Template Changer

users
#1

Hello again,

Hope this isn't seen as too cheeky...

Does anyone have any templates they'd be willing to share as examples of
decent contemporary layout (for my particular usage, it's a thesis)?

Mines just, well, boring tbh (not far off the LO standard layout, which,
though fine, is just that - somewhat dull and functional.

I don't mean something crazy and snazzy, just a proper solid contemporary
layout by someone who's into graphic design, typography and such stuff,
with a keen eye.

Or, does anyone have any links to, or pointers for, a good place to look
that not only provides examples but clear instructions on spacings,
heights, etc.?

Font-wise, I've been making use of Linux Libertine for many years but even
that seems a bit staid these days (if ethically sound:).

S'cuse the ennui,

Julian

#2

Hi :slight_smile:
The official place for people to put templates they would like to share is;

http://templates.libreoffice.org/

As for fonts i am sure there are many crazy and fairly sane fonts out
there. Are you planning to have your thesis printed professionally? If so
it might be worth asking the printing company for their ideas. If you want
to go all out then it might be worth paying for a font or hunting around
for an interesting free one but all that sounds like a distraction from the
main task. Libertine may seem boring to you, but that's probably because
you have been using it for so long. One positive with still using it is
that it "brands" it as being yours, and from a specific time in your life.
Other people will probably still see it as fresh and new and distinctly
you.

I tend to find flipping a coin helps me realise what i really want to do at
such moments (or i can always go with what the coin landed on). Are you
just delaying completion or/and trying to be too perfectionist about it?
It's a lot of work and taken a lot of time to get to this point - are you
just doing what most of us would do and delaying moving on? There is a
mantra in Open Source, "Release early and release often" because the
important thing is to get the work "out there" for people to see, use and
draw from for their own work. By finally letting go and getting it out
there it enables people to give feedback and suggest 'improvements' (which
may or may not be as carefully considered as they think) to help (which may
or may not actually really help).
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#3

Dammit Tom,

That it is *too* good advice.

Ok, I'll slunk off and actually get back to work:) Nice take though.

Chance is good but this thesis is very much deterministic.
I guess it's from the endless books I've been neck-deep in for so long -
some of them are beautiful to look at - I'd like some of that please.

I guess then the answer is 'go and pay a pro then'.

Ok, thanks

Apologies for the noise,

Julian

#4

Hi :slight_smile:
No worries about "the noise". It's what we are here for and hopefully
others here can give better advice about beautifying it. I suspect though
that others will want advice from you about how you made yours look so good
'even as it is'. Doubtless it already looks fantastic but it's difficult
for you to "see the wood for the trees". It's not "noise" it's vibrancy,
professionalism and perfectionism. :slight_smile:

A fresh set of eyes might be called for, preferably someone fairly
attractive in a coffee shop or library or somewhere. (So that if they diss
it then you know it's because they are probably too shallow or snobby or
weirded-out to have really noticed it and if they don't diss it then you've
won twice).

I wasn't suggesting to pay a pro, more like just asking the people who do
the next bit of work what would make it easier or better for them. People
rarely think about this but if they see and print books all day long then
they may have built-up some decent opinions = which you can later ignore or
use. Tbh i don't even know if people do get their thesises professionally
printed these days.

Personally i'm too much of a coward to dare anything like this for myself
but so many times i wish i had. Advice is always easier to give than to
take! :wink: Thanks for saying my advice was good! :))
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#5

for my particular usage, it's a thesis

Before changing anything in the template, read everything you can find
about the institution's policies on thesis submissions. It isn't
uncommon for educational institutions to have very specific design
requirements for thesis hiding in very obscure places.

By way of example. Times Roman is usually mandatory for the text body.

In the guidelines of at least one institution, each language had a
mandatory typeface, weight, size, and colour. Within those guidelines
the process for applying for an exemption was described, along with a
statement saying that exemptions will be granted only for languages and
writing systems not currently covered by the guidelines.

Or, does anyone have any links to, or pointers for, a good place to look
that not only provides examples but clear instructions on spacings,
heights, etc.?

Bruce Byfield
_Designing With LibreOffice_
2016
ISBN: 978-1-921320-44-6

jonathon

#6

I developed an interest in typography when I wrote a legal brief for the U.S. Supreme Court and had to deal with it's very specific typesetting rules. (Did you know that 11 point Times New Roman really *isn't* 11 points? It's slightly smaller and the Court will not accept a brief written in 11 point Times).

Typographically, layout is more important than font. A bad font well laid out will be more readable than a good font badly laid out. In terms of layout, the biggest mistake most people make is having text lines too long. With letter sized paper (8.5 x 11), I'll set my left and right margins *at least* 1.5 inches each, leaving text lines of 5.5 inches, which is still too long for single spaced text. At that length, I'll double space my text. I set a line of 11 to 12 point single spaced text set at 5 inches.

