Computer Product Catalog

[savetz]

I'm making some sort of computer product catalog. Each page will have a company and product name, a photo with overlayed text, and some sort of specs or description of the product.

I have written the code for company and product name generation, though I could use more seed words. I am using a set of photos from an old book of computer terminals that I scanned years ago. The next big part will be the product specifications/description generation, which I don't have a solid plan for yet. If I stick with my current plan to have 120 products, I will need to generate about 420 words of description per product.

I'm thinking maybe I will combine the photo and text into a markdown file, then somehow generate a PDF from that. I don't know how to do that yet.

Here's a sample of my work in progress:
%python3 productnames.py
Cyberomegaard Computer Programming 160
Sigmapetaphobe Disembarrassment
Teramebies Random-Access Memory
Picotebi Access Internetphyte
Psikappa Symbol
Gammanano Computer Speaker 690000000
Megakappa Party
Sigmaphi Cellular Automatonasis
Yottasigma Tommy Flowersoid 74

[lee2sman]

This looks great. I am doing somewhat similar kind of work with my #25 so great to be in company!

If you produce a markdown file there are many conversion options to get to PDF, depending on your comfort with command line software.

For example, pandoc is an incredible conversion software. I am using pandoc and applying a CSS stylesheet to get the particular book aesthetic I want. Then I am going to export to PDF. So my own pipeline looks like:

pandoc --self-contained -s input_file.md -c path/to/stylesheet.css --metadata title="My Book Title" -o output_file.html

From there I will likely export from the browser to PDF, but one could easily build in markdown -> pdf directly, if you have Latex support.

More info here.

Here's a more extensive guide to making beautiful pdfs and epubs from markdown

I don't really work in python myself but i also see options like this

[savetz]

pandoc

Wow, thank you @lee2sman for the incredibly useful reply! Thanks to your pointers, I'm now generating a PDF from markdown right from the command line.

I now have a book of product names and photos, one per page, with the margins and fonts that I prefer, in a PDF file. Next will be generating specs and notes about the products... you know, the actual 50,000 words ::yikes::

[savetz]

Made good progress today — added product descriptions (pulling random sentences from a directory of real, old computer products) and "sample output" (pulling from the linux 'fortune' command.) Up to about 37,500 words. Next, need to add some sort of product specification chart.

[savetz]

My book "1982 Fauxsumer Electronics Show Product Catalog" is complete, weighing in at 50,926 words. A catalog of products available at a 1982 computer show that I invented.

View or download the PDF: https://archive.org/details/1982-fauxsumer-electronics-show-product-catalog

See the code: https://github.com/savetz/1982-Fauxsumer-Electronics-Show-Product-Catalog

Enjoy the cover and two sample pages right here:

[anjchang]

Wow this brings back memories of part catalogs for hardware and chips! I still have some laying around. Awesome cover, drew me right in. Pictures look great with the overlaid skewed marketing text--those juxtapositions! I even started thumbing through to see what cool gadgets we could get. Maybe the "IotaLambda Laser Printer" The sample outputs were very promising. Take my m0n3y$ please! 👍