Since you mention typesetting: I am working on a volunteer project that is transcribing old, out of print books from the 1700s through early 1900s (all public domain). For now the plan is simply to make them available online formatted for web, e-readers, and PDF, but thought is being given to formatting for print-on-demand. We've never done the latter so we have no idea what tools would be best for that: is there a good reference for free tools/software for doing page layout for physical books?
Any connection to https://standardebooks.org/contribute/ or if not, are you online yet? Wouldn't mind having a look. (And also interested in the print typesetting question.)
LaTeX or TeX would be excellent choices if you want good typographic control, though there's a significant learning curve if you're going to produce beautiful books. Check out https://www.ctan.org to start learning more.
Context would be a convenient tool for the job. You can create pdf, xml, and epub from the same source. You get the power of Tex but producing modern looking stuff is IMO much easier than with Latex. I personally usually use Latex for short articles and Context for books.
I hate LaTeX typesetting, it looks very archaic and reeks of academism (is that a word?). Unless document require lot of formulas, LaTeX is not a right tool in 2019.
Of course it can, but by default it does not look good, and it is not trivial to change things, hence you see documents which look straight out of 90s.
You probably don't hate Latex typesetting. It's just that the kind of default styles that people, especially beginners, tend to use that often look archaic. Latex doesn't make creating your own unique styles too easy though, which is why I personally prefer Context.
