adobebook-designpdftex
Many PDF of math books that I have, I am sure (99%) that they has been typesetted using (Pdf)LaTeX. But when I check their properties in PDF reader, the PDF producer name isn't (Pdf)LaTeX surprisingly and in must case it is Adobe InDesign. (for example Springer pub.)
Isn't (
LaTeXa complete software for producing books? if so why publisher use other softwares for final design?
The new version Adobe Reader XI allows to save the filled-out version of any form - special treatment with the commercial Adobe Acrobat thus isn't necessary any more.
You can create fillable forms with hyperref which can be filled out in the free Adobe Reader and send back to you by e-mail. A minimal example would be (replace forms@stackexchange.invalid by your own e-mail address):
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\begin{document}
\begin{Form}[action=mailto:forms@stackexchange.invalid?subject={The submitted form},method=post]
\noindent\TextField[name=name]{Name:}\\[1mm]
\ChoiceMenu[radio,name=gender]{Gender:}{male=male,female=fem}\\[1mm]
\TextField[name=email,width=5cm]{E-mail:}\\[5mm]
\Reset{Reset} \quad \Submit{Submit} \quad \Acrobatmenu{Print}{Print}
\end{Form}
\end{document}
Your customers can fill the form, and by pressing the Submit button, an e-mail will be sent to you with an attachment called <filename>.fdf which contains all the provided data.
You can examine this file using e.g. the free PDF-XChange Viewer: Open the PDF file containing the form, select File->Form Data->Import Data to Form... and open the e-mail attachment you received. Now all the form fields will be filled with the results. (Update: You can even use Adobe Reader X itself: Just open the PDF file containing the form and double-click on the .fdf file afterwards. You may have to accept to trust the document with the yellow notification bar on top, then the form fields will display the results.)
The advantage of this solution is that it doesn't require your customers to install an additional program: They can use the Adobe Reader which is installed on many systems by default. You can even create forms that sends the results directly to a script running on your server to store it e.g. in a database - see the hyperref manual for more details.
The Type3 font is a so-called soft font which is a vector font, too. It is defined by PSTricks on-the-fly and embedded by default. You have to use the dvips option only for symbols from Times Roman, Zapf Dingbats, or Helvetica.
You have nothing to change! However, most printshops do not know that a Type3 font can also be a vector font.
Best Answer
I guess you a are wondering why so many books are produced with InDesign and much less with LaTeX, because LaTeX obviously is suited to typeset the books you are buying.
LaTeX had in the past and has some serious shortcomings yet. In the past it really was a headache to adapt and use a random font. Before XeTeX and LuaTeX had been developed, you needed to rename them in a standard way, produce some kinds of helper files and a *.sty file. If you are interested, have a look into the fonts directory of you TeX-Installation.
But publishers and booksellers use a plethora of fonts. In the late 90' I got a Corel Draw CD containing the software as well as about 600 fonts. Many of the were of high quality, but maybe 15 usable out of the box with LaTeX.
To typeset fancy pages, magazines and books love colors and columns, especially columns running around little pictures or some kind of text inlays. Section design is difficult with LaTeX. And so on. In short: LaTeX isn't meant for graphic design.
You can produce beautiful book with LaTeX, of course! Recently, I have asked for examples of beautiful typeset manuals, see here: Big list of beautifully typeset package documentations . Well, because these days people give their answers in the comments section, I haven't got one answer, but some answers in the comments.