Process Control

DiKt changes the game of the book publishing process.

By generating the output of the different formats out of an annotated input file, as well as by applying a strict separation between content and lay-out, you have only one source file to manage throughout the process. The output is generated real-time, so that each stakeholder in the process can keep a watch over his/her part of it.

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Costing and time-saving

Short-cutting desktop publishing

A classical publishing process usually goes from a manuscript by an author, editing in the manuscript by staff members, setting up instructions for the lay-out, transmitting the file to the graphical staff, laying out page per page, revising again, and finally put the final version into the printing and/or distribution pipeline:

With DiKt, the layout is not done page per page by a human, but automatically by a typographical engine based on the TeX typesetting engine. By marking the input file and applying a so-called class to it, the lay-out can be done in a matter of seconds by the editor. Some minor corrections in typesetting can be done in the final version. The cost for class set-up are taken once, and the class can be applied to each publication repeatedly.

This allows for a time-saving up to 70% and a cost saving up to 80% after amortisation of the development cost for the class, in the case a standard class in the DiKt library does not fit the publisher's needs.

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Translations and multiingual publications

Dikt speaks a wide range of languages.

By bringing coding into battle for file management in the publishing process, and thereby the separation between content and lay-out, translations are done by filtering language-dependent strings in the input file. The lay-out of the book is therefore only done once. Furthermore, the (La)TeX engine knows about standard keywords and hyphenation patterns for almost any spoken language in the world, thereby tremendously easing the process of justifying text.

Also, working in code makes it possible to isolate the language-dependents strings and store them into databases or spreadsheets. Translating a book can be done within a spreadsheet of database screens if so wished. The translator does not have to bother about lay-out instructions anymore, and the results of the publications in both languages can be compared on the fly.

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Versioning

Keeping track of editions and prints.

Coded input means a minimal amount of file storage: flat text barely uses any disk space. To this advantage in file management, DiKt adds the possiblity to keep track of all the different versions of an input file by a notation between brackets holding the version numbers of the corrected or added text. Version management features in graphical environments like Microsoft Word of Adobe InDesign are often poorly used, and mostly keep track of only the last version. Text-based versioning also allows for specific reports for revision by the editing staff, thereby enabling much faster editing, for instance by typesetting the corrections in different colors in the revision versions.

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Formats and geometry

Much less headache for pocket versions or illustrated editions

In DiKt, the page layout and general metrics of a book are merely settings in a document class. By changing the applicable class in the header of a file, the engine sets the whole text in the new dimensions (often requiring a couple of minor corrections for hyphenation and justification). This allows for publication in different formats out of the same source file.

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Exports

Going digital

Just like the feature for book dimensions, the format is also a matter of changing a setting in the header of a DiKt input file. Publications in digital formats for all kinds of readers and platforms is therefore a matter of hitting one single button: DiKt takes care of the metadata of the generated files, as well as the encryption, indexes and cross-references by external URLs.

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