Unless you have the mindset of a programmer and enjoy writing everything
from scratch, I would go with XeLaTeX rather than plain XeTeX.
William's advice about gradually locating packages that will help you is
good. I have used the memoir class to typeset a fairly complex book
(side margins, many tables, etc.). Memoir gives you a lot of control
over your page layout. Its documentation is excellent and very
extensive. As is usually the case with computer stuff, power =
complexity; you might want to work for a bit with one of the simpler
classes to get the hang of how things are done in XeLaTex before
plunging into learning memoir (or koma, which I don't have experience
with).
On 4/26/2018 8:20 AM, Carrs wrote:
Hi,
a newbie question. I would like advice on which TeX-based software it
would be best to learn in detail for my typesetting plans. So far, I
have learned a little TeX and a little LaTeX, but not enough of either
to tell me which will work best for me.
The features I want to be able to typeset are:
+ Roman script, in a Unicode environment. Some of the documents will
have special characters, but nothing exotic. (So I am thinking XeTeX
or XeLaTeX or something else Unicode-y ...)
+ handles a document with plenty of styles e.g. dictionary
+ double or single column on the page
+ can place cross references at bottom of page, or in L or R margin
lined up with caller, or in text area at end of paragraph, or in text
area at end of section.
+ plenty of illustrations of various sizes (that have to share the
page with footnotes, cross references etc)
+ the range of the paragraph numbers on a page can be shown in its header
+ with numbered sentences, can place the number in the margin without
messing up the paragraphing.
Other features I am looking for:
+ runs on Linux (and preferably also on Windows and Mac)
+ no recurring license fees
+ ideally would have some pre-existing materials/courses to help me
learn to use it
If all the software can do these things, I would appreciate any
recommendations you can make regarding the strengths and weaknesses of
the various options there are.
thanks
Chris
--------------------------------------------------
Subscriptions, Archive, and List information, etc.:
http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/xetex
--------------------------------------------------
Subscriptions, Archive, and List information, etc.:
http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/xetex
