Software for writing Go books

[freegame]

With respect to the previous poster, printing screens is not going to look as professional as typesetting it properly in tex. It might be sufficient for many purposes, but it won't look like a proper book

of course typesetting it in TEX will look cleaner, but I think that for a lot of purposes a bitmap will do just fine and will be a lot easier to do for most people (even if it's for in a book). I think the difference is often not big enough to justify learning to use new software (just like I wrote before) Below two examples of bitmap diagrams that I had printed. They look fine to me. (made in MoyoGo and put in word via printscreen)

(the geeky explanation gets back to bitmaps versus vector graphics, but I don't know if you care).

No need I know this. and others can google it if they want to

[Phelan]

Doesn't moyo go also export diagrams? I remember frank talking about something like it.

[CarlJung]

Yes.

[freegame]

how ?

[Alakazam]

C?

^^

I'm glad this discussions heated up, a lot more information is being thrown around. I must admit that I'm just a Go player, and I know absolutely nothing of what you guys are talking about, though I understand enough to consider them. If directed toward me, make sure you take into account I don't know anything about anything. I assume you have

I haven't even decided what kind of book to write, but I know I will go for something unique

A long time ago I wanted to call a book "The Silent Stone", and teach how to win games with the peaceful moves, and expand on endgame and value calculation. It was going to teach a certain style, showing situations where there is a fighting move and a peaceful move that are both equally good, and how to win a game in the most simple way.

Now that I'm stronger than then, I think it's a bad idea. Those teaching would tell you how to beat 3 Dans, but later on you'd have to unlearn it. 4-Dan to 5-Dan for me was, quite literally, hogging territory --> Playing balanced, and looking for places to fight.

So what should I write?

I'm thinking a "Specific Level Up" type of book, as in, getting from 5 Kyu to 1 Dan.

I would show all kinds of practical Tesuji and stuff that I learned at that time that made me go, "Wow, you can do that?". I would also provide all the Joseki I think a 5 Kyu should know, and it would continue like that, giving the reader some new Joseki and fighting techniques to meet the needs of their level. Most importantly, I would like to explain how to think, and how to carve out all the incorrect and useless thinking by Kyu players based on my own experiences with my friends and I. I think when explaining such a thing, it's more appropriate, and more "correct", to speak very humanly and get the points across in the easiest way possible, rather than using the same language used to explain tactical diagrams.

I also want to wait until I get stronger, it's kind of a chicken and egg thing. If I'm not stronger, my book may not be as attractive. If I work on a book now, I may not get stronger very quickly

I just started 3 online leagues at once, and just got a job, so.....

[Bill Spight]

I also want to wait until I get stronger, it's kind of a chicken and egg thing. If I'm not stronger, my book may not be as attractive. If I work on a book now, I may not get stronger very quickly

That may be so, but I kind of doubt it. Writing can help you get stronger.

I think I would be about 2 stones weaker if I had not put out a quarterly go newsletter way back when.

[Alakazam]

Well, I guess the problem at the moment is that i don't have time. it would take away from my league games or lessons, which surely make me stronger than writing would.

[Phelan]

At least start taking notes now, so you don't forget the ideas later when you do have time to write it.

[unkx80]

Using LaTeX is like creating web pages by typing out the HTML source code. It is hard to say whether LaTeX is better than Word for those who never used it before, because the learning curve of LaTeX is really steep. However, having learnt some LaTeX, I will not go back to Microsoft Word for creating mid to large sized documents. LaTeX produced documents usually looks more professional than Microsoft Word documents.

As for diagrams, please use vector graphics over bitmap graphics. A number of SGF editors can export vector graphics. Look for those that export to formats like .svg, .ps, .pdf, .emf, and .wmf. Don't use formats like .jpg, .gif, .png, and .bmp. Bitmap graphics look very grainy when printed.

Whatever tool you use to create your book, please do not use the Comic Sans font. In my opinion, it looks terribly unprofessional.

