[KS] Re: Windows & Korean question

[Otfried Cheong]

 > It the job is professional-class output of mixed-script texts, there is
 > only one possibility, switch to Mac. If the editor can not choose his
 > platform, and if the biggest part is English, mixed with words in asian
 > languages, then DIY is required, mostly using native systems for Postscript
 > output, which are then pasted in the text. No fun... Tell him to contact me
 > if he needs more help.

Dear list,

with deference to Didier, I think insisting on Mac as the only
"professional-class" system is a bit strong.

Also, pasting postscript can lead to most unpleasant results if the
fonts used by the `native system' are bitmapped fonts and their
resolution does not match the printer used to print the final copy
(this happens very easily if the pasted postscript is scaled to match
the surrounding text).  I have just gotten a copy of Choo and
O'Grady's "Handbook of Korean Vocabulary" by Univ. of Hawaii Press. A
very useful book from a respectable publisher---but the quality of the
typesetting of the Hanja is so awful I felt like crying.

I have been using Donald Knuth's TeX (and LaTeX) system very
sucessfully for mixed documents.  With the proper setup (which,
admittedly, is not easy) TeX can handle Chinese, Korean, and Japanese
(as well as many European languages).  As for professionality, TeX is
being used for a large proportion---possibly the majority---of books
in the `hard' sciences, and is the only electronic format accepted by
publishers like Springer-Verlag for submissions to journals in such
areas as mathematics, computer science, or physics.

TeX/LaTeX runs on Unix, Windows, and Macs, but it is not a WYSIWYG
system and therefore perhaps out of the question for most of you.
However, it is not that difficult to learn---I have had secretaries
learn to use it to typeset articles in mathematics---and before you
resort to pasting postscript into your document, it might at least be
worth consideration.

Otfried




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