As for fonts, I like Linux Libertine G for its extra features (automatic ligatures, old-style figures, hanging punctuation). I also like how it matches well with its sans-serif companion, Linux Biolinum. I will use Biolinum for headings and Libertine for text. Libertine has the same general shape as Times, but is much more readable as it is not as condensed as Times. I don't use more than one or two fonts for a document and I avoid overemphasis. Regular italics works nicely. I never underline anything.

Other readable fonts are Palatino, Century Schoolbook, and some versions of Garamond. Sadly, if the reader notices your font, then the font has failed its purpose. At most, the reader should notice that your text is easier to read than someone else's. If you're using a newer version of Windows, you may have Sitka Text. I just discovered this font and absolutely love it. While it was designed for on-screen use, it prints nicely on my printer.

Many years ago, I bought an outdated copy of WordPerfect. While I don't use the word processor, its CD came bundled with hundreds of really good quality Bitstream fonts, which are well worth the cost of the CD. Some of my favorites on the Wordperfect CD are Iowan Old Style, Century 731 BT, and New Baskerville BT.

If you want to learn more about typography than you'll ever need, I recommend, "The Elements of Typographic Style," by Robert Bringhurst.

Good luck

Virgil

#7

(apologies, meant to send to list too,below)

Hi Jonathon,

Thanks for the link.

Perhaps I should have stated earlier that this is a music composition
thesis.
So the thesis is the scores, recordings, and documentation.
I guess as such, I'm a specialist in one field, and quite pedantic about
layout of scores, quality of recordings and documentation.
It's that I'd like the commentaries presentation to be 'just so' also. :slight_smile:

Appreciate your comment, thank you

#8

Hi Virgil,

Very interesting info, and the tech details are just what I'm after.

Always wondered what the G in Libertine stood for. Like the different font
for headings and text body too (currently have just the one font). Agree
about underlining and minimal use of italics (is that what you mean
though?).

I'm in Debian rather than Windows.

Regards,

Julian

#9

Perhaps I should have stated earlier that this is a music composition thesis.

Ah. Being enveloped in Greek, Coptic, Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew texts,
I wasn't thinking about music.

layout of scores, quality of recordings and documentation.

For that, I'll admit a bias to the output of LilyPond.
OOoLilyPond (http://ooolilypond.sourceforge.net/ and/or
http://extensions.openoffice.org/en/project/ooolilypond) might work with
LibreOffice.

jonathon

#10

The G in Libertine stands for the Graphite font engine that makes all the extra features available. The regular Libertine O font doesn't have these features (or if it does, I haven't figured out how to access them).

If you have the Libertine G font, then to gain the features, you add codes to the end of the font name in the font selection box. I do this at the level of "Tools/Options/LibreOffice Writer/Basic Fonts"

For example, mine looks like this:

Linux Libertine G:onum=1&lith=0&itlc=1&thou=0&pnum=1&ss04=1&ss05=1&litt=0&hang=1

The codes mean the following:

"onum=1" -- Turn on old style numbering

"lith=0" -- Turn off the "Th" ligature

"itlc=1" -- fixes the spacing around italics words.

"thou=0" -- Don't place an extra space between every third 0 in long numbers, 00 000

"pnum=1" -- Turn on proportionally spaced numbering.

"ss04" -- Turn on stylistic alternatives (This one provides a really cool ampersand (&))

"ss05" -- Turn on stylistic alternatives (This one provides a Garamond style upper case W)

"litt=0" -- Allows the splitting of double "t" ligatures "tt" for hyphenation at the end of the line.

"hang=1" -- Turn on hanging punctuation. This gives justified margins a really nice professional look. Don't bother if your margins aren't justified.

All of the codes can be found at http://www.numbertext.org/linux/fontfeatures.pdf.

Sometimes, you want to apply a specific effect to a word or two, such as applying true small caps. It can be a pain to type in the code, so there is a Typographic Toolbar extension available that places a toolbar on your screen that makes the effects available with a point and click. The extension is available at:

http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center/typography-toolbar

At the end of the toolbar is a help button that links back to the "fontfeatures.pdf" site for easy reference.

If you don't have the Linux Biolinum G fonts, I highly recommend getting them. They can be found at:

http://www.numbertext.org/linux/

I tend to use Libertine for documents that need a professional look. I avoid Times like the plague as it wasn't intended for long-term use. It's letters are condensed, which provides for "economy of space" in newspapers, for which it was designed, but you will rarely, if ever, find it used in book length works. Libertine is nice as it has the same general shape as Times, so it doesn't stand out as being too different, but it's not as condensed, making it very readable. I usually set it at 12 points, which is nice on a letter sized paper document.

You might also check out http://toolbox.rutgers.edu/~hedrick/typography/typography.janson-syntax.107514.pdf. It's a nice article summarizing a lot of the details in Bringhurst's book.

Good luck with your thesis.

Virgil

#11

Yep, Lilypond is 'the one'.

Most of my scores are 'text scores, so have a quite particular layout - I
utilise .txt for text scores too (seems appropriate) so pnd's simplifies
greatly layout issues.