Janet, have a look at scribus:
http://www.scribus.net/
haven't used it myself but believe it is capable of producing
professional computer to plate PDFs of the type needed by printers. It
is said to be something like Quark Xpress and if so would be more then
capable of typesetting verse. The versions I have compiled in the past
look very promising.
Not sure about fonts but if need be professional fonts needed for
printing can be purchased from various foundries.
I use Latex, usually with Lyx or Kile on a GUI, but suspect the learning
curve may be a bit steep and even then suspect I would need to go to
Scribus for the PDF.
On Fri, 2008-11-28 at 12:21 +0900, Janet Jackson wrote:
> Need some help here.
>
> Because I don't fit into any of the pre-existing categories, it looks like
> I'm going to have to self-publish the dratted thing. My book manuscript,
> that is. "Coracle: 98 poems", my first (and long overdue) collection.
>
> I've made the manuscript using OpenOffice.
>
> What I don't understand is how you get from a manuscript to something that
> can be given to a printer to create a workmanlike edition, a sturdy
> paperback with the name and title on the spine. Presumably one uses some
> kind of book design software. I prefer to work under Linux, although I can
> use Windows if I must. What do people use? All suggestions welcome.
>
> Janet
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