Publisher/editor writing science textbooks

[anmac1789]

how do publishers and editors write and make mathematical function graphs and format their textbooks... ? what softwares and programs do calculus or chemistry publishers use to create their textbooks ? Thanks

 

[Vanadium 50]

They have art departments for that.

 

[anmac1789]

Do you know any specifics?

 

[Bandersnatch]

@Orodruin published a textbook recently. He might have some insights.

 

[Orodruin]

If your figures are good enough as they are submitted you can provide your own figures as an author. If not it is up to the publisher’s art department in discussion with the author.

 

[anmac1789]

ok i wish they would say how they make mathematical function graphs it is so useful

 

[Office_Shredder]

Can't you just go to wolframalpha.com and plot whatever you want? Obviously not for like, commercial distribution, but if you want to see some well drawn plots.

 

[vanhees71]

Well, nowadays they get ready manuscripts from the authors. At least in my community (theoretical high-energy nuclear physics) you send your paper as a LaTeX file + figures (usually pdf's). Then they deform it by transforming it to another format and in the proofs you correct the errors ;-)). I've not yet written a textbook myself yet. I only know from my thesis advisor who once edited a big Lecture Notes in Physics volume. After the book got totally distorted by the editors we ended up to get it printed in color without extra fees, because of a huge delay.

 

[robphy]

Depending on the type of graphics (sketch, 3d sketch, calculated model, plot, plot-with-errorbars, etc...)
and how much control you want,
you'll likely need a different tool... hopefully which can be rendered in a
commonly supported vector-graphics format.

Some books might list the tools that were used.You may find these useful:

https://tex.stackexchange.com/quest...ks-written-in-latex-with-the-source-available

https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/1319/showcase-of-beautiful-typography-done-in-tex-friends

https://physics.stackexchange.com/q...-draw-physics-diagrams-and-what-are-their-rel
https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/158668/nice-scientific-pictures-show-off

https://asymptote.sourceforge.io/gallery/
https://texample.net/tikz/examples/
https://texample.net/tikz/resources/#tools-that-generate-pgftikz-code

https://www.geogebra.org/m/Y38XGs9F
https://www.desmos.com/calculator
https://plotly.com/javascript/
https://matplotlib.org/

https://chemapps.stolaf.edu/jmol/jsmol/jsmol.htm

...this is just a very small sampling.

 

[anmac1789]

I am actually curious how publishers from mcgraw hill and/or NELSON make textbooks...

 

[robphy]