cover pages front and back

Bob Stayton wrote:
> Hello,
> The DocBook XSL stylesheets currently don't provide
direct support for 
> covers, only front title pages.  Covers can come in a
variety of 
> configurations, such as single-sheet for front and
back, wrap-around 
> with spine, or wrap-around without spine for saddle
stitch.  Text 
> placement and graphics are highly individual, so it is
hard to write a 
> general-purpose stylesheet for all possible designs. 
Also, cover 
> PDFs are often produced separately because their
production process 
> (color, heavier stock) may differ from the process for
the book block.
>  

While I agree with all that, it would still be very useful
if there were 
some way to automatically stitch a cover provided from
another source 
together with the DocBook XSL output; ideally without
mucking up the 
page counts either. I.e. assume I have one of these:

1. A PDF or other graphic wrap around cover generated from
another program
2. Separate graphic covers fro front and back and spine
3. An XML source document along with my own stylesheet to
generate the 
covers in XSL-FO


Given one of those three inputs, would it be possible to
somehow 
parameterize the DocBook XSL stylesheets so it could add
extra pages for 
the front and back covers and pull in the external PDF (or
GIF/PNG/etc.) 
  to make "covers" in the PDF?

I know we can;t do that now, but would this much be hard to
add?

Also is there any sort of de facto standard for where the
covers appear 
in pure PDF? e.g. if I buy a Pragmatics or O'Reilly or
APress eBook, are 
the covers in the PDF I buy and if so where?

 From a quick scan of the few such PDF books I have handy,
it seems the 
front cover is included as a graphic on the first page. The
back cover 
and spine are not included.

If nothing else, this is actually quite useful for Finder
previews in 
Mac OS X.

-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharometalab.unc.edu
Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published!
http://www.c
afeaulait.org/books/javaio2/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0
596527500/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA/

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You can get something pretty cover-like just using
titlepages for front covers IMO. You can't do full page
covers (e.g. with things that look like bleeds). If you need
something fancy like that you need to write some custom
stuff at this point. Here's a pretty old and kludgy example
http://www.dpawson.co.uk/docbook/styling/titlep
age.html#d2587e176 

Since covers are so custom, maybe it's just a matter of
adding a hook for cover code to the base xsls? 

David

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Elliotte Harold [mailto:elharometalab.unc.edu] 
> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 1:35 PM
> To: docbook-appslists.oasis-open.org
> Cc: xep-supportrenderx.com
> Subject: [docbook-apps] Re: [xep-support] cover pages
front and back
> 
> Bob Stayton wrote:
> > Hello,
> > The DocBook XSL stylesheets currently don't
provide direct 
> support for 
> > covers, only front title pages.  Covers can come
in a variety of 
> > configurations, such as single-sheet for front and
back, 
> wrap-around 
> > with spine, or wrap-around without spine for
saddle stitch.  Text 
> > placement and graphics are highly individual, so
it is hard 
> to write a 
> > general-purpose stylesheet for all possible
designs.  Also, 
> cover PDFs 
> > are often produced separately because their
production 
> process (color, 
> > heavier stock) may differ from the process for the
book block.
> >  
> 
> While I agree with all that, it would still be very
useful if 
> there were some way to automatically stitch a cover
provided 
> from another source together with the DocBook XSL
output; 
> ideally without mucking up the page counts either. I.e.

> assume I have one of these:
> 
> 1. A PDF or other graphic wrap around cover generated
from 
> another program 2. Separate graphic covers fro front
and back 
> and spine 3. An XML source document along with my own 
> stylesheet to generate the covers in XSL-FO
> 
> 
> Given one of those three inputs, would it be possible
to somehow 
> parameterize the DocBook XSL stylesheets so it could
add 
> extra pages for 
> the front and back covers and pull in the external PDF
(or 
> GIF/PNG/etc.) 
>   to make "covers" in the PDF?
> 
> I know we can;t do that now, but would this much be
hard to add?
> 
> Also is there any sort of de facto standard for where
the 
> covers appear 
> in pure PDF? e.g. if I buy a Pragmatics or O'Reilly or
APress 
> eBook, are 
> the covers in the PDF I buy and if so where?
> 
>  From a quick scan of the few such PDF books I have
handy, it 
> seems the 
> front cover is included as a graphic on the first page.
The 
> back cover 
> and spine are not included.
> 
> If nothing else, this is actually quite useful for
Finder previews in 
> Mac OS X.
> 
> -- 
> Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharometalab.unc.edu
> Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published!
> http://www.c
afeaulait.org/books/javaio2/
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596527500/
ref=nosim/ca
feaulaitA/
> 
>
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