Tag Archives: Book Design

PDF to ePub conversions

Skilled Workman Posted on by

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 →

eBooks & ePUB: multi-channel releases

Skilled Workman Posted on by

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 →

Silly me! Found a new shortcut in FontLab

Skilled Workman Posted on by

It really helps production efficiency and speed. Great find! Command+Arrow Key on selected pieces moves 100 units This shows my ignorance of things like this, but I just discovered a great shortcut built into FontLab. As I have mentioned many times, moving selections right or left is a constant thing—especially while building composite glyphs and letterspacing a new font. One of my irritations over the years has been the internal debate over whether it is more efficient … Continue reading →

I’ve added a new site: Bergsland Books

Skilled Workman Posted on by

As I get ramped up to submit my new novel to publishers (and enter it in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award), it has become increasingly obvious that I need a separate site for my fiction. So I resurrected my old domain bergsland.org and converted it to Bergsland Books. http://bergsland.org and who knew it would be transformed to The Skilled Workman?  Life is full of surprises. It’s up and running with some simple stuff for Black Sail: a Christian covert … Continue reading →

Merry Christmas! & thoughts on the coming year…

Skilled Workman Posted on by

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 →

Black Sail: Invasion Amazon release with ISBN

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We published a version for Amazon, too. We made the most common graphic design mistake and it cracks us up. So, we let it slide. Publication Date: Nov 22 2009 ISBN/EAN13: 1449531237 / 9781449531232 Page Count: 408 Binding Type: US Trade Paper Trim Size: 6″ x 9″ Language: English Color: Black and White Related Categories: Fiction / Political

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Making an essential anchored object style

Skilled Workman Posted on by

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 →

Converting book sizes easily

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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 →

The Hackberry Font Foundry forms under a huge tree

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Some of you may have heard: David’s retired from teaching and is now focusing on font design. He already has an apprentice with more making plans to join the foundry. Obviously, it was time for some changes. The name comes from a huge hackberry tree on the boulevard outside the front door of the foundry. As they add workers Hackberry fonts will be offering fonts from a variety of people. Radiqx is looking forward to the future … Continue reading →