{"id":5341,"date":"2017-09-16T10:20:35","date_gmt":"2017-09-16T14:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/?p=5341"},"modified":"2017-09-16T10:20:35","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T14:20:35","slug":"how-i-build-open-textbooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/2017\/09\/how-i-build-open-textbooks\/","title":{"rendered":"How I build Open Textbooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am often asked how I build textbooks. I am a little weird in that I am radically open and refuse to use a commercial service or any non-open software. I prefer a line-oriented format in github,using open software and a process that I run myself.<\/p>\n

The best example of how I write open books is here:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/github.com\/csev\/net-intro\/blob\/master\/book\/README.md
\n<\/a>
\nI write my books in Pandoc Markdown<\/p>\n

https:\/\/github.com\/csev\/net-intro\/blob\/master\/book\/01-packets.mkd<\/a><\/p>\n

I do pay for and use OmniGraffle for figures (InkScape is free – but super hard to use):<\/p>\n

https:\/\/github.com\/csev\/net-intro\/tree\/master\/figures<\/a><\/p>\n

I export the figures export them to SVG and EPS:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/github.com\/csev\/net-intro\/tree\/master\/images<\/a><\/p>\n

Then I use pandoc (which uses LaTeX) to produce PDF and epub<\/p>\n

https:\/\/github.com\/csev\/net-intro\/blob\/master\/book\/book.sh<\/a><\/p>\n

Then I upload the PDF to CreateSpace and the epub to Amazon and it is auto-converted to mobi:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.net-intro.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

This is perhaps a more complex process that using Word, pressbooks or gitbook but I prefer a pipeline that I completely own and control and can adjust. Other methods are easier – I prefer control ownership and introspection over ease of use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am often asked how I build textbooks. I am a little weird in that I am radically open and refuse to use a commercial service or any non-open software. I prefer a line-oriented format in github,using open software and a process that I run myself. The best example of how I write open books […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5341"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5343,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5341\/revisions\/5343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dr-chuck.com\/csev-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}