checked the D&D template (s. link in original post) and edit their solution.
The first page is such a thing using the rpgarttop for the black/ripped background (needs tikz package)

\newcommand*{\rpgarttop}[1]{%
\begin{figure*}[!t]%
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
\node[inner sep=0pt, anchor=north] at (current page.north) {\includegraphics[width=\paperwidth]{#1}};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure*}%
}

For the header quote I used the quotchap package
\newcommand{\aFoDHeaderQuote}[2]{
\begin{savequote}[90mm]
\vspace{-10mm}
\aFoDSettingFont
\textcolor{aFoDWhite}
{\large ‘#1’}
\qauthor{\textcolor{aFoDWhite}{\aFoDDingbatsFont\tiny N \aFoDSettingFont\normalsize #2}}
\end{savequote}
}

For the paper background I used backgroundsetup like this

% background image
\backgroundsetup{scale=1.0, angle=0, opacity=0.75,
contents={\includegraphics[width=\paperwidth, height=\paperheight,
%keepaspectratio
]
{img/A4_BW_Parchment.jpg}}}

The get this specific chapter look (display style) you have to use this code
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
{\filleft} %format
{\vspace{-13mm}\color{aFoDWhite} \chaptername\ \thechapter}%label
{0pt} %sep
{\aFoDChapterFont\color{aFoDWhite}\huge} %use for seperate text scaling

I use local Fonts via fontspec package instead of full-blown latex fonts. Looks cooler even if the media-break is sometimes painful because positioning is off etc.

So, in the end the chapter looks like this:
\aFoDHeaderQuote{Get ready, Mateo. Doom is coming to dinner.}{MARSHAL McCAIN}
\chapter{INTRODUCTION}
\rpgarttop{img/BookHeader.png}

For graphical resources: I do them myself with (free) input from “creative market” and “Spoon Graphics”. Textures.com also has very good (also free) resources.

Hope this helps a bit. And thanks for the “amazin”, glad you like it.

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#36

Forgot the black box:

That is a special box likes this
% Text Box with in game styling
\newtcolorbox{aFoDSettingBox}[5][]{
breakable,
blankest,
watermark graphics=#3,
watermark stretch=1.0,
boxsep=3mm,
coltext=white,
top=#4,
bottom=#5,
width=#2,
#1
}

and is called like that

\begin{aFoDSettingBox}{\linewidth}{img/StartingSitutation1.png}{5mm}{10mm}
\aFoDInitial{I}{t was a dark time}, and it just got much darker: As if living in a cruel & heartless frontier world was not enough, [… snip, snip …]
}

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#37

This is amazing! Thanks a lot for sharing your techniques!

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#39

So, I did the release last friday and therefor it’s time for a final word:

In the end it was painful. I missed the point in time where I should have seperated the whole book into different files and because of that every compile took ca. 90 seconds which sounds not too much but is a long time to wait for a small change.
But: because I have everything in one while renaming in a consistent way (like upper case for game terms) was easy to find and change.
So, would I recommend it? I don’t know. If you’re a programmer and therefor used to edit-compile-check-text-rework cycles, this may be your tool. If not, don’t and stick to your WYSIWYG.

One final challenge still open: POD via drivethrurpg. They have lots of recommandations how a pdf should look like and I’m not sure if my pdf is conform to all this. What I know already is that I have to create cover/backcover using scribus now, Latex won’t do.

So final final word: It’s excotic, but lots of resources are available. Big things are no problem, small things may be big problems. With strong google-fu and endurance is every problem solveable. If you have a deadline maybe you shouldn’t.

3 Likes
#40

If you were aware of these requirements beforehand, would you say it’s worth the effort to include them?

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#41

Yes, I think so. I will give an update when I managed to “satisfy the interface” it’s just a bit of try and error. For other formats (like Indesign or Scribus) they provide templates and tutorials, so there it’s more straightforward. I think part of my is having more fun figuring it out by myself than working on long lists of point-here-then-click-that-button.

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#42

As the books are out I want to come back to this question now with some insight regarding the print-angle of my endeavor.