[freegame]

@ Alakazam

Sounds like nice plans for your book, though I wouldn't put joseki's in there myself

@ unkx80

I presume you are a graphical designer or something close to that. I got exactly the same comment about the Comic Sans font from someone else.
I had just randomly picked it and since you are only the second person to "complain" it seems like a lot of work to change it to please only very few people.
But who knows. If i decide to change the bitmaps to vector diagrams I will pick another font for the letters and numbers.
(By the way, I used it only for the letters and numbers in the diagrams, not the rest of the text )

[Solomon]

Using LaTeX is like creating web pages by typing out the HTML source code. It is hard to say whether LaTeX is better than Word for those who never used it before, because the learning curve of LaTeX is really steep. However, having learnt some LaTeX, I will not go back to Microsoft Word for creating mid to large sized documents. LaTeX produced documents usually looks more professional than Microsoft Word documents.

As for diagrams, please use vector graphics over bitmap graphics. A number of SGF editors can export vector graphics. Look for those that export to formats like .svg, .ps, .pdf, .emf, and .wmf. Don't use formats like .jpg, .gif, .png, and .bmp. Bitmap graphics look very grainy when printed.

Whatever tool you use to create your book, please do not use the Comic Sans font. In my opinion, it looks terribly unprofessional.

Personally, I think LaTeX doesn't have such a steep learning curve. There is a lot of depth in what you can learn, but getting started and learning the basics is not so difficult. I learned a lot when I first got introduced to LaTeX simply by looking at source code from PDFs that my professors would post up whom I emailed if I could see the tex file; something I couldn't do if I tried to learn, say, Perl . There are also some Office-like suites that use LaTeX I think, though I don't think they're available for Windows, to make the experience even easier.

And 100% on your stance regarding Comic Sans, along with Brush...and Papyrus . Actually, for some reason, I also get just as irked from Arial (why not Helvetica or Verdana?) and Times New Romans (why not Georgia?).

[unkx80]

@ unkx80

I presume you are a graphical designer or something close to that.

Sorry, nowhere close to that.

[unkx80]

And 100% on your stance regarding Comic Sans, along with Brush...and Papyrus . Actually, for some reason, I also get just as irked from Arial (why not Helvetica or Verdana?) and Times New Romans (why not Georgia?).

Hmm interesting. I thought Arial and Times New Roman are okay, albeit a bit too overused. I actually prefer the Times font over the Computer Modern, which is the default LaTeX font.

[Bill Spight]

Using LaTeX is like creating web pages by typing out the HTML source code. It is hard to say whether LaTeX is better than Word for those who never used it before, because the learning curve of LaTeX is really steep. However, having learnt some LaTeX, I will not go back to Microsoft Word for creating mid to large sized documents. LaTeX produced documents usually looks more professional than Microsoft Word documents.

Having written for go publication, IMX Word sucks for the task. I spent more time trying to get the graphics placed correctly than writing text or creating the graphics in the first place. (It isn't just that they move around. Strange things happen. ) I never learned LaTex, but my impression is that you have to know it pretty well to make a good layout for go. For self-publication my suggestion is to use a real publishing program.

As for diagrams, please use vector graphics over bitmap graphics. A number of SGF editors can export vector graphics. Look for those that export to formats like .svg, .ps, .pdf, .emf, and .wmf. Don't use formats like .jpg, .gif, .png, and .bmp. Bitmap graphics look very grainy when printed.

EPS files work well, IMX.

[kirkmc]

I've used Word professionally with many complex documents, and it does work well, if you really now what you're doing. Placing graphics involves a bunch of tricks that most people don't know. This said, it's not a layout program, and I agree with Bill that one should use a tool designed for the job. On the Mac side, there's Pages, which is quite good; I think Publisher on Windows would probably do the trick. But if the book's not complex, Word will work, once you figure out how to get the graphics right.