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Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up

Mar 31, 2015 at 3:01 PM Post #5,810 of 191,343
Hi everyone,

I decided to typeset Jason’s book and after about two weeks of work, I’m ready to present it to you (with Jason’s approval, of course). I know ampair already did the same, but I tried to take some more time with this and make it something worthwhile, also as a personal side project. I also created versions that are hopefully more usable on Tablets and e-Readers and in dark environments.
The book is typeset using LaTeX on european DIN A5 paper (reason: my printed copy) using Bitstream Charter as the text font. The text was pulled from the HTML code in this thread and search-and-replaced until it was halfway usable for LaTeX.

After having set up the basic LaTeX structure, I went through the whole thing several times to do the following things:
  1. Debugging, compiling problems or it doesn’t look as expected
  2. Basic formatting, chapter titles, sections, asides and quotes etc.
  3. Symbols, math expressions, units and the like
  4. Finetuning of symbols, microtypography, kerning, margin-kerning (aka protrusion)
  5. Linebreaking, pagebreaking optimisation, widow and orphan lines
  6. Final corrections, PDF bookmarks, URLs

I worked in Sublime Text 2 using the LaTeXing package for compiling, the RegReplace package to format new chapters, SumatraPDF to view the output and git version control.

A little graphic overview of the refinements:

Click for larger version

About a week ago, I also ordered a printed copy of my PDF. This copy will be used to read the book, more comfortably, a second time. From the time I ordered it until now, the PDF file you get has been changed up a lot, most mentionable the placement of sections, paragraphs and thus the pagebreaking, which should have improved it overally.



Here’s an Imgur album containing a few more pictures.


The book contains Jason’s foreword, Forward Chapter, Chapters 1 to 42, Mike’s stories, Rina’s story, Alex’ stories and all the 2015, 2016, and 2017 chapters Jason has posted up to this point.

Download links: (last update: 2017-04-21, 2017 Chapter 6)
A5 print version (pagenumbers, no extra coloring)
Mobile/Tablet version (no margins, no pagenumbers, no empty pages)
Dark version (same as Tablet, but inverted colors)
EPUB-Version (converted with pandoc)

[COLOR=FF00AA]Source files:
LaTeX-Source (compiler: pdflatex, needs the additional files below, contains the switch for the different formats)
cover artwork (extract it so that you have the folder "cover" next to the source file to get LaTeX to find them)
images (extract it so that you have the folder "images" next to the source file to get LaTeX to find them)[/COLOR]


Paper version:


Headings, tablet version:

Gap between pages, tablet version:


Dark version:

Please feel free to comment and report any glitches etc., I have some fair experience with LaTeX but stuff happens and it’s my first full fledged book. I hope the EPUB version works, too.
  • Three of the URL-links don't link to anything, as they were used as a joke.
  • Right now the EPUB omits some special formatting, for example units or inch marks. I work on this.
The files will be kept up to date in this post, I’ll add new chapters as they come.

edit: I'm currently too busy and frankly a bit bored with this project. I will add all the missing chapters when I find time and motivation. I didn't forget this.

I hope you enjoy it!
 
Last edited:
Mar 31, 2015 at 3:59 PM Post #5,811 of 191,343
jason stoddard said:
  Hey all,
 
I just wanted you to know that you won't be seeing another chapter for a couple of weeks. I'll be on vacation and unavailable from the 1st through the 15th of April.
 
Talk to you soon!
 
All the best,
Jason
Click to expand...

 
Enjoy your vacation! It's good to get away from the madness every once and a while.  
L3000.gif

 
Mar 31, 2015 at 9:50 PM Post #5,812 of 191,343
After many months of loving this site and this thread ive finally joined to join in the fun. 
 
@lblb:  AMAZING job with the typesetting.   i, like many others im sure,  have been copying and printing Jasons incredible book along the way.   Its just more fun to read as a physical entity.  Your work in typesetting is AWESOME and appreciated...i was thinking about starting from the beginning and rereading the whole tamale..thanks to you it will be even better.   Did you want to share what service you used to create the physical book?  Thanks again.
 
To All:  this will be the first of countless THANK YOUs.   As a fan (read: addict) of headphones,  this site has provided me with countless great information and entertainment.  I certainly hope to add to it going forward.
 
As for Schiit?  Its the best.  The modi/magni stack was my gateway from headphone fan to headphone/amp/dac fanatic.  Their gear has changed everything for me.  Jasons book and his incredibly sincere approach to those of us on this site is unmatched. 
 
Peace & Living in Stereo
 
Three Toes of Fury (3ToF) 
 
Mar 31, 2015 at 10:26 PM Post #5,813 of 191,343
3 toes of fury said:
After many months of loving this site and this thread ive finally joined to join in the fun. 

