Electronic Publishing: Avoiding the Output Blues - Softcover

Tally, Taz

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130194654 ISBN 13: 9780130194657

Publisher: Pearson College Div, 2001

Synopsis

Based on the author's many years of extensive hands-on experience with electronic publishing and digital imaging, this clear, concise, easy-to-read guide to the fundamentals provides a welcome, accessible alternative to the often too detailed, complex, and technical manuals on the subject. Focused on situations and problems encountered everyday in the real work-world, it provides not only the necessary background information, but a myriad of tips and tricks for preventing, or at least mitigating, as many problems as possible when it comes to creating, viewing, and printing documents with desktop publishing equipment and software. The Big Picture--Pressing Problems. Terms of Endearment. Peaceful Coexistence. Electronic Publishing Systems. Software. File Fundamentals--Bits & Bytes. Basic Computer Skills and Habits. Resolving Resolution. Grappling with Graphics. RIPing Up Your Files. A Tales of True Typesetting. Project Construction--Taming Your Scanner. Document Construction. Color Me Right. Web Graphics. Application Specific Tips. Finishing the Project--Screening Your Images. Feeling Trapped? The Proof Is in the Separation. Managing the Mess. Taz's Tips. Also includes information on Mac Fonts; Windows Font Files; Graphic File Formats; EFIS Example; File Prep Utilities; Information Resources. For anyone in graphic arts, marketing, communications, graphic design.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

PREFACE

Many people who are using electronic/desktop publishing systems today are doing so without the benefit of any formal or professional training. Not a few of us have been thrust, dropped, dragged, pulled, pushed, or otherwise cajoled into the world of desktop publishing. However, we have come to enjoy the art, technology, flexibility, and creative tools which are part and parcel of desktop once we figured out how to make it work for us rather than struggle against it.

If you are an instructor in electronic graphic arts you have the dual challenges of trying to update your own graphic arts knowledge and expertise, as well as prepare the next generation of graphics professionals with all the knowledge and skills necessary for them to be successful. In addition, the scope and scale of what needs to be taught has expanded. Skills sets such as scanning, image editing and prepress prep, which used to be relegated to the realm of professional specialists, must now be performed routinely by nearly all of us. And whole new media tools such as the World Wide Web have emerged since we went to school.

If you are a student who is new to the world of electronic publishing, you are faced with the challenges of learning both the creative side of graphic arts, such as typography, design and images, as well as the considerable (though not as bad as you think it is) task of learning the digital world of computers and computer software, scanners, digital cameras, printers, and the Internet. All those bits, Bytes, pixels, and vectors are the building blocks of your future.

The key to success is learning the fundamentals. That our technology will change is a given. Learning the fundamentals of digital publishing will not only provide us with knowledge and skills to satisfy our current needs, but will provide the foundation which will allow us to grow with along with, and adapt to, our changing technology. Electronic Publishing: Avoiding the Output Blues is an attempt to provide this fundamental information. This book also includes myriad tips and tricks about desktop publishing. I hope this book helps you become a success! Book Walk-Through

This book is created in four clearly defined parts plus an appendix. While each part and chapter stands alone, the book is designed to be progressive, starting with the fundamentals of electronic imaging in Part I and progressing with more detailed concepts and information in the following parts. This book centers around the fundamentals of document construction for print, but includes a chapter on Web graphics and addresses the multipurposing of documents throughout. Chapter Objectives

Chapter Objectives are found at the beginning of each chapter. These clearly outline the major points discussed and are useful for both teacher and student as major topic guides to each chapter. Key Terms

Key terms are listed at the beginning of each chapter just after the Chapter Objectives. These are the most important terms used in the chapters. Each of these terms will also be found defined in the chapter on terminology, and will be highlighted in the body text. Highlighted Key Terms

This feature calls attention to the key terms in a chapter by highlighting these terms in the body of the book. Terms of Endearment and Terminology Terrorism

Our business of electronic publishing is burdened with a nascent and rapidly evolving lexicon of terms which are often misused and/or poorly understood. Rather than relegating these to a seldom-used glossary at the back of the book, a terminology discussion, along with a comprehensive glossary, has been placed front and center, in Chapter 2. A "Terminology Terrorism" section leads off the chapter discussing the unfortunate reality of misused terms, multiple terms with the same meaning, and similar terms with different meanings.

Terminology Terrorism Example:
bit depth, bit density, pixel depth, color depth

All four terms are used to describe the number of bits of data in an image. For instance a grayscale image commonly has eight bits per pixel. It would therefore have a bit depth or bit density or pixel depth equal to eight. Tips

Tips call outs are scattered throughout the book to highlight and call attention to specific key concepts. These serve to reinforce the most important parts of each chapter. Pauline's Tips

At the end of each chapter, all the major points of that chapter are collected together in the form of Pauline E. Prepress Tips. These tips reiterate the key points, tips and tricks of the chapters, and place them all in one place for easy review. There are over 100 tips included. Review and Concept Questions

This textbook contains two kinds of questions: Review and Concept questions. The Review Questions are objective questions which serve to test the understanding of key points of knowledge in each chapter. The answers to each of the objective questions can be easily found in the chapter.

