158 lines
6.5 KiB
Text
158 lines
6.5 KiB
Text
# 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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The code is under development by the author and can be cloned 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". Once downloaded, right-click to extract the files, or from terminal run:
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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 with git clone:
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```
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export username=zine
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export token=DskM_8XxtKt-Wym1xHd1
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export repo=git.systerserver.net/mara/zine_maker.git
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git clone https://$username:$token@$repo
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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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Python3 should be installed on the computer
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https://www.python.org/downloads/
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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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# 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 fonts of preference by adding them either in the 'fonts' folder and edit the files cover.py, colophon.py and doc_pdf.py to give the new names. Or add your absolute font path directly to 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 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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Characters such as M-oM-;M or ^M (carriage Return / line feed) need to be removed. A cool tool for that is dos2unix, which is available as command line, but needs 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 input text is parsed for specific tags or symbols in the begining of each line 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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## Parameters
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The python scripts cover.py, colophon.py and doc_pdf.py take a text input and an output filename. If we give no input/output, the default input is the related readme files under 'covers/', 'body/', 'colophons/' folders.
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## Merge
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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 (http://linux-commands-examples.com/pdfunite).
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## Print
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For shuffling the final pdf and prepare it for printing you need the pdfseparate command (http://www.linux-commands-examples.com/pdfseparate).
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it is used inside the shuffle_pdf.py file (see details at the end of this README).
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## Images
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For making use of images in the script image magick needs to be installed (http://www.imagemagick.org/)
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# Run the code!
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## Make the content of the pdf
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The default parameters included in the script would create a zine from this readme:
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`python doc_pdf.py `
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OR you can experiment with the other sample text found in this repository under the 'text' folder.
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`python doc_pdf.py text/images.txt body/images.pdf`
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OR get real and add your own text file and replace respectively the input and output filenames.
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`python doc_pdf.py text/<your_file>.txt body/<output-name>.pdf`
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## Make the cover of the pdf
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Same, the default parameters included in the script would create the cover for the zine_maker:
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`python cover.py`
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OR try-out the other cover samples:
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`python cover.py text/cover.txt covers/cover.pdf`
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OR add your cover text file and replace respectively:
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`python cover.py text/<your-cover>.txt covers/<cover-name>.pdf`
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## Make the colophon of the pdf
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Same, the default parameters included in the script would create the colophon for the zine_maker:
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`python colophon.py `
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OR try-out the other colophon samples:
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`python colophon.py text/colophon.txt colophons/colophon.pdf`
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OR add your own colophon text file and replace respectively:
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`python colophon.py text/<your-colophon>.txt colophons/<output-colophon>.pdf`
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# Make a screen PDF
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## For the final screen version
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from the terminal run:
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`pdfunite covers/cover.pdf body/body.pdf colophons/colophon.pdf zines/final.pdf`
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You shall substitute the file paths to your own corresponding /path/filenames
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## See this readme as a zine:
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open the file zines/zinemaker.pdf
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# Make a zine
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## Prepare signatures for printing
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<img>./thumbs/printer_settings.png<img>
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The script shuffle.py creates signatures for printing and folding the A4 in two, to create a zine. Default parameters: as input "zines/zinemaker_screen.pdf" and as output "zinemaker{random_number}.pdf"
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Run it for your own pdf files as following:
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`python shuffle_pdf.py` zines/<input_file>.pdf zines/<output_file>.pdf`
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Note: your input file needs to have an even number of pages, divisible by 4, which is the number of pages needed for one signature. We can add blank pages in the begining and end of the body pdf file we created before if we need to make the total page number divisible by 4.
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In the printer settings opt-in for the following:
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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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# References
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code repository:
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https://git.systerserver.net/mara/zine_maker
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install python:
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https://www.python.org/downloads/
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install pip:
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https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installation/
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clean the text file for parsing:
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https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/sed-remove-m-and-line-feeds-under-unix-linux-bsd-appleosx/
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merge and split pdf files:
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http://linux-commands-examples.com/pdfunite
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http://www.linux-commands-examples.com/pdfseparate
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process images:
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http://www.imagemagick.org/
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