The Pressoir is a static site generator designed for creating augmented books, teaching materials, documentation (such as this one), and a wide range of digital publications.
Originally conceived by and for researchers in the humanities and social sciences, it enables the publication of richly data-driven and information-dense texts that include, among other features, detailed metadata, structured bibliographies, footnotes, infra-textual markup (allowing the identification of selected terms, their linkage to authoritative references, and the creation of editorial objects such as indexes, glossaries, and maps), additional content (illustrations, videos, textual supplements, etc.), automatic indexes, and an annotation tool (via Hypothes.is).
Its technical and editorial design is guided by five overarching principles:
- Granularity of content and fine-grained data structuring;
- Modularity of the editorial workflow and output formats;
- Low-tech approaches to formats and software, ensuring the sustainability and long-term viability of the production chain and its outputs;
- Durability of data and its accessibility;
- Open-source software, openness of code, and open access.
The Pressoir was initiated and developed by the Canada Research Chair in Digital Writing, with the support of the CRIHN (Centre de recherche interuniversitaire sur les humanités numériques).
The source code is available as open source under the GPLv3 license.