Re: Fwd: MacOSX-TeX Digest #923 - 02/08/04

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

At 15:28 09/02/2004, Adam Lindsay wrote:
>Hi folks.
>
>The below email showed up recently on the MacOSX/TeX list, and I thought
>it might be worthy of some ConTeXt-centric discussion.
>I have used Tex in the very distant past and recall it had tremendous
>capability but never tried using it for the many complex graphics
>applications which now are prerequisites for business. I would like to
>try Tex again, but thought it best to ask if Tex can now be used to
>create reasonably complicated color product brochures. The goal would
>be to produce brochures, newsletters, business proposals, and also
>"publish" data from databases that look as if from a high-end layout
>package such as Quark Express or  something similar.
>
>Can Tex be easily used for these type of functions?
>
>Your help would be greatly appreciated.

We sometimes have projects where tex is used as an replacement for desktop 
publishing. On the average i think that tex can do most jobs that dtp 
programs can do and vice versa. Both have their pro's and con's

- tex solutions demand a different way of thinking, which troubles 
communications with designers
- using tex pays off quite well when it us used during the whole process 
(author -> book), since it diminishes the errors that may show up dur to 
dtp-ing
- if the design is done in a dtp system and needs to be turned into a style 
... well, one then often finds out that the design is not that designed and 
filling in bits and pieces takes time
- tex systems permit all kind of integrations, (semi)automated sub flows, etc
- tex systems have a high degree of reusage, and becomes more profitable 
when many similar jobs need to be done
- while tex (when applied well) can do a pretty good job on typesetting 
paragraphs, many of todays designers take their dtp program (quark or 
indesign) as the standard way of doing things, i.e. all kind of funny rules 
and 'best ways to do' and one can get headaches of trying to match illogic 
demands
- some things can be done with tex that cannot be done with dtp systems but 
it takes some experience to find the solutions
- the qualification 'highend' is not related to dtp or tex, but to the 
quality (consistency) of the design and the freedom you have in finetuning 
the style; i've made styles for automated typesetting of layouts of 
moderate complexity (adaptive graphics and so) based on designs by 
designers, but the result seldom passes my own quality control if it comes 
to the typesetting (not a tex problem, more a specification problem)
- there are many documents around that have properly typeset math but for 
the rest look *** which makes it hard to sell tex if you don't have counter 
examples at hand
- etc, etc

so,

- TeX can be used for these type of functions
- if this is 'easy' depends on your skills
- if this is doable depends on your customers (being open minded and so)
- ons should use the tools that suits the job (can be both dtp or tex or a 
mixture)

in any case,

- i still have to find something that cannot be done in tex (apart from 
page by page made up documents but that's a different game anyway)

Hans



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