Re: [RFC PATCH] perfbook/papersize: ebook reader size support

[Balbir Singh <bsingharora@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 11:35:04AM +0900, Akira Yokosawa wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Mar 2021 12:15:29 +1100, Balbir Singh wrote:
> > On Tue, Mar 23, 2021 at 10:39:50PM +0900, Akira Yokosawa wrote:
> >> Hi Balbir,
> >>
> >> I am surprised to see perfbook's LaTeX codebase works fairly well
> >> in the ebook paper size.
> >>
> > 
> > It does and it makes it easier on the eyes. My suggestion is to
> > try the patch and then see for yourself, it'll help with the
> > improvements you suggest below
> >  
> >> Impressive, indeed!
> >>
> > 
> > Yep, the magic is done by LaTeX :)
> > 
> >> A few inline comments:
> >>
> >> On Tue, 23 Mar 2021 20:38:22 +1100, Balbir Singh wrote:
> >>> On Mon, Mar 22, 2021 at 10:23:54PM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> >>>> On Tue, Mar 23, 2021 at 12:01:53PM +1100, Balbir Singh wrote:
> >>> ...
> >>>> Very good!
> >>>>
> >>>> But would it be possible to create a separate build target for this
> >>>> combination?  Just in case others are using 1c for normal-sized paper?
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Add support for ebooksize, which is roughly the size of
> >>> a kindle (4.5in, 6.3in) with margin size of 0.2in. The
> >>> recommended changes were taken from stackexchange with
> >>> links in the code. Not all tables take nicely to the
> >>> new size and warnings are produced, these warnings are about
> >>> about overfull hbox's. This size/target also enforces
> >>> single column output and increases the size of the pdf
> >>> by almost 40% in terms of number of pages. The actual size
> >>> on the disk is not all that different. The final output
> >>> though is very readable on the kindle I own.
> >>>
> >>> I've been running the command via
> >>>
> >>> env PERFBOOK_PAPER=ER make perfbook-er.pdf
> >>
> >> Do you still need to set PERFBOOK_PAPER? 
> >>
> > 
> > I use it to set PERFBOOK_BASE
> 
> Without setting PERFBOOK_PAPER,
> just "make perfbook-er.pdf" works fine.
> 
> I mean, env PERFBOOK_PAPER=ER make perfbook-1c.pdf
> will generate the same PDF as perfbook-er.pdf would (without
> PERFBOOK_PAPER set).
> 
> Which is mostly the same as perfbook-a4.pdf and perfbook-hb.pdf
> work when PERFBOOK_PAPER=A4 or PERFBOOK_PAPER=HB is specified.
> 
> > 
> >>>
> >>> TODOs:
> >>> 1. Make tables and some figures work nicely in this mode
> >>
> >> Shrinking tables and figures is not so hard, but to shrink tall
> >> code snippets might be tricky.
> >>
> > 
> > The code snippets turned out just fine, the tables had overflows.
> > Even the images are largely fine.
> 
> I see code snippets more than 53 lines are truncated in the -er build.
> 
> >  
> >> I have some ideas to do them.  Can you wait a couple of days?
> >> I'll post some PoC scheme for you to base your further tuning.
> >>
> >> Just shrinking tables and code snippets might result in
> >> illegibly small font, though.
> >>
> > 
> > The code is fine so far, I think with the tables, we might need
> > to find a way for allowing them to cross page boundaries, I have
> > not looked at the table macros yet.
> > 
> > My suggestion is for you to try the patch, see the rendered PDF
> > output and look for artifacts like table 9.1
> 
> I've tested my scheme on top of your patch and applied the
> scheme in cpu, toolsoftrade, cpu, and defer/rcuapi.
> 
> Can you try the patch set I'm sending out soon as replies to this
> message.
> 
> I'm not saying the scheme works for every oversized float types,
> though.
> 
> >  
> >>> 2. Consider scaling the font
> >>
> >> You mean the font size of 10pt is too large for ebook readers?
> >>
> > 
> > I meant largely for tables, the font size on my kindle seems nice.
> 
> I see. My scheme shirks tables as a whole, so some of them might
> become hard to read.
>

Works OK for me so far, it does a tighter packing of tables and
if we shrink the font size, I am sure we can make the tables fit :)

Acked-by: Balbir Singh <bsingharora@gmail.com>

Balbir Singh.