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From: eijkhout@s41.csrd.uiuc.edu (Victor Eijkhout)
Subject: Re: TeX Headings
Message-ID: <1991Jun4.224246.229@csrd.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@csrd.uiuc.edu (news)
Organization: UIUC Center for Supercomputing Research and Development
References: <1991Jun4.182659.6683@serval.net.wsu.edu>
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 91 22:42:46 GMT
Lines: 30

rdubey@yoda.eecs.wsu.edu writes:

>I often hear it that LaTeX/TeX makes headings (such as chapter, 
>section etc.) that are way too big and the spaces that it leaves
>around them is also more than necessary.

To be precise: LaTeX does that in the standard article, report, book
styles. Plain TeX has no heading macros to speak off.

>So far this was not a problem for me, my
>standard approach being `TeX gurus know the best and I really know
>very little about typesetting'. 

But the problem is that the LaTeX styles were probably not written
by a typographer. I suspect LL of having made them on his own.
He certainly never credits any typographically competent person
with having written them. (In fact, one person who is thanked
for teaching LL 'what little I know about typography' denied to me
having been involved in these styles.)

A while back I made some versions of the LaTeX styles
that were made with the assistance of two typographhically
qualified persons. You may want to try those. Send a msg
GET TEX-NL FILELIST to LISTSERV@HEARN.BITNET, and you'll
get the complete list of files on that server.
They may have been placed on some other servers
(Don Hosek's?), but I don't know about that.

Victor.