RE: RPG Manual with Lyx?
> > I'm very open to hear good ideas, .. > > Very nice to know :) > > What maybe someone is misunderstanding is I'm not asking for help > on how to create an RPG manual, I created some of them already > with Scribus and the result is more than interesting. Good, otherwise I'd have said not to use LyX :). > When you have a goal to reach things can be seen in a much clearer way. > If you are interested I can write down some sketches of what is needed > when someone is designing this kind of document, with already created > examples, and what could be implemented in Lyx to achieve that goal. > So that we could analyze everything step by step and see if there's a way > to implement this or that feature from Latex to Lyx. The easiest would be to write a module of such a feature. This doesn't need any adjustments to LyX and you can share it with others. > If we go trough this adventure I'm sure at the end Lyx's gonna have much > more potential than now with not so many added features! I mean, surely > we can optimize the needed features for this kind of work. A single new > thing can be used to achieve many different results. I just want to warn you that maybe not everything you want is easy to accomplish. You can easily be frustrated by all LaTeX code that is needed. Besides, there are infinite number of features to be added to LyX, but there won't be support from developers for all. If you can really indicate a few features that would be useful for a larger community which do not deviate too much from "LyX's philosophy", we might end up with a better LyX. Vincent
Re: RPG Manual with Lyx?
Luca De Marini wrote: > And as I said, of course I know Scribus is a better toy for this kind of > work. The interesting thing for me is pushing Lyx to the limit, see if it > can do this work, see if it will make the whole process of writing a > manual such a pain that using Scribus would be better instead :) > Greets, I had a look at the gory, satanic stuff ;-) The problem with LaTeX and LyX is the positioning of images. You cannot position absolutely an image on a page in LaTeX. You don't have also the concept of layers. If you are a LaTeX expert, they are tricks, for example with tikz but you are going to suffer and too many LaTeX compilation errors will make you curse and turn you in a soulless ghoul. Cheers, Charles -- http://www.kde-france.org
Re: RPG Manual with Lyx?
2009/7/13 William Adams > Luca De Marini wrote: > > An RPG manual is something way more elaborated. >> > > > Well, that depends on the manual. > > FWIW, Columbia Games used to produce all of their books using TeX --- they > had very high production values even using lovely textured stock and sepia > coloured ink (until someone whined and they quit doing so). > > Ok then, let's say many modern RPGs nowadays :) Greets, Luca
Re: RPG Manual with Lyx?
Luca De Marini wrote: An RPG manual is something way more elaborated. Well, that depends on the manual. FWIW, Columbia Games used to produce all of their books using TeX --- they had very high production values even using lovely textured stock and sepia coloured ink (until someone whined and they quit doing so). William -- William Adams senior graphic designer Fry Communications Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Re: RPG Manual with Lyx?
2009/7/13 Vincent van Ravesteijn - TNW > >> > > >> There is a package called 'wallpaper' that may do this very well with > > >> a little bit of ERT. > > > > > >Thank you very much for your suggestion. Of course I > >can use it but the question is: isn't it better to > >integrate it in Lyx so that people can use wallpapers > >normally? In any case, I'll do it with ERT for now. > > We have an option to specify the page background color now, why not > adding a wallpaper option indeed ? I'll propose this to the other > developers. Let's see what happens ;-). Yes, that's exactly what I meant :) > > > > I don't know how you want to design your RPG manual. But if you have > > complex and very graphically oriented pages, scribus is a better tool. > > > > I don't know scribus, but maybe it's a powerful combination to be able > to use scribus for the graphics part of your document and use LyX for > the text. > > >The interesting thing for me is pushing Lyx to the limit, see if it > >can do this work, see if it will make the whole process of writing a > >manual such a pain that using Scribus would be better instead :) > > It's nice to push LyX to the limit. I can think of a special editor in > LyX to design header-styles, chapter-styles etc. etc., but it will take > some time before this can be done within LyX. For now, one has to code > LaTeX. > > > I'm very open to hear good ideas, .. > > Very nice to know :) What maybe someone is misunderstanding is I'm not asking for help on how to create an RPG manual, I created some of them already with Scribus and the result is more than interesting. Now, the point is SIMPLY that I love Lyx, this is going to be a pretty long distance project, meaning it will take some time to be done, so, I'm just proposing a case experiment to try and see what can be done :) When you have a goal to reach things can be seen in a much clearer way. If you are interested I can write down some sketches of what is needed when someone is designing this kind of document, with already created examples, and what could be implemented in Lyx to achieve that goal. So that we could analyze everything step by step and see if there's a way to implement this or that feature from Latex to Lyx. If we go trough this adventure I'm sure at the end Lyx's gonna have much more potential than now with not so many added features! I mean, surely we can optimize the needed features for this kind of work. A single new thing can be used to achieve many different results. All I need you all to understand is I'm not needing any help for this manual. I'm just dreaming of being able one day of creating these kind of docs with Lyx :) Greets, Luca
RE: RPG Manual with Lyx?
