This is a more philosophical question than a purely LyX, LaTeX or TeX question. However, as a Doctor of Philosophy I have a license to wax philosophical and to ask others to join me.
I am trying to identify why a typeset page looks so different -- more professional -- than a page from a word processor using the same margins, typeface, font and so on. I'm not a graphic artist/designer nor a page layout/typography specialist. I leave those areas to the professionals. But, I have a colleague who writes his books using winWord (gak!) and, aside from the relative ease of producing a final product, I'm trying to identify those elements that visually make the pages so different. What I've seen are differences in leading (the word processor has much larger interline spacing) and interword spacing used to justify a line. But, looked at from a distance, both are so visually different. Actually, the differences are apparent even upon close inspection. I'm just not clever enough to be able to identify all the subtle differences that exist. That's OK because I don't have a highly sophisticated sense of taste (physical) either so very expensive wine is wasted on me and I cannot tell you each herb and spice used in the preparation of a meal. I'd like to be able to sound intelligent when my Microserf friends and colleagues ask, "Why LaTeX and not a word processor?" Thanks, Rich -- Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM) <http://www.appl-ecosys.com>
