RE: [docbook-apps] Re: [xep-support] cover pages front and back

["David Cramer (Tech Pubs)" <dcramer@motive.com>]

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/titlepage.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:elharo@metalab.unc.edu] 
> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 1:35 PM
> To: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
> Cc: xep-support@renderx.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  elharo@metalab.unc.edu
> Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published!
> http://www.cafeaulait.org/books/javaio2/
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596527500/ref=nosim/ca
feaulaitA/
> 
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