Now there is some real help. InDesign has been the best page layout tool for print for over a decade now. I was blessed to be in on the beta team for version one in 1999. I can remember how excited I was that there was finally a software tool I could use fluently that fit the way I think. Now InDesign 7.5 for the Design Premium suite CS5.5 is here I don’t know when it will … Continue reading →
What is typography? A good functional definition is very sweet and simple: Typography is the art & craft of making words easy and comfortable to read Some of this has to do with font choices: But ebooks (other than PDF) do not presently allow embedded fonts Some has to do with leading and point size: but ebooks give few controls here, and the readers can butcher that at will A lot has to do with column width: … Continue reading →
Lulu is offering 15% off the new Learning to Walk in Freedom: The Leader’s guide until February 15, 2011. Simply type in the discount coupon code FIRESIDE305 when you purchase
Continue reading →No, this is not a step by step. It’s a discussion of the realities of dealing with publishing in the second decade of the 21st century. Specifically, I want to talk about dealing with graphically intensive books in multiple channels. One of the Linked-In groups I’m in has been debating the role of XML in “future-proofing” documents. They are mainly coming from employment at large publishing houses with hundreds or thousands of legacy books—many from before the … Continue reading →
As we go through the hype of eBooks, how many do we really want to buy? What I want is an excellent reader that lets me rent books, sorta like on the NetFlix model. Here’s a link to an excellent article that talks about this from a conceptual view. I’d never thought about why I haven’t bothered to buy my iPad yet (other than lack of sufficient extra money laying around). It’s not the device or the … Continue reading →
One of the interesting things about the new paradigm of publishing is the lack of exclusivity. As I publish works for Radiqx and clients, I am continually struck by how many places I normally release things. My norm now is to start with Lulu, then do a Createspace version, then make an html version for Kindle, then a Word version for Smashwords, an ePUB version on Lulu for iPad, a PDF of one of the versions for … Continue reading →
it’s been a surprising year. I never would have expected to be forced into going into what the government calls retirement. That has been a huge adjustment. For a man, retirement is close to what housewives experience if circumstances keep them from being able to clean their home. it attacks the core of our being. I have been amazed at how much of my self identity is tied up in what I do. On the other hand, … Continue reading →
Adding anchored objects can be a little tedious. One of the most painful aspects of making anchored frames to hold illustrations, sidebar notes, or headlines is the tediousness of the repetitive filling out of the anchored object dialog box. The simple solution is to make those settings in an object style. Then all you do is place the object as an inline graphic and hit the shortcut to convert it to an anchored object and to offset it where you need it. Or … Continue reading →
The other day I went through a common scenario> I had a 408 page book set up at 6×9. I found out that I needed it formatted to 4.25″ x 6.88″ for a different printer. How long do you think it took me? It became a 540 page book. It took less than an hour. How did it go so quickly? Everything was formatted with styles including all the graphics. The graphics were all formatted as anchored graphics and … Continue reading →
I ran across this in my Christian professionals group at Linked In this morning. It is a visually exciting presentation to be sure. My only question is: Can it really be used? I saw no place to add notes, new crossreferences or any of the other things necessary for a real study bible. I’ve included a scan of one of the pages in one of my bibles to show you what I mean. It may be that … Continue reading →