05.31.08
MetaFilter Asks . . .
MeFi user Caduceus requests information about
Changing technologies in book design?
I’m looking for information about how new technologies have affected book design and typography.I’m particularly interested in the affects of computers and design software, but information about how things like Print on Demand and ebooks have changed the status quo of book design would also be helpful. I’d be happy to be pointed to books, web essays, blogs, whatever information I can track down and dig through.
Kind reader Brian Winters directed Caduceus to this blog, but I don’t think there’s much here that addresses the question, since I started designing books relatively late in the digital age (around ten years ago, give or take). Most insight into such subjects around these parts comes from my more experienced visitors. So . . .
Should any of you more (or less! it’s MetaFilter!) informed persons wish to weigh in, there’s the thread. Of course, if you are, like me, too lazy to go register so that you can comment at MeFi, you’re welcome to deposit your thoughts here.
Read the rest of this entry »
05.29.08
The Recipe for Success
Following up on the popularity of her copyediting report, Rose Levy Beranbaum has posted another interesting entry about the production of her forthcoming cookbook: Book Production Phase 7 Pre Design Meeting.
The designer’s estimate had the text running forty-two pages over the initial castoff, so there was a lot of discussion about how to make it fit. She’s posted her notes from the meeting, which give a you an idea of the complexity of cookbook design. Read the rest of this entry »
05.22.08
The Week in Pictures
I’ve been on vacation since last Thursday, so I forgot to take screenshots of the glory until yesterday, but for nearly every day in the past week, Nextbook.org has been running stories garnished by illustrations I commissioned. Two are by artists you’ve seen here before—Samantha Hahn and Vanessa Davis—and two are by new! people!—Jonathon Rosen and Leela Corman.
You can see the pretty pictures at the following links (I’d do an image map on the banner above, but WordPress.com won’t let me):
- Samantha Hahn: The Rise and Fall—and Rise—of “Jewess” by Daniel Krieger
- Vanessa Davis: The Dangers of Salmonella by Danit Brown
- Jonathon Rosen: Inherit the Windbags by Peter Bebergal (home page screenshot)
- Leela Corman: The Half-Life by Rebecca Spence (home page screenshot)
Yay, illustrators!
A-lines are always in style
Brainiac Josh Glenn takes issue with Steven Heller’s facile assertion that although “The human leg has evolved continually over many eons, adapting from an underwater propeller to its current form . . . on book covers and on film and theater posters, the leg has evolved very little.”
I hate to quibble with the master, since I’m a fan of Heller’s books. But this time he hasn’t put his best leg forward. Even a cursory glance at the leg-scenarios on display in Heller’s Print essay — and at Print Magazine’s A-Frame photoset at Flickr — indicate that the A-Frame is forever evolving.
The Flickr set is not entirely work-safe, but do check it out if nobody’s looking over your shoulder. Much excellence therein.
Now I just have to think of some excuse to put an A-frame illustration on the front of Nextbook.org . . .
05.13.08
Fore-edge books
Had you heard of fore-edge paintings? I hadn’t. From Karen at hangingtogether.org:
During Merrilee’s and my visit to the Boston Public Library last Friday, Tom Blake and Maura Marx introduced us to the results of the BPL’s digitization of its fore-edge books—books with paintings on their edges that can be viewed only by looking at the sides of the book. Some are “double fore-edge” books – one painting is visible when the leaves are fanned one way, and another painting appears when fanned another way.
The BPL has posted a CC-licensed Flickr set of fore-edge paintings with detailed captions. Love!
Thanks, Dylan!
Photo: [View of London Bridge.] posted by the Boston Public Library; some rights reserved.
05.11.08
Patience is bitter, but its fruit extremely sweet.
The production editors notes are in grey pencil, the copy editor’s in red, and mine in purple.
It is at this point of the book production that I start to imagine opening the window and jumping out.
Awesome cookbook author Rose Levy Beranbaum (The! Cake! Bible!) describes one of her least favorite stages in the making of a cookbook: Book Production Phase 6 Copy Editing. Notable for the all-too-rare shout-out to her production team:
I feel doubly blessed to have the support and encouragement of Ava Wilder, head of production at Wiley who cares so much about all these details. And triply blessed to have Deborah Weiss Geline as the most amazing copy editor of all time.
Sing it, sister! Poorly copyedited cookbooks can waste not only trees and time, but also chocolate. [Shudder]
Photo: Valentine’s Cakes at Pasticceria Gelateria Italiana by LexnGer / Lex; some rights reserved.
05.03.08
So I guess there’s no Klingon italic, either
The term “Roman” is customarily used to describe serif typefaces of the early Italian Renaissance period. More recently, the term has also come to denote the upright style of typefaces, as opposed to the word “Italic”, which refers to cursive typefaces inspired by the handwriting of Italian humanists. Thus Linotype offers fonts called Sabon Greek Roman and Sabon Greek Italic, (designed by Jan Tchichold), based on 16th century models. But by using terminology which is typically associated with Latin type and evokes the history of Italian typography, Linotype makes a careless statement. “Greek Roman” and “Greek Italic” are contradictions in terms, mixing two very different histories.
—Peter Biľak, “A View of Latin Typography in Relationship to the World,” Het Wereld Boek (Amsterdam, 2008), reprinted at Typotheque
Huh. Now that you mention it, yes, that sounds stupid.
Photo: Mandragoras by sp!ros; some rights reserved.