>> > >> There is a package called 'wallpaper' that may do this very well with >> a little bit of ERT. > > >Thank you very much for your suggestion. Of course I >can use it but the question is: isn't it better to >integrate it in Lyx so that people can use wallpapers >normally? In any case, I'll do it with ERT for now. We have an option to specify the page background color now, why not adding a wallpaper option indeed ? I'll propose this to the other developers. Let's see what happens ;-). > I don't know how you want to design your RPG manual. But if you have > complex and very graphically oriented pages, scribus is a better tool. > I don't know scribus, but maybe it's a powerful combination to be able to use scribus for the graphics part of your document and use LyX for the text. >The interesting thing for me is pushing Lyx to the limit, see if it >can do this work, see if it will make the whole process of writing a >manual such a pain that using Scribus would be better instead :) It's nice to push LyX to the limit. I can think of a special editor in LyX to design header-styles, chapter-styles etc. etc., but it will take some time before this can be done within LyX. For now, one has to code LaTeX. I'm very open to hear good ideas, .. >Greets, > >Luca Vincent
Re: RPG Manual with Lyx?
2009/7/13 Luca De Marini : > Hallo everybody, I'm writing this because I'd like to start a new adventure > in lyx now that I know a lot about this tool, only fronted-side, not code or > LaTex side, sorry. So, I'm writing a Role Playing game manual here in Italy > and my idea is that of trying to write it with an opensource software. Now, > of course I know that for typography the best tool is Scribus. BUT, I love > Lyx and I managed to create a fantastic colorful thesis for my Architectural > studies with it. It was a 2 columns document with notes, pictures, etc. > An RPG manual is something way more elaborated. WAY MORE. Have a look at > white wolf's manuals to understand the extent of the graphical effort I'm > going to achieve. The problem is, many things cannot be done, from my point > of view, in Lyx to achieve this result. And maybe this is simply not the > tool intended for this kind of result. I need 2 columns pages (OK) with the > possibility to use a picture as a frame for the entire page, or as a > background if you prefer. This picture should be changeable from a section > or from a chapter to another. Say, this chapter has a picture frame of one > kind, then changng chapter I can change the background picture again, etc. > Not only that. I need to be able to put parts of a text, like a citation, a > small emphasized part of the text, something to be outlined, into a fancy > small picture used as a background for it. Fancy tables would be needed too, > but this could even be used with a work-around: I create the tables in Gimp > or something similar, save them as picture and import them into the Lyx > document in a Floating Table frame (for table indexing later). > > Now, why I wanna do it in Lyx? Many reasons, the main reasons are: > > 1) I love Lyx > 2) Lyx documents look incredible, very nice, very professional. > Everything is automated and done for good, it is NOT a WYSIWYG and this is > nice to keep focused on the contents. > 3) I'm an opensource fan and leader of a GNU / LInux distro (OPenGEU) and > I'd like to show off to the world the powers of opensource software. Lyx is > in my opinion the best thing around in opensource documents managing. > 4) Currently all of this is impossible to do in Lyx with normal tools and > GUI commands. Probably the result is achievable with complex code to be > inserted here and there. This is NOT the solution. People cannot use code, > you can't ask people to. So, probably this effort will help Lyx become more > powerful, many new small adjustements could be implemented with a work of > this kind. > > Everybody, coders, users, everyone is invited in participating. I think this > is a great occasion to have a powerfuller Lyx, able of achieving even more > incredible results in many more fields of documents processing. Do you think > this is achievable? Anyone wanna help? Remember I'm not trying to do this > for my only personal achievement. It costs zero to me using Scribus instead > and living Lyx alone. It's just that I think this can be a nice fight to try > and win! :) > > Greetings everyone, > > Luca D.M. > > http://thedarkmaster.wordpress.com > http://www.opengeu.com > You know... My answer to above is that you have to learn TeX and LaTeX hard, and then design your own style for that with all fountains. Then you have to prepare layout file for LyX. The example of Beamer shows that LaTeX allows a lot, really. If you choose Scribus (which is very professional open-source piece of DTP software), please keep on mind the designers way of preparing such documents. You have to write all your text content and prepare all the graphics at first stage, then at the next step design your styles in Scribus and then use the elements from both stages to design your manual. If you start in Scribus and you will experiment with this, you quickly do a real mess in you design and then you may need to start from scratch with it. -- Manveru jabber: manv...@manveru.pl gg: 1624001 http://www.manveru.pl
Re: RPG Manual with Lyx?
