epub3-samples VS keenwrite-themes

With MathML epubs can look decent. For example take a look at the sample MathML epub "A First Course In Linear Algebra" [0] (in a reader that supports MathML of course). It looks pretty good. The problem is Amazon STILL doesn't support MathML, so publishers just churn out a gross version where all the equations are images and so then it doesn't scale properly with the text and the book becomes 300+ MB because of it. And they can't be bothered to make two versions for readers like Kobo that do support MathML.

[0]: https://github.com/IDPF/epub3-samples/releases/download/2017...

For example, if you want to open epub files like https://github.com/IDPF/epub3-samples/releases/download/20170606/accessible_epub_3.epub inside Brave, you will have to install an epub reader extension then instead of downloading it will open inside Brave, if you want to change that behavior you have to disable the extension or limit the extension's domain list, or you right click and "save link as file", but unless the extension has the settings, there is no way to tell Brave to use extension or download manager depending on extensions, unless the extension gets disabled. And if you have an external epub reader, well, you can automatically open the extension when you tell Brave to do it as well.

I've worked on a ePub parse and renderer and the issues you're describing sound pretty familiar.

The three main components of the ePub (aside from the actual pages) are the TOC, the spine and the manifest. The manifest basically tells you where everything is, the TOC is the table of contents which can link to various pages and the spine gives you the traversal order.

Some mistakes I've seen are using the TOC to traverse the book. Using the spine to traverse the book but not handling hidden pages properly. Not handling two page spread properly.

So yeah the spec is nuanced and it would be easy to make a reader that worked with a lot of books but then had weird issues on another set of books that aren't particularly different.

I recall using this repo (https://github.com/IDPF/epub3-samples) to test specific functionality to make sure it was in line with the spec.

This gets styled in the PDF as:

https://i.ibb.co/ZfZXmDn/output.png

Various styles are packed in themes, which the user can select when exporting to PDF. At present, there are only three themes:

https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/tree/main/exa...

There other styles in the Boschet theme, such as speech bubbles, TODOs, and so forth:

    ::: bubbletx

KeenWrite Themes[1] are instructions that tell ConTeXt how to typeset XHTML documents (content) into PDF files (presentation). I made a tutorial that shows how my FOSS desktop text editor, KeenWrite[3], allows users to write in Markdown to typeset a document against a particular theme.

Before it can be used for scientific papers, it needs cross-references, which, unfortunately, aren't part of the CommonMark specification.

I posit that the vast majority of LaTeX users don't grok how to separate content from presentation. When I asked a question on TeX.SE about how to adjust the line spacing between enumerated items (spanning a couple dozen enumerated lists), the vast majority of people voted for the answer of using `\itemsep0em` to tweak each list ... individually.[4] The correct answer, IMO, is to fix the problem globally, and not waste time tweaking individual lists.

[1]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QpX70O5S30

[3]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

[4]: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/6081/reduce-space-be...

The ConTeXt typesetting system tightly integrates Lua. One aspect of Lua that I dislike is its inability to easily write OOP-ish code. What's impressive about the language is that it can be extended to do so in astonishingly little code:

* https://github.com/kikito/middleclass

With OOP in place, I was able to typeset a hexagonal grid and a symbolic representation of a neural network on top, using a more OOP-like approach. The classes are straightforward.

A vertex defines a point in 2D space:

* https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/blob/main/bos...

An edge connects two vertices:

* https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/blob/main/bos...

A graph connects edges:

* https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/blob/main/bos...

A priority queue serves for ordering graph edges by weight of adjoining vertices:

* https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/blob/main/bos...

With these concepts in hand, we can typeset a grid and a "neural network" on top:

* https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/blob/main/bos...

Here's an example of the output for chapter 1:

* https://i.ibb.co/19DCDZy/ch-1.png

And chapter 14, where the "network" has grown in complexity:

* https://i.ibb.co/ncf16vg/ch-2.png

This is for my near future hard sci-fi book on AGI. I'm looking for alpha readers to give me feedback. See profile for contact details.

KeenWrite uses themes to control every aspect of the presentation layer: leader dots, indentation levels, fonts, colours, hyperlinking, and so forth. This is accomplished by first converting R Markdown to XHTML then passing the XHTML to ConTeXt.

> like font face, font size, horizontal and vertical element positioning and line spacing, etc.

May I recommend ConTeXt?

