<p>I stumbled across bookdown and decided to give it a try.</p>
<p>My main purpose is technical manual creation in both web and PDF format.</p>
<h2 id="heading-initial-reactions">Initial Reactions</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>I like the available open-source books as examples</p>
</li>
<li><p>Those examples are so different, so it is difficult to understand which is the best approach.</p>
</li>
<li><p>It looks like it produces high-quality content</p>
</li>
<li><p>It is a bit frustrating trying to make sure content appears correctly in multiple types; I'm specifically interested in both PDF and bs4_book.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Example issues:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Failures building or weird PDF content issues while BS4 seems to produce proper output</p>
</li>
<li><p>Borders around images for BS4</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test">https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test</a></p>
<h3 id="heading-pdf-output">PDF Output</h3>
<p>Note that there are some weird anomalies that I haven't figured out yet.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1676897391043/080426be-bbc0-4ace-93cf-7626f63dea6b.png" alt class="image--center mx-auto" /></p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1676897711986/018be561-2770-4e8d-9913-b8cd10040914.png" alt class="image--center mx-auto" /></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test/raw/main/output-demo1/demo1.pdf">https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test/raw/main/output-demo1/demo1.pdf</a></p>
<h3 id="heading-gitbook-output">GitBook Output</h3>
<p><img src="https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1676897303709/025509ff-37f1-4096-bca1-68dafbc6c890.png" alt class="image--center mx-auto" /></p>
<h3 id="heading-epub-output">EPub Output</h3>
<p><img src="https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1676897596919/236c7571-1249-4e06-8fe5-db4c527bde6c.jpeg" alt class="image--center mx-auto" /></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test/raw/main/output-demo1/demo1.epub">https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test/raw/main/output-demo1/demo1.epub</a></p>
<h2 id="heading-conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>There is potential here and feels like if I could find a basic style that allows all formats to be generated properly, I could use this.</p>
<p>There is at least another off-shoot, Quarto, that I'm planning to try.</p>


I stumbled across bookdown and decided to give it a try.

My main purpose is technical manual creation in both web and PDF format.

## Initial Reactions

* I like the available open-source books as examples
    
* Those examples are so different, so it is difficult to understand which is the best approach.
    
* It looks like it produces high-quality content
    
* It is a bit frustrating trying to make sure content appears correctly in multiple types; I'm specifically interested in both PDF and bs4\_book.
    
* Example issues:
    
    * Failures building or weird PDF content issues while BS4 seems to produce proper output
        
    * Borders around images for BS4
        

[https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test](https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test)

### PDF Output

Note that there are some weird anomalies that I haven't figured out yet.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1676897391043/080426be-bbc0-4ace-93cf-7626f63dea6b.png align="center")

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1676897711986/018be561-2770-4e8d-9913-b8cd10040914.png align="center")

[https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test/raw/main/output-demo1/demo1.pdf](https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test/raw/main/output-demo1/demo1.pdf)

### GitBook Output

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1676897303709/025509ff-37f1-4096-bca1-68dafbc6c890.png align="center")

### EPub Output

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1676897596919/236c7571-1249-4e06-8fe5-db4c527bde6c.jpeg align="center")

[https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test/raw/main/output-demo1/demo1.epub](https://github.com/ericjameszimmerman/bookdown-test/raw/main/output-demo1/demo1.epub)

## Conclusion

There is potential here and feels like if I could find a basic style that allows all formats to be generated properly, I could use this.

There is at least another off-shoot, Quarto, that I'm planning to try.

Bookdown Demo

Initial Reactions

Bookdown Demo

Table of contents

Initial Reactions

PDF Output

GitBook Output

EPub Output

Conclusion