> > 2009/7/13 Michael Joyner ᏩᏯ > > > There is a package called 'wallpaper' that may do this very well with a > little bit of ERT. Thank you very much for your suggestion. Of course I can use it but the question is: isn't it better to integrate it in Lyx so that people can use wallpapers normally? In any case, I'll do it with ERT for now. 2009/7/13 Charles de Miramon > Luca De Marini wrote: > > > Hallo everybody, I'm writing this because I'd like to start a new > > adventure in lyx now that I know a lot about this tool, only > fronted-side, > > not code or LaTex side, sorry. So, I'm writing a Role Playing game manual > > here in Italy and my idea is that of trying to write it with an > opensource > > software. Now, of course I know that for typography the best tool is > > Scribus. BUT, I love Lyx and I managed to create a fantastic colorful > > thesis for my Architectural studies with it. > > I don't know how you want to design your RPG manual. But if you have > complex > and very graphically oriented pages, scribus is a better tool. > Sure Charles, as I said, it is very graphically rich. Look at WhiteWolf's kind of manual for an example, it costs you nothing, just visit the site or have a screen of some pages in google! Vampire, Wherewolf, the style's that. And as I said, of course I know Scribus is a better toy for this kind of work. The interesting thing for me is pushing Lyx to the limit, see if it can do this work, see if it will make the whole process of writing a manual such a pain that using Scribus would be better instead :) Greets, Luca
Re: RPG Manual with Lyx?
Luca De Marini wrote: > Hallo everybody, I'm writing this because I'd like to start a new > adventure in lyx now that I know a lot about this tool, only fronted-side, > not code or LaTex side, sorry. So, I'm writing a Role Playing game manual > here in Italy and my idea is that of trying to write it with an opensource > software. Now, of course I know that for typography the best tool is > Scribus. BUT, I love Lyx and I managed to create a fantastic colorful > thesis for my Architectural studies with it. I don't know how you want to design your RPG manual. But if you have complex and very graphically oriented pages, scribus is a better tool. Cheers, Charles -- http://www.kde-france.org
Re: RPG Manual with Lyx?
Luca De Marini wrote: > Hallo everybody, I'm writing this because I'd like to start a new adventure > in lyx now that I know a lot about this tool, only fronted-side, not code or > LaTex side, sorry. So, I'm writing a Role Playing game manual here in Italy > and my idea is that of trying to write it with an opensource software. Now, > of course I know that for typography the best tool is Scribus. BUT, I love > Lyx and I managed to create a fantastic colorful thesis for my Architectural > studies with it. It was a 2 columns document with notes, pictures, etc. > An RPG manual is something way more elaborated. WAY MORE. Have a look at > white wolf's manuals to understand the extent of the graphical effort I'm > going to achieve. The problem is, many things cannot be done, from my point > of view, in Lyx to achieve this result. And maybe this is simply not the > tool intended for this kind of result. I need 2 columns pages (OK) with the > possibility to use a picture as a frame for the entire page, or as a > background if you prefer. This picture should be changeable from a section > or from a chapter to another. Say, this chapter has a picture frame of one > kind, then changng chapter I can change the background picture again, etc. > There is a package called 'wallpaper' that may do this very well with a little bit of ERT. > Not only that. I need to be able to put parts of a text, like a citation, a > small emphasized part of the text, something to be outlined, into a fancy > small picture used as a background for it. Fancy tables would be needed too, > but this could even be used with a work-around: I create the tables in Gimp > or something similar, save them as picture and import them into the Lyx > document in a Floating Table frame (for table indexing later). > > Now, why I wanna do it in Lyx? Many reasons, the main reasons are: > > 1) I love Lyx > 2) Lyx documents look incredible, very nice, very professional. > Everything is automated and done for good, it is NOT a WYSIWYG and this is > nice to keep focused on the contents. > 3) I'm an opensource fan and leader of a GNU / LInux distro (OPenGEU) and > I'd like to show off to the world the powers of opensource software. Lyx is > in my opinion the best thing around in opensource documents managing. > 4) Currently all of this is impossible to do in Lyx with normal tools and > GUI commands. Probably the result is achievable with complex code to be > inserted here and there. This is NOT the solution. People cannot use code, > you can't ask people to. So, probably this effort will help Lyx become more > powerful, many new small adjustements could be implemented with a work of > this kind. > > Everybody, coders, users, everyone is invited in participating. I think this > is a great occasion to have a powerfuller Lyx, able of achieving even more > incredible results in many more fields of documents processing. Do you think > this is achievable? Anyone wanna help? Remember I'm not trying to do this > for my only personal achievement. It costs zero to me using Scribus instead > and living Lyx alone. It's just that I think this can be a nice fight to try > and win! :) > > Greetings everyone, > > Luca D.M. > > http://thedarkmaster.wordpress.com > http://www.opengeu.com > > -- LyX: http://www.lyx.org/ OpenOffice: http://www.openoffice.org/ Inkscape: http://www.inkscape.org/ Scribus: http://www.scribus.net/ GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/ PDF: http://www.pdfforge.org/ signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