For my purposes, KeenType was only meant to provide a real-time "rough draft" of equations rendered inside of KeenWrite[0], my FOSS Markdown editor. That is, I edit in Markdown, then KeenWrite converts the inline TeX-based equations for previewing. When I'm ready to create a "finished" product, KeenWrite exports the Markdown to XHTML then feeds the XHTML, along with a theme, to ConTeXt[1]. The various themes[2] are where font faces sizes, alignment, kerning, etc. are tweaked. In this way content remains completely separated from presentation.

[0]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

[1]: https://wiki.contextgarden.net/Main_Page

[2]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes

KeenWrite[0], the FOSS Markdown text editor I’ve been working on, includes the ability to render plain text diagrams via Kroki[1]†. See the screenshots[2] for examples. Here’s a sample Markdown document that was typeset[3] using ConTeXt[4] (and an early version of the Solare[5] theme).

One reason I developed KeenWrite was to use variables inside of plain text diagrams. In the genealogy diagram, when any character name (that’s within the diagram) is updated, the diagram regenerates automatically. (The variables are defined in an external YAML file, allowing for integration with build pipelines.)

Version 3.x containerizes the typesetting system, which greatly simplifies the installation instructions that allow typesetting Markdown into PDF files. It also opens the door to moving Kroki into the container so that diagram descriptions aren’t pushed over the Internet to be rendered.

†Kroki, ergo KeenWrite, supports BlockDiag (BlockDiag, SeqDiag, ActDiag, NwDiag, PacketDiag, RackDiag), BPMN, Bytefield, C4 (with PlantUML), Ditaa, Erd, Excalidraw, GraphViz, Nomnoml, Pikchr, PlantUML, Structurizr, SvgBob, UMLet, Vega, Vega-Lite, and WaveDrom.

Note that Mermaid diagrams generate non-conforming SVG[6], so they don’t render outside of web browsers. There is work being done to address[7] this problem.

[0]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

[1]: https://kroki.io/

[2]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/blob/main/docs/scree...

[3]: https://pdfhost.io/v/4FeAGGasj_SepiSolar_Highlevel_Software_...

[4]: https://wiki.contextgarden.net/Main_Page

[5]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/

[6]: https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/issues/2485

[7]: https://github.com/yuzutech/kroki/issues/1410

KeenWrite leverages KeenWrite Themes to change how documents are presented. The Tarmes theme is an example of a very basic theme, meant to act as a base for making new themes. Take a look at Tarmes, which is probably the closest answer to your question. Feel free to add issues against the issue tracker or add questions to the discussion area.

> Nevertheless, I would prefer a Markdown-based system

My free, cross-platform desktop Markdown editor, KeenWrite[1], integrates with the ConTeXt typesetting software[2]. I'm working on a branch[3] to make integration containerized[3] because its installation is painful. KeenWrite limits math to plain TeX[4] so that the output can be rendered using any TeX-based typesetter (ConTeXt, LaTeX, MathJax, εχTEX, etc.).

Here's a sample document typeset using ConTeXt (skip to page 40 for the math):

https://pdfhost.io/v/4FeAGGasj_SepiSolar_Highlevel_Software_...

That document theme is called Solare[8].

> that can use CSS and MathML

Adding CSS mixes presentation logic with content, which is something KeenWrite strives to avoid. Instead, KeenWrite implements Pandoc's annotation syntax to keep presentation logic out of the content. I've written about this extensively in my Typesetting Markdown series[5].

You can produce some pretty amazing documents just with annotations, such as the following that I wrote in Markdown and typeset using ConTeXt:

https://impacts.to/downloads/lowres/impacts.pdf

> has a 100% bibtex clone for references.

Markdown fails at references. At some point, I'd like to implement cross-references in KeenWrite. Except there's at least six competing standards for the syntax, which I've also remarked upon[6], making the choice of syntax difficult[7].

[1]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

[2]: https://wiki.contextgarden.net/Installation

[3]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/blob/1_typeset_using...

[4]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/blob/main/docs/scree...

[5]: https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2020/04/28/typesetting-markdow...

[6]: https://talk.commonmark.org/t/cross-references-and-citations...

[7]: https://xkcd.com/927/

[8]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/tree/main/sol...

If ConTeXt and KeenWrite Themes are installed, then you can press Control+P to export as a PDF file, producing the output shown on the far right.