I’m getting into typesetting books! I’m starting by taking some shorter ones out of project gutenberg (common domain) for some practice. It also happens that I really enjoyed omats in high school! Here’s my current draft:
omats.pdf (284.8 KB)
Code
#set text(
font: "EB Garamond",
number-type: "old-style",
size: 12pt,
)
#set page(
width: 4.25in,
height: 5.5in,
margin: (top: 0.7in, bottom: 0.7in),
numbering: "1",
)
#set par(
first-line-indent: 1em,
spacing: 0.65em,
justify: true,
// justification-limits: (
// spacing: (min: 100% * 2 / 3, max: 150%), // default
// tracking: (min: -0.01em, max: 0.01em), // recommended
// ),
)
#show heading: it => {
pagebreak(weak: true)
set text(weight: "regular", size: 2em)
it
v(0.3in)
}
#set document(
title: [The Old Man and the Sea],
author: "Ernest Hemingway"
)
#let title-card() = {
v(0.5in)
set text(weight: "regular", size: 1.5em, font: "Castellar")
set par(justify: false)
align(title(), center)
}
#{
// front matter
set page(numbering: none)
// {
// // half-title page, alt ver
// title-card()
// pagebreak()
// }
{
// half-title page
v(0.5in)
align(smallcaps[the old man\ and the sea], center)
pagebreak()
}
// blank
pagebreak()
// title page
{
title-card()
image("white-marlin.gif")
// alternatively can consider
// https://etc.usf.edu/clipart/58100/58191/58191_seine-boat.htm
// https://etc.usf.edu/clipart/4700/4794/fishing_boat_1.htm
v(0.25in)
align(center)[Ernest Hemingway]
pagebreak()
}
// copyright page
{
set text(size: 0.7em)
set par(
first-line-indent: 0em,
spacing: 2em,
)
let section(body) = par(body, hanging-indent: 1.5em)
[
_The Old Man and the Sea_\
Ernest Hemingway\
A work in the public domain, well, in Canada apparently.
// First published 1952\
#section[
Edition:\
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952\
Sourced from Project Gutenberg at\
#link("https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/hemingwaye-oldmanandthesea/")\
]
#smallcaps[isbn-10]: 0-684-16326-8\
#smallcaps[isbn-13]: 978-0-684-16326-0\
Marlin clipart from #link("https://etc.usf.edu/clipart/188300/188316")
#section[
Book design by saffronner\
Body text in EB Garamond\
Title in Castellar
]
#pagebreak()
]
}
// blank
pagebreak()
// blank
pagebreak()
// dedication page + blank
// table of contents
[
// foreword
= Foreword
I read this book in high school. I thought it was really good, so I wanted to typeset and so have it for myself. But what bad luck---I found while looking for clipart such an awe-inspiring marlin that I couldn't not use it.
Unfortunately, if you somehow happen to read this book, and are not saffronner, you have been spoiled. There is a marlin. There is a sick-as-hell marlin. The first time I read this book, I did not know there would be an outstandingly awesome fish, and my experience was better for it; the rising action was all the more pronounced.
Oh well. Anyhow, let's get on with it.
\
#align(right, [-- saffronner])
#place(text(size:0.8em, fill: gray)[\ \ P.S. Erm. It appears this book is not actually public domain everywhere. So uh. Alice in Wonderland jumpscare!])
#pagebreak()
]
// preface
// acknowledgements
// introduction
// abbreviations
// blank
pagebreak()
}
#counter(page).update(1)
#v(1in)
#include "alice-jumpscare.typ"
#pagebreak()
#set page(numbering: none)
#pagebreak()
#pagebreak()
#align(center)[
#smallcaps[books by ernest hemingway]
#v(0.1in)
The Old Man and the Sea
Across the River and into the Trees
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories
To Have and Have Not
Green Hills of Africa
Winner Take Nothing
Death in the Afternoon
A Farewell to Arms
Men without Women
The Sun Also Rises
The Torrents of Spring
In Our Time
]
In no particular order, I’d like to thank and mention the people at the Renegade Bookbinding Guild, memdesign authors, the Typst community, books on my shelves, etc.
process
Not necessarily in order:
- Take the main matter source document. Regex the hell out of it to mold it into a Typst document. I wrote and use a CLI tool with a DSL at https://github.com/wade-cheng/regexer.
- Write front and back matter.
#includemain matter.- Write styling.
design notes (nonexhaustive)
The page size is quarter-letter. This is because physical books are best folded along the paper grain, and printer paper (most paper) is manufactured grain-long. That is, by taking a letter sized paper and cutting it in half, folding that half-sheet is along the grain.
Also, there weren’t enough pages to make the book an interesting thickness if it were half-letter.
postmortem
It was interesting setting a book, because it feels like there’s no really good way to wrap much of the styling into a library the way we usually do. That is, via a function that we call with show template.with(...): Such a function would basically need to re-wrap every parameter in par, text, and so on, just in case the author would need to use it. I wonder how Latex’s memoir does it…
On the topic of library API design, I recall a thread somewhere around here about separating styling and content into different functions. Couldn’t find it, but the interesting problem people noted was that the current pattern show template.with(abstract: [...]) leads to difficulty in changing the styling of that abstract.[1] So, show template; set text(size:1.2em); abstract[...] could be easier.
If I were to write a package for making books, or some other content-focused package, I’d probably follow this idiom. There could be functions for “spawning” individual specialized pages at a time or something, maybe… A separate function for the title page, half title page, etc etc.
I believe there is some design work under way regarding this? ↩︎