So, I wrote about how I might prefer to see a church booklet — with liturgy, hymns, a directory and notices — a little while ago. Now, how can it be made.
I first considered using XeTeX — a variation on TeX typesetting language — that allows easier use of typefaces and produces beautiful work. And I might still get to it, but it’s documentation is rather thin and my basic understanding even thinner. It would still be worth exploring because, once set up, it would be relatively easy to produce beautiful booklets. And if you’ve read a self-published work lately, you know how shabby typesetting makes even the best wrought work seemed second-rate. But that’s for later. For now, getting something almost perfect with a small number of tools: the OpenOffice.org office suite (but its fork LibreOffice, where the development thrust has gone, would surely work), Adobe Reader 9 or 10 (yes, I hate using or recommending proprietary software, but this works), and an attractive typeface with proper small caps. I use Linux Libertine, which is both freely-licensed and free of charge.
On my Ubuntu Linux machines, I don’t download the fonts from the repositories, but install the files downloaded from the link above using Font Manager. Also, I install the cups-pdf package and created a virtual PDF printer in System > Administration > Printing.
Now, I made a template with pages half the size of letter paper, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, and saved it. Opened a new document with that template. Added some text — here Fredrick Henry Hedge’s communion service based on the Liturgy of St. James — and made a PDF. Then I opened the PDF in Adobe Reader and printed it to PDF as a booklet. (Then print to paper, collate, fold and staple.)
I’ll put the files up later, to demonstrate.
Curious liturgy; reminds me of the language in the redacted Book of Common Prayer used by King’s Chapel, Boston. Interesting how a Unitarian liturgy felt more Christian these days than that in many Trinitarian denominations!
I think it was an appeal to the earliest Christian era as a commonality. Not an unfamiliar habit. But the Liturgy of St. James, from which it was taken, is much longer. This definitely has the hand of a Protestant on it.