142 lines
6.2 KiB
Markdown
142 lines
6.2 KiB
Markdown
# Introduction
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This tutorial helps in navigating the zine_maker code, a small software tool derived from pyFPDF library. The code is written in Python, and provides a few scripts for creating covers, colophons, content, and also signatures for preparing a PDF for the printer. The scripts run with python version 3.x.x and we can feed to the scripts inputs and outputs. As an input, we give the path to a text file, which shall create the text and images content of the zine, and as an output we give a the path/filename of our choice. We can also run the scripts with no input nor output, in which case, they take as default parameters the readme text from the text/ folder and produce an output to either of the folders covers, colophons, body, or zines, depending on which script we are running each time.
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# Get the code
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## Download the source code
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As of 2021-2022, the code is under active development by the author and can be cloned and/or downloaded from https://git.systerserver.net/mara/zine_maker.
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To download the project, near the top of the gitlab page, click on the download icon next to "Find file".
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You can choose which type of archived folder you want, and then open it in your filesystem, by right clicking the archived folder, or from the terminal:
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```
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tar -xvf zine_maker.tar -C /home/user/destination
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unzip zinme_maker.zip -d /home/user/destination
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```
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## OR use git clone:
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```
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git clone https://developer:glpat-38qN45wE_xLiNv1q4n5F@git.systerserver.net/mara/zine_maker.git
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cd zine_maker
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```
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# Requirements
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Basic requirements are listed here.
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- Terminal
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- for MacOS and Linux, it comes together with the system, we can find the application by searching for terminal
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- for Windows 10 and 11 follow the steps here (can you find a howto in Korean?)
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- command line tool pdftk
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- for MacOS we can download it from https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/pdftk_server-2.02-mac_osx-10.11-setup.pkg
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- for Linux we can install with sudo apt install poppler-utils
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- for windows we can download it from https://pdftk.en.softonic.com/?ex=RAMP-1768.1
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- Python3 should be installed in the computer
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Check by opening the terminal and run `python -i`
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- And also the pip command if it didn't get installed with Python
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https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installation/
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Once these are installed, from within zine_maker folder run:
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`pip install -r requirements.txt`
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## Language
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for non latin languages, you need to add language specific fonts in the `fonts` folder. At the moment there are Chinese and Korean fonts.
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## Images
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For making use of images in the script
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image magick needs to be installed
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http://www.imagemagick.org/
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# Run the code!
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## Parameters
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The python scripts `cover.py`, `body.py` and `colophon.py` take a text file as input, and a path for the output. If we give no input and not output, the default input comes from the files under the `input` folder and is saved in the output folder as cover.pdf, body.pdf and colophon.pdf respectively.
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## Make the zine in 3 steps
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1. Generate a cover pdf
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from the root of the folder run:
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`python cover.py`
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2. Generate the body (the content) pdf
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from the root of the folder run:
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`python body.py`
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3. Generate the colophon (the back cover) pdf
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from the root of the folder run:
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`python colophon.py`
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The pdf documents are saved in the `output` folder.
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To make your own zine modify the text files for the cover, for the body and for the colophon in the input folder.
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Or provide your own files with the full pathname:
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for example run:
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`python body.py <path>/<your-input-file>.txt <path>/<your-output-file>.pdf`
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## Add images in the zine
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You need to add in your input text file the path of your image.
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For example if you add images in the `image` folder you can add them in the `input/body.txt` as `/images/<image-filename>.jpg<img>. You can also give the full path of your system font.
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See the `input/images.txt` as an example of how to add images in your content.
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## Final PDF
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For merging the cover, body and colophon pdf files, there are many pdf merger tools. One that is command line based and is used in this tutorial is pdfunite
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http://linux-commands-examples.com/pdfunite
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from the root directory run:
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```
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pdfunite input/cover.pdf input/body.pdf input/colophon.pdf output/final.pdf
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```
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You shall substitute the file paths to your own corresponding /path/filenames
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## See this readme as the generated pdf zine:
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open the file `output/zinemaker.pdf`
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# Print
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For preparing the final pdf for printing you need the pdfseparate command
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http://www.linux-commands-examples.com/pdfseparate
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Run from the root directory:
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```
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python book.py `output/final.pdf` `output/print_final.pdf`
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```
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## Prepare pages for printing
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In the printer settings opt-in for the following settings:
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```
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- A4 Landscape
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- Two pages per side
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- Double side - short edge
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```
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# Miscellaneous
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## Fonts
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The source code comes with some fonts under the fonts folder. You can use your
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fonts of preference by adding them either in the fonts folder and edit the
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files cover.py, colophon.py and body.py to give the new names. Or add your
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absolute font path directly in the python scripts.
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## Text
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The input texts should be clean from characters added by some text editors or
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Operating Systems. Use the cat command to check your text is ready as input
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with:
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`cat --show-nonprinting input.txt`
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Symbols such as M-oM-;M or ^M (carriage Return / line feed) need to be removed.
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A cool tool for that is dos2unix, which is available as command line, but needs
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to be installed:
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`dos2unix filename`
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Or with the sed command:
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`sed -e "s/\r//g" file > newfile`
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Extensive info can be find at:
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https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/sed-remove-m-and-line-feeds-under-unix-linux-bsd-appleosx/
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## Layout
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All the font styling happens in the zine_maker function create_pages(). The
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input text is parsed for specific tags or symbols in the begining of each line
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and changes to the font color and size happen accordingly. We can add more or edit existing rules, directly in the zine_maker code.
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To add new functions for text style visit the [fpdf2 text documentation](https://py-pdf.github.io/fpdf2/TextStyling.html)
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To add new functions for drawing shapes visit the [fpdf2 drawing documentation](https://py-pdf.github.io/fpdf2/fpdf/drawing.html)
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