[Athen] LaTeX to ePub3 workflow?

[Sean J Keegan]

Hi Todd,

Last time I checked in December, I don't know of too many applications that are creating ePub 3 files that support math markup.  There is an application called BlueGriffon that will do ePub 3 creation with MathML, but it gets a bit pricey (http://www.bluegriffon-epubedition.com/BGEE).  I am not sure what formats you can import, so you may not be able able to go directly from LaTeX into that editing environment.

You could try the following as several people have reported that Calibre has some support for ePub and math generation - 1) convert the LaTeX document into HTML with MathML, 2) import this into Calibre and export as ePub.  You would then need to do some clean-up of the code to produce a valid ePub 3 file (change doctype, some file extensions, etc.), but it is doable if you have an overabundance of time.  Here is a thread with this discussion: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=163255

Once in awhile we get LaTeX files and, in those cases, we use Scientific Notebook to assist with the conversion into MS Word.  You can save out from Scientific Notebook as an RTF document (with or without MathType support), but it's not without issues and we generally do cleanup in the MS Word document to ensure accuracy.  For the math content, we are relying on MathType and will use the MathType tools to convert any LaTeX into MathType objects in MS Word.

We have been working on an automated workflow that takes MS Word + MathType (as .docx) documents and converts these to full-text/full-audio DAISY files. This workflow is now running in our SCRIBE system (http://scribe.stanford.edu), which is based on the Robobraille/Sensusaccess.com engine.  However, the preference for DAISY files is quite low and most of our students are preferring ePub, PDF documents, or Word files.

At this time, our SCRIBE system cannot go from MS Word + MathType .docx files into ePub 3 due to a limitation in the DAISY Pipeline 2.  We are exploring our options and to see how we can find an acceptable solution to generate ePub 3 with MathML, but from what I have researched, there is not much out there that will support an input of LaTeX or MS Word.  Both reading applications and authoring applications seem to point the finger at the other as who needs to commit to ePub 3 first (i.e., no reason to create an ePub 3 editing tool as there are no compliant ePub 3 readers vs. no reason to create an ePub 3 reading application as there are no ePub 3 editors).

So, to give a very long answer to your short question - I think you should take a look at Scientific Notebook as that may give you the option to go from LaTeX to RTF and from there into into MS Word.

Take care,
Sean

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 11, 2013, at 6:29 PM, Todd Schwanke <tschwanke at studentlife.wisc.edu> wrote:


> Alternatively, any recommended LaTeX to accessible Word (.doc or .docx)?  With  basic styles/structure?  With basic styles/structure & math?

> thanks, Todd

> 

> 

> On 01/11/13, Todd Schwanke wrote:

>> 

>> 

>> 

>> 

>> Good afternoon:

>> 

>> 

>> 

>> Does anyone have a LaTeX to ePub3 workflow for documents (particularly textbook/course materials) that include math/statistics that they would recommend? Recommended associated tools and readers? Or would you discourage this workflow at this time based on the technology still evolving at all stages of this process? Seems that the math part makes it pretty sensitive to what readers it will display correctly in.

>> 

>> 

>> 

>> Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions,

>> 

>> Todd

>> 

>> UW-Madison

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