Formatting for print is one place that's still a bit tricky. Not much control over how browsers will print things, though some people I know have had success with PrinceXML as a print converter. Doing lots of "normal" print things like referencing page numbers is a bit unnatural as well, e.g. replicating the LaTeX \label \ref pair that lets you write things like "(see page 256)" without hard-coding it.
Formatting for print? I assume you aren't talking about /actual/ printing on paper... the whole point of my question is that we need a new typesetting system for active and web-enabled electronic documents which provides as much control over the reader experience as PDF does, but is not tied to the print format and has new features which are now possible.
Ah ok, I took you to be asking what's needed for HTML5 technologies to replace LaTeX/ConTeXt and similar as general tools for typesetting, which would include the ability to target both paper and screen output.
If it's for electronic documents purely, then I think we're pretty close, at least in terms of what the technology supports. Making it easy to do various kinds of typesetting tasks are perhaps another story; there is a lot of stuff that is technically possible with the tech modern browsers support but not easy to do, certainly not with a workflow as automated as LaTeX's.
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Formatting for print is one place that's still a bit tricky. Not much control over how browsers will print things, though some people I know have had success with PrinceXML as a print converter. Doing lots of "normal" print things like referencing page numbers is a bit unnatural as well, e.g. replicating the LaTeX \label \ref pair that lets you write things like "(see page 256)" without hard-coding it.
Formatting for print? I assume you aren't talking about /actual/ printing on paper... the whole point of my question is that we need a new typesetting system for active and web-enabled electronic documents which provides as much control over the reader experience as PDF does, but is not tied to the print format and has new features which are now possible.
Ah ok, I took you to be asking what's needed for HTML5 technologies to replace LaTeX/ConTeXt and similar as general tools for typesetting, which would include the ability to target both paper and screen output.
If it's for electronic documents purely, then I think we're pretty close, at least in terms of what the technology supports. Making it easy to do various kinds of typesetting tasks are perhaps another story; there is a lot of stuff that is technically possible with the tech modern browsers support but not easy to do, certainly not with a workflow as automated as LaTeX's.
I think you are absolutely right, and this brings us to a daunting challenge -- how to plan and implement the document of the future...