Would I do my next book again with LaTex: Short answer is no. Why? Again the short answer is bleed. I did my pdf without a bleed margin and having a background texture and full page pictures is somewhat of a problem without bleed. I did not have the time and nerve to add it afterwards in LaTex.
Next book (if there is any) will see me working backwards from the printing template using Affinity Designer added bleed from the start.

But: What I really like about latex is the stability of the layout which you may think as regression testing (remember, I have a progammer background): Make a change in the document (like removing typos) and if this is a minor change you can be 100% sure that the rest of the text will not change and look excactly the same than before.

So, final word: You can to amazing things with LaTex but it will cost you (learning-time, compile time, nerves).

If you have questions, please ask. I’m happy to anser and talk about my experiences.

4 Likes
#43

Thanks for sharing your experience.
You’ve mentioned Affinity Designer, however for a book project Affinity Publisher is probably more useful (both work together well, anyway).

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#44

Yes, you’re right. I meant publisher not Designer. I bought all three affinity tools lately and as you can see I’m not an expert … yet! :slight_smile:

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#45

Hi Stefan, this thread was very useful to me. I took a look at the preview of your “A Fistful of Darkness” book on DriveThruRPG and it looks beautiful.

Am I correct in understanding that your hesitancy around LaTeX is about producing PDFs for print, and that it’s still good for digital downloads like the one you have on DriveThruRPG? I’m trying to publish a Fate setting, and I’ve got experience with LaTeX (and am a software developer), but after a few hours with Scribus I find myself frustrated. I’d much rather use LaTeX and I think I’d end up with a nicer PDF with it than I think I’m capable of making with Scribus.

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#46

Yes, it’s just as you said. I created my book with pdf in mind and forgot bleed which was needed for print products. Adding it later was too much hassle in my point of view.

Sounds like you know what you’re doing and installing LaTex is much easier nowadays (just install a Tex Distribution lik MikTex and a GUI like TexWorks and you’re done. Autoinstalling packages is pretty easy to do this way).

I hear you regarding Scribus … it was painful for me and I stopped using it ever since.

Latex provides you with a beaufiful type setting and so it may be woth the hassle.

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#47

Thanks so much for confirming, Stefan – that tracks.

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#48

@StefanAKAmonkeyEcho, thanks for sharing your experience!

I do most of my writing in LaTeX (I use Verbosus’s VerbTex app on my tablet). I do this purely to indulge my own fustiness and obsessive–compulsive tendencies.

I don’t think I’d use it to write something I intended to publish and sell, for exactly the reasons you ran up against—it’s not designed for the kind of art-book style that we expect from modern commercial RPGs.

(It would be great for a book on the mathematical foundations of an RPG, on the other hand.)

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#49

I ended up completing the book using LaTeX:

In terms of the quality of the PDF, I’m confident it’s much better than I could do using WYSIWIG publishing software like Scribus.

Like @StefanAKAmonkeyEcho said, though – bleed is a PITA. I’ve got ample margins but DriveThru is still refusing the upload when I try to set up the POD version. I’ll need to do a few experiments and/or contact them to figure out how they determine whether you’re respecting the bleed margins.

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#50

Looks cool! LaTex (again) doing a great job creating a nice looking page of text. Regarding bleed: I changed to Affinity Publisher to solve this problem … and got new ones instead now :wink:

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#51

That’s interesting. I’ve heard good things about Affinity. Personally, I’m a software developer by day – and I frankly have little trust in my laptop – so storing everything for my book in a git repository was pretty natural for me. So I’m definitely hoping I can find a way to set it up so POD works!

I also put together a Fate LaTeX template based on the D&D one: https://github.com/tomhart-msc/Fate-LaTeX-Template

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#52

I found this articles (too late for me) which explains a bit about online format. It even has an example for 6x9 inch with 0.25 inch bleed.

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#53

Thanks, Stefan, I’ll look into that!

I also noticed that the bleed information is a warning, so even if LaTeX doesn’t annotate the PDF correctly, if I know my text is within the safe area and the pages are the correct size, I should be OK.

For the cover… I just need to suck it up and use Scribus.

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