Typesetting chess books - Chess Forums

Tommetje · 09-29-2007, 01:58 AM

Wow, this is something completely different from all the other forum posts here. When you read a chess book, do you prefer small (like A5) or bigger (more towards A4) pages, do you prefer one-column text or two-column text. And, in case of a two-column layout, do you prefer the textmoves (the real game moves) to be typeset as this:

e4 e5
Nf3 Nc6
d4 exd4

Or like this:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4

And, do you prefer the book to use symbols, or just the letters like I did above?

And last but not least, as in many science books, they have pages that are wider than normal and extra width outside margins in which they place figures or pictures or stuff. What about that method? Just one-column text, moves next to each other (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3...) instead of in a "list" type order and the diagrams in the margin.

I'm asking about these questions because I've seen a lot of books and many books use different types of layout. And since I want to write an article or two in pdf format (mostly for myself, but still... it has to look nice

)

So anyway... any comments are welcome.
Thanks in advance
Tom

Fromper · 09-29-2007, 03:00 AM

Usually, I don't care about the exact format, as long as it's relatively easy to read. There are some older books with small print, small diagrams, and sometimes the diagrams are even smudged due to poor printing, so they're hard to study from. I can't imagine anything you write would end up like that.

--Fromper

Tommetje · 09-29-2007, 03:29 AM

Not really, since I use LaTeX, it mostly ends up looking pretty decent

Tommetje · 09-30-2007, 04:13 PM

This doesn't seem to be a very interesting topic that I brought up...

Crash · 10-02-2007, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by Tommetje

Wow, this is something completely different from all the other forum posts here. When you read a chess book, do you prefer small (like A5) or bigger (more towards A4) pages, do you prefer one-column text or two-column text. And, in case of a two-column layout, do you prefer the textmoves (the real game moves) to be typeset as this:

e4 e5
Nf3 Nc6
d4 exd4

Or like this:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4

And, do you prefer the book to use symbols, or just the letters like I did above?

And last but not least, as in many science books, they have pages that are wider than normal and extra width outside margins in which they place figures or pictures or stuff. What about that method? Just one-column text, moves next to each other (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3...) instead of in a "list" type order and the diagrams in the margin.

I'm asking about these questions because I've seen a lot of books and many books use different types of layout. And since I want to write an article or two in pdf format (mostly for myself, but still... it has to look nice

)

So anyway... any comments are welcome.
Thanks in advance
Tom

I prefer larger sized books when I am at home but tend to like the smaller ones to bring along to tournaments though this past weekend I brought a pile of books but didn't really get a chance to use them. I think I did ten or fifteen minutes of reading all weekend and that was to look up a line that I had misplayed earlier in the day.

For a pdf file two columns would probably work best.

I am indifferent with regard to figurine symbols versus english letters for the pieces.

Crash