I've read in a few articles that InDesign now uses LaTeX algorithms for its
typesetting and am curious to find out how well they are implemented.
AIUI, InDesign uses the HZ algorithm developed by Peter Karow of URW w/ the assistance / consultation of Prof. Hermann Zapf.
Changes seem to include:
- overfull lines _not_ allowed
- direct support for Unicode and OpenType and one-to-many and many-to-one mapping
(allowing a string of characters to become a ligature, or a ligature to be decomposed for hyphenation)
- an awareness of character shapes allowing for optical margin adjustment and on-the-fly kerning
TeX, by way of pdfTeX and Omega has most of the above, but not all in one easy-to-use package.
I've been using LyX so far for relatively simple documents and have had
great results both for myself and other people, but I was wondering whether
InDesign in this scenario might give as good results with the added bonus of
letting me freely use other fonts - especially non-bitmapped Russian fonts,
which I can't work out how to do in LyX, as well as more freedom of document
layout. I understand that my question seems to be pointing away from the
document processing strengths of LyX/LaTeX toward simple word processing or
design, but my intention is simply to better understand what it is and can
do.
LyX is more of a tool for writing. Document design / layout in it is done using pre-programmed LaTeX packages and (at need) evil red text (raw LaTeX code).
InDesign is a visual, interactive page layout program which lacks long document features (though there are scripts for things like generating the ToC, and plug-ins for some other features (indexing) and it does have support for master pages and style sheets &c. which help somewhat) which is intended for creating the final, formatted version of a document. One is also able to use _some_ of the tools available on the host operating system, depending on the platform (AIUI, one can embed OLE objects, so MathType in Windows will work, but it doesn't support Mac OS X Services, so EquationService.app won't work directly as a Service).
LyX will work well even on older, slower machines, while InDesign is sluggish at times even on the G4 here at work.
William
-- William Adams, publishing specialist voice - 717-731-6707 | Fax - 717-731-6708 www.atlis.com
