
Convert a markdown manuscript to pdf/epub/mobi e-books - accordionclown
http://chrisanthropic.github.io/Open-Publisher-Documentation/
======
imroot
Have you looked at Softcover?

[https://github.com/softcover/softcover/](https://github.com/softcover/softcover/)

I've used this for runbooks and it's awesome -- you always have an up-to-date
copy of the runbook on your phone, and if you're using google/apple device
management, you can remove them once your employee has left.

~~~
iheartmemcache
Also, there's asciidoc[1] which is implements the Open Docbook[3] schema.
Along with it is the Ruby ecosystem for asciidoctor[2] which is:

    
    
      * A mature[1], plain-text writing format for authoring notes, articles, documentation, books, ebooks, web pages, slide decks, blog posts, man pages and more.
    
      * A text processor and toolchain for translating AsciiDoc documents into various formats (called backends), including HTML, DocBook, PDF and ePub.
    

Along with a healthy ecosystem of scripts to convert between basically all the
formats, from troff/tex for the academics, org-mode for the emacs nerds, to
Markdown for the bloggers. All basically interoperate with

I have a fairly extensive list of typesetting frameworks and document
publishing management systems (along the lines of Adobe FrameMaker), but I'm
running out the door

[1] [http://asciidoc.org](http://asciidoc.org) [2]
[http://asciidoctor.org/docs/what-is-
asciidoc/](http://asciidoctor.org/docs/what-is-asciidoc/) [3]
[http://docbook.org/whatis](http://docbook.org/whatis)

~~~
jszymborski
+1 for asciidoc... currently writing my master's thesis in asciidoc and it has
all the nice things you need in for a highly-structured document, but in a
plain-text format.

Asciidoc has a lot of nice things like footnotes, bibliographies, including
remote asciidoc files and highly-customisable table of contents features that
Markdown simply doesn't have.

Check-out the Pro Git book on GitHub written in AsciiDoc, it's a great example
[0].

Also, slightly off-topic, but writing long-form documents in plain-text is
awesome. Ditch MS Word/LO Writer for your favourite text editor, use Git
branches to try out different ideas or drafts... it's bliss.

[0] [https://github.com/progit/progit2](https://github.com/progit/progit2)

~~~
timClicks
Q: what do you do for helpers like spell check?

~~~
jszymborski
I mostly bounce between VS Code and Atom, both have spell check packages (e.g
[0]).

For the "Review" functions, Git can be used in an imho more powerful way.

Other than that, I'm not sure what other helpers you might be missing :)

[0]
[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ban.spel...](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ban.spellright)

------
ageitgey
Thanks for sharing. My humble feedback would be that the website and README
would be much more helpful however if they showed pictures of sample output.
That's the main thing we want to see :-)

~~~
chrisanthropic
The repo _does_ include a sample book, but you're right, some screenshots
would be nice. I actually created the tool to handle all of my wife's books
but I avoided linking to them from the project because I don't want it to look
like a promotional tool/grab. But if anyone is interested in seeing books "in
the wild" that have been created with this tool I'm happy to send you links.

~~~
codefined
Your example repo appears to contain some weird characters for me:

[https://puu.sh/waX9G/3d54abf030.png](https://puu.sh/waX9G/3d54abf030.png)

[https://puu.sh/waXy2/7106b4768d.png](https://puu.sh/waXy2/7106b4768d.png)

This is on Chrome Stable, Windows. Looking in the Github rendered.

~~~
chrisanthropic
That's to do with Github not displaying PDFs very well, but if you download it
you can view it fine. Also, that PDF is the Adobe Pre-Flight verification of
the 5x8 template.

The sample book can be created by cloning the repo and running the container.
([http://chrisanthropic.github.io/Open-Publisher-
Documentation...](http://chrisanthropic.github.io/Open-Publisher-
Documentation/use/docker.html))

If you want to see examples, I formatted everything here:
[https://www.amazon.com/Tristan-J.-Tarwater/e/B004WS3P3A/](https://www.amazon.com/Tristan-J.-Tarwater/e/B004WS3P3A/)

~~~
codefined
Ah, excellent! Indeed it did work.

I wonder what causes Github to mess up on just the verification messages,
probably something to do with the character set.

------
boyter
I was literally looking for something like this the other day now that LeanPub
is no longer free to get started. Thanks for releasing it.

~~~
wj
I had no idea Leanpub changed their pricing. I haven't earned $100 from any of
my books on there (and roughly half have all proceeds going to the EFF) so I'm
going to be checking this out as well.

------
w4rh4wk5
For the sake of it, I have created something slightly similar in the past
which is currently rewritten in my spare time. It is not finished yet, but I
can show you an example. Of course, I have the code for it online.

Example:
[https://gist.github.com/W4RH4WK/d6e9861a7793bfce6d1a0c26a1ba...](https://gist.github.com/W4RH4WK/d6e9861a7793bfce6d1a0c26a1ba8383)

Project: [https://github.com/W4RH4WK/Dogx](https://github.com/W4RH4WK/Dogx)

I am using Pandoc, KaTeX, Prims.js, and Reveal.js (for presentations).
Additional logic is realized using Pandoc's filter mechanic and a Python
scripts which converts TeX to SVG. The main intention is to output a
standalone HTML, which can then be converted to a PDF using the awesome
wkhtmltopdf.

This has 2 underlying reasons: First, I want to push the behavior of consuming
content on your screen, with modern, interactive technologies instead of
killing trees by printing them out. Secondly, I hate TeX / LaTeX, but I cannot
deny the need for its Math environment and TikZ.

------
awinter-py
I use just pandoc for previewing a large markdown manuscript and getting
formatting right is hard.

Thanks for releasing this.

------
pmontra
Usability suggestion for the web site: please add prev/next links to the end
of the pages. I have to scroll back to the top on my phone, open the menu and
select the next section. At every page.

------
dredmorbius
Pandoc alone gives good results for a large use-case.

I frequently want portable versions of a document, or better formatting than,
say, fixed-length ASCII. Often of historical works.

Examples:
[https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/lhw2eq4qmnnwxijlcrfyba](https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/lhw2eq4qmnnwxijlcrfyba)

------
molecule
typo, fyi:

 _> if you want to isntall everything locally_

[http://chrisanthropic.github.io/Open-Publisher-
Documentation...](http://chrisanthropic.github.io/Open-Publisher-
Documentation//documentation/requirements.html)

------
compumike
Does this support LaTeX style equations? I'd like to use Markdown+Mathjax for
web, and still be able to export to PDF/ePub/mobi.

------
lovelearning
Does it support syntax highlighting for code snippets?

~~~
chrisanthropic
Unlike most LaTeX templates I've seen this project was written with a focus on
fiction so I didn't touch anything around code blocks.

I'd love to add some more templates and a structure to make them easy to
switch between eventually though.

