jupiterboy

Hi, I’m Mark. I work as a book designer. I use the most rudimentary functions of production apps, and specialize in typography, page design, and color fidelity through the print process. I am very interested in a stable Adobe alternative.

My concern is for good typography. I think this is a deep skill that is worthy of preservation. You'll note that decompiling fonts is generally illegal, so the only way to legally adjust kerning throughout a large document is through automation. What I am calling rubbish is the automation and interface design associated with duplicating existing features and making them, in theory, more accessible. This, to me, is bloat. I've set type in lead, on photosetting machines, and have lived through desktop publishing. There are some dark periods in there were fundamental control of type was lost. Is it egocentric to ask for the basic tools to be able to attempt to do a fundamentally good job on a book?

Yes, well, I get paid to do books and set type well, and have a deep library of GREP scripting and data sets. This is one of the things that distinguishes my work. Like many, I'd absolutely love to leave Adobe in the scrap heap with Quark, but for my money so many of the features in desktop pub apps are rubbish. GREP is not one of them.