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Is it possible to use solely Open Source applications to publish a book? Yes, the Linux Journal details just such an example.
In December of 2004, Clinton Nixon published his role-playing game, The Shadow of Yesterday. The content of the book was nothing shocking, nor was the fact that he published the book himself. Independent authors have been writing role-playing games for as long as there have been role-playing games. Likewise, self-publication is not a new phenomenon. The revolutionary thing in Clinton's case is the fact that only open-source tools were used, from authorship to artwork to page layout.
The Process
Clinton's choice of tools is slightly unusual for an author. He wrote his text with vi, an editor more traditionally used by programmers than by authors. His choice partially is explained by the fact that Clinton also is a programmer.
Because he's a programmer, it also was a natural choice for him to use Python's DocTools to convert the text source to HTML, the format used to publish the book on the Web. This copy of the book was released under a Creative Commons License.
From the HTML files, Clinton was able to load the book into OpenOffice.org Writer. Writer interpreted the HTML files beautifully, converting HTML tags to OpenOffice.org styles.
The next step in the chain was an accident. At first, Clinton had decided to use Create from Stone Studios, a Macintosh layout program, to do the print layout design. When it was time to start layout, however, Clinton's Mac went up in smoke. He had to find a solution quick, and it showed up in the form of the CVS release of Scribus, now at version 1.2.1. Capable of reading his OpenOffice.org files and retaining the style information, Scribus was a perfect match for his layout needs. Full article
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