/lantern

Primary LanguageCSSOtherNOASSERTION

Lantern

LanternLogo_Black

Lantern is a Pandoc template and toolkit for making OER in multiple formats. Lantern helps you typeset OER projects with Markdown (.md) from common word processing formats (.docx) so that you can generate HTML, PDF, and EPUB versions for the public. All of the source control, file processing, and web hosting is handled automatically with GitHub, but you are encouraged to use Lantern on your own computers.

Features

  • Free: Lantern uses open source software and free-of-charge web services for processing, building, deploying, and hosting OER.

  • Portable: Lantern emphasizes the use of plain text file formats that can run on any machine or web host. No databases or server-side applications are required to be purchased, installed, or maintained.

  • Multi-format: Lantern uses semantic markup technologies for distributing OER as Markdown, HTML, PDF, EPUB, and DOCX documents in order to provide versioned, web, print, e-reader, and editable access to the public.

  • Autonomy: Lantern teaches fundamental document organization, formatting, and production skills in order to decrease reliance on monolithic software solutions and platforms.

Starting Manuscript Files

Lantern provides conversion scripts for a subset of file formats that Pandoc is able to convert. Lantern will convert these file formats to Markdown:

File Extensions Format Related Applications
.docx Open Office XML Microsoft Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice
.odt Open Document Text Microsoft Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice
.tex LaTeX Plain text editor (e.g. VS Code, Overleaf)

Final Publication Files

Lantern provides templates for producing multiple publication formats from Markdown. Lantern can produce these publication formats from a single source:

File Extensions Format Related Applications
.docx Office Open XML Microsoft Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice
.tex LaTeX Plain text editor (e.g. VS Code)
.html HTML5 web browsers
.epub EPUB3 Calibre, Adobe Digital Editions, web browsers
.pdf PDF Adobe Acrobat Reader, web Browsers

Note: Lantern provides templates and configurations for generating .tex files for LaTeX or ConTeXt engines. These files are only recommended for people who are familiar with these typesetting technologies.

Examples

Get Started

Software Dependencies

While this template is setup to use GitHub Actions and GitHub Pages for file processing and web hosting, you can use the template on your own machine and deploy the outputs to any other web host. Here's what you'd need:

Optional Software

Related Publication

Diaz, Chris. 2022. "Lantern: A Pandoc Template for OER Publishing," Code4Lib Journal 53. Available: https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/16329