Tag proposal: typesetting
67 points by runxiyu
67 points by runxiyu
For stories relating to: how text is laid out an
Discussion: should it include e.g. stories about Pango? Unicode (partially relevant to typesetting/typography I suppose)? These are a bit further from "typsetting" but is relevant to typography and encoding? Should it include stories about markup languages?
See searches for e.g. LaTeX, Typst, typography, PostScript, Pandoc, etc. and some misc stories like Let's write a PDF file.
I wouldn't be the one filtering things out, but I could see how to some people, the way text is presented on paper/screens might not be that interesting compared to more typical programming/computing topics.
I think if we figure out the scope properly it shouldn't be much additional complexity.
I'm not familiar with the tag-submission process so please correct me if there's anything I'm missing!
I'd be in favour of this as a way to very subtly encourage people to submit more of these.
Also typesetting is gloriously, beautifully intertwined with the history of computing since roff.
I for one feel like these stories don't come up often enough to be hidden, which is the primary reason for tags on Lobsters.
Tags have two purposes: to help people who don't want to see the tag to hide it, and for people who do want to see the tag to see more of it.
I use tags the opposite way. I often check out the recent math posts and if I read a post about X I'm happy if there's an X tag so I can find out some more.
This point comes up every time a new tag is submitted. I'd love to see some actual data on it though.
You can get a feel for how "unpopular" a tag is by seeing how many are filtering it here https://lobste.rs/filters
Ironically for this discussion, "meta" is among the most filtered.
however there is no way to get a feel for how popular a tag is based on the people who click on one to see any posts available on the topic. anecdotally, that is exclusively what I use the tag system for, but that doesn't show up in the tag's metrics.
There is design, which I think at least fits LaTeX, Typst, and typography, though perhaps not pandoc or PostScript
I don’t think a markup format like Typest or LaTeX is really covered by the design tag, because articles about them are usually more about the languages’ features and syntax and less about the typographic design aspects of using them. If you do a quick search for Typst, for example, you’ll see that the tags previously used for Typst are scattershot and that most people use the general purpose programming bucket.
You bring up an interesting point, though, about the relationship with a more imperative typesetting format like PostScript, which I would argue should also be covered by the proposed typesetting tag.
Great idea. There have been a lot of articles about Typst lately. This could also include typesetting in graphics contexts, e.g. SDF techniques. This should probably not include type design or general typographic design, which is already covered by the design tag.
I wonder what's the difference between typesetting and typography, and which one would be better suited as the tag name?
I believe typography is more about the properties of a font (how the characters look, the family/lineage the font belongs into, etc.) while typesetting is about how text is presented (line height, margins, the choice of fonts, sizes, etc.) The two are strongly intertwined, but separate.
which one would be better suited as the tag name?
IMHO typesetting. Even if, as described before, it doesn't fit both topics, it covers a wider range of potential submissions.
I don't think that's accurate. Typography is a broader tem for arranging text for reading, whereas typesetting is more about the technical process involved in the final steps of getting it ready for publication. I think typography would be a better tag as it's a bit more inclusive.