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I'm a LaTeX user (I've been using it since 2001), and I proficiently printed a book (for private use only) using LaTeX + Memoir.

Seeing my work, a friend of mine wants me to supervise (and do) the typographical work for his RPG manual.

EDIT:

Since the typographical settings will have to be way more fine-tuned I thought of switching to ConTeXt (in my understanding ConTeXt is conceived to allow much more typographical freedom to the writer than LaTeX).

Reading the comments and redirects to other questions, I see only that some people were able to successfully produce some RPG manuals with LaTeX; I had no doubt it could be done, but my thought is: is this the best choice?

I will need to do the following:

  • Use OpenType fonts (now I use LuaLaTeX)
  • Typeset many, many long tables and figures
  • Use two (mostly three) different typefaces for different sections and paragraphs (especially true for section titles)
  • Have many "one page environments", e.g. a text typeset like a letter on a separate page, or set in white font over a white and black picture

My understand is that (Lua)LaTeX (possibly using memoir) is suitable for the job. Is ConTeXt a better choice? Or can it be?

Thanks

Moriambar
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    Possible duplicate of Why should I be interested in ConTeXt? – gernot Mar 24 '17 at 11:13
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    @gernot I find the answers to that question not that meaningful and way too vague… – Moriambar Mar 24 '17 at 11:15
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    Well, your question is vague, too. If you want to have fine control there cannot be much difference, since at some point it boils down to TeX. The difference between LaTeX and ConTeXt seems to me more the uniformity of how it presents itself to the user. – gernot Mar 24 '17 at 11:20
  • @gernot do you think it would be nest to specify what I expect to be doing and what kind of control I would need to have? – Moriambar Mar 24 '17 at 11:24
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    See also http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/29979/how-do-latex3-and-context-compare. It is rather old but a lot is still valid and also apply to latex2e versus context. – Ulrike Fischer Mar 24 '17 at 11:24
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    Read the two pages linked to in the comments, and then try to ask more specific questions. Maybe set up small relevant tasks and ask how one would do it in the two systems. – gernot Mar 24 '17 at 11:31
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    Links of interest (maybe): http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/60259/, http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/324218/, http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/24218/authoring-rpg-books-in-latex-what-packages-to-use – cgnieder Mar 24 '17 at 11:51
  • I edited the question, reading all of the comments... I hope this is clearer now. – Moriambar Mar 24 '17 at 12:15
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    An RPG manual needs a non-conventionnal (ie non academic) layout, i think that ConTeXT is more suitable than \LaTeX classes to get the job done, you should make extensive use of the layer command. – tuxador Mar 24 '17 at 12:34
  • @tuxador that is exactly the spirit of my question i.e. when is ConTeXt really preferrable to LaTeX (I give it's a bit vague), more important: giving my example, what I will have to do and such: is in this case ConTeXt preferrable? – Moriambar Mar 24 '17 at 12:37
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    I have been a ConTeXt user for more than 10 years and I love the system. Nevertheless, I wouldn't advise to switch. If you're familiar with LaTeX/memoir, stick with it. In your question, I don't see anything that couldn't be achieved with LaTeX. IMHO, ConTeXt is years ahead in a clear and consistent syntax for programming, in its integration of Lua, in xml processing, maybe in layers and positioning objects. But the underlying engine is still TeX, and you don't seem to need the aspects that ConTeXt is really superior. Other than that, I still find your question vague... – Thomas Mar 24 '17 at 12:54
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    https://bitbucket.org/kaddourkardio/context_template/src/e2232597023e1f60acb949dc7d162685d7f462a8?at=master – tuxador Mar 24 '17 at 12:56
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    Only slightly related, but important: OP mentioned white text over an image. Is this for printing to paper? Commercially? There is no "white ink" so some production printers may not accept white text over an image, without special pre-processing. Be sure to ask the print service, first! Just because your home inkjet prints it well, does not mean that the same file is good for production. –  Mar 24 '17 at 14:46
  • @RobtA thanks for your remarks. I will surely ask, of course there's no white ink, but I've seen many a manual and it's a pretty common practice. Nevertheless it may require special processing and I'll ask! Thanks again – Moriambar Mar 24 '17 at 14:48

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