@lblb:  AMAZING job with the typesetting.   i, like many others im sure,  have been copying and printing Jasons incredible book along the way.   Its just more fun to read as a physical entity.  Your work in typesetting is AWESOME and appreciated...i was thinking about starting from the beginning and rereading the whole tamale..thanks to you it will be even better.   Did you want to share what service you used to create the physical book?  Thanks again.

To All:  this will be the first of countless THANK YOUs.   As a fan (read: addict) of headphones,  this site has provided me with countless great information and entertainment.  I certainly hope to add to it going forward.

As for Schiit?  Its the best.  The modi/magni stack was my gateway from headphone fan to headphone/amp/dac fanatic.  Their gear has changed everything for me.  Jasons book and his incredibly sincere approach to those of us on this site is unmatched. 

Peace & Living in Stereo

Three Toes of Fury (3ToF) 
Click to expand...

Welcome to Club Schiit, may your pile of Schiit always keep you happy. And Jason and the others at Schiit Audio are just fantastic,. Their products have really helped me maximize my enjoyment of my music through headphones. And when I am stressed out, an hour of listening to some Zappa or Dave Bruebeck, I an no longer stressed.
 
Mar 31, 2015 at 10:27 PM Post #5,814 of 191,343
lblb said:
Hi everyone,


I hope you enjoy it!
Click to expand...

 
lblb,  Thanks so much for putting in the effort on this.  I don't know if you, or another reader could help me with one thing.  I'm trying to get it on my kindle voyage.  Each version I try converting to a .mobi in calibre ends up having a weird spacing where this is a space after two lines (less than two actually).  The files you have linked look great, I'm just struggling to get it on the kindle
 

 
Mar 31, 2015 at 10:43 PM Post #5,815 of 191,343
Thanks Reddog!  I loved your tunes references..I always dig on hearing what kind of tunes folks are listening too.   Of course its also dangerous..i just popped over to amazon and ordered the remaster of the Dave Bruebeck Quartets "Time Out".   Audio stress therapy is just what the doctor ordered! 
 
Thanks again dude...keep on a rockin that schiit!
 
Peace .n. Living in Stereo,
 
3ToF
 
Apr 1, 2015 at 7:07 AM Post #5,817 of 191,343
Thanks a lot for the kind words. The typesetting work was also a lot of fun, seeing the whole getting in shape and becoming something...

3 toes of fury said:
Did you want to share what service you used to create the physical book?
Click to expand...
I live in germany so I used a german service (http://www.1buch.de/) which prints single books, but I'm sure there are also similar services where you live. If you want to submit the PDF for printing and the format is not DIN A5, shoot me a message, I can recompile the document in other formats, as long as the size of the text area is kept exactly the same, the linebreaks won't change so there's no additional work involved.

rmullins08 said:
Each version I try converting to a .mobi in calibre ends up having a weird spacing where this is a space after two lines (less than two actually). The files you have linked look great, I'm just struggling to get it on the kindle
Click to expand...

This might help: http://www.reddit.com/r/ebooks/comments/1hst5i/converting_pdf_to_mobi_in_calibre_getting_a_gap/
And remember to use the tablet or dark version as the source, as they don't have page numbers, the content is as raw as it gets.

By the way, I just updated the download links, now in the tablet and dark version the asides are set in light or dark grey and I fixed some indents too.
 
Apr 1, 2015 at 9:08 AM Post #5,818 of 191,343
lblb said:
Thanks a lot for the kind words. The typesetting work was also a lot of fun, seeing the whole getting in shape and becoming something...
I live in germany so I used a german service (http://www.1buch.de/) which prints single books, but I'm sure there are also similar services where you live. If you want to submit the PDF for printing and the format is not DIN A5, shoot me a message, I can recompile the document in other formats, as long as the size of the text area is kept exactly the same, the linebreaks won't change so there's no additional work involved.
This might help: http://www.reddit.com/r/ebooks/comments/1hst5i/converting_pdf_to_mobi_in_calibre_getting_a_gap/
And remember to use the tablet or dark version as the source, as they don't have page numbers, the content is as raw as it gets.

By the way, I just updated the download links, now the asides are set in light grey and I fixed some indents in the tablet+dark versions.
Click to expand...

 
You rock.  That worked perfect.  Thanks again.
 
Apr 1, 2015 at 12:48 PM Post #5,820 of 191,343
3 toes of fury said:
After many months of loving this site and this thread ive finally joined...

Three Toes of Fury (3ToF) 
Click to expand...

Welcome to the Schiit club. May your time hear be ever warm and piled high. ;)
Oh, and sorry about your wallet. Especially if you stray from the Schiity path.

Wow, ok I'm done. :D
 
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