Review Question Example:
1. Which of the following are required for your documents to print properly?
A. Page layout document
B. Linked graphics
C. Availability of used font files
D. All of the above

The second kind of question, Concept Questions, 1) test the ability of the student to explain key concepts in their own terms, which greatly aids in the learning process, and 2) test the student's knowledge of concepts and how they are integrated and applied.

Concept Question Example:
10. Review the Dry Run Technique, and explain how it helps us test our document for completeness and create document accurate proofs? Projects

At the end of each chapter several projects are suggested for students to complete. These range from interviewing professionals in the field, to completing scans and creating documents. Each one is intended to provide students with an experience which will allow them to explore and apply, in a concrete fashion, the concepts and knowledge they have studied in the chapter just completed. These projects can be modified to suit available resources, and are intended to provide ideas which will generate other projects. Illustration Rich

The body of the textbook is richly illustrated throughout with hundreds of graphics to help illustrate the points in the text. The graphics are clearly referenced in the text. In addition the graphic captions contain complete explanations which reemphasize major points made in the text as well as including additional information specific to the figure. Many of the illustrations span a full page and some are two-page spreads. Complex topics are simplified and clarified through the use of these illustrations.

Screen Grabs from Applications

To help make the book as relevant as possible, dozens of screen grabs for the most common electronic publishing applications such as QuarkXPress, Photoshop, Illustrator, FreeHand, PageMaker, and InDesign, are included as figures to serve as both an introduction, as well as a guide, to the actual applications with which they work. Covers Mac and PC

This book is platform independent, and where large differences exist between Mac and PC platforms, such as with font file handling, these differences are highlighted and explained. Appendices

Additional information on topics such as bits and Bytes review with ASCII code list, font overview, graphic file formats, questions to ask your printer, preflight lists and forms, Taz's Top Twelve Tips, and DTP Resources, are presented in the appendices. Color Section

Important portions of the book which benefit from the use of color, such as the discussion of color images, scanning and separations, are presented in a special color section, Color Plates. Some of the color illustrations span two pages. DEDICATION

To my buddy Jaz for all her love and support! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many, many people have contributed to the creation of this book. First I w ant to thank Tim Moore, my editor at Prentice Hall PTR, for opening the door for me at Prentice Hall so that I might reach my dream of publishing a text book which I hope will help many to learn a field that I enjoy do much. I also want to thank Elizabeth Sugg for agreeing to publish this text book and paving the way for it to happen. Judy Casillo, this project's developmental Editor, deserves untold kudos for putting up with what amounted to nearly a rewite of my original book, when I was supposed to essentially quickly adapt it. Her patience and prodding have resulted in a much more complete, and we hope, helpful and useful text book. I want to also thank Lara Dugan, Judy's Assistant for her valuable help with the project.

To the following content experts I offer a huge THANK YOU for the valuable comments and suggestions you provided. This text book is much stronger for your contributions.

Robert Beaverson, Ferris State University
Paul Davis, DeKalb Technical Institute
Val LeFevre, International Academy of Merchandising and Design
Nancy Ripper, Kellogg Community College
Metha Schuler, Santa Rosa Junior College

And finally, a loving thank you for so many things, to my wonderful buddy Jaz, without whom this book would never have started, never mind finished! In addition to her often unheralded labors of making editing changes, unflagging support, and many suggestions, Jaz kept the rest of our life and business together so that I could steal time away to work on this book.

From the Back Cover:

• Dr. Tally's how and why approach to electronic file construction for professional-quality output solidifies understanding and facilitates troubleshooting, problem solving, and adapting to new challenges
• Complex topics are simplified in this comprehensive guide to document construction, preparation, and printing
• Extensive use of graphics makes concepts easier to understand
• Offers typesetting tips, font management secrets, hardware and software management fundamentals
• Covers scanning techniques as well as calibration
• Demystifies resolution and file formats
• Offers a specific chapter on Web graphics creation and optimizing graphics for Web output as well as multipurposing tips throughout the book
• Dovotes entire chapter to terminology, and rectifying terminology confusion
• Chapter Objectives, Summaries, and End-of-Chapter Questions and Projects provide reinforcement of information
• Extensive Resource Appendix included

Electronic Publishing: Avoiding the Output Blues equips you with all the fundamentals and plenty of technique tips to increase your knowledge, skill, and confidence in electronic publishing.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pearson College Div
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0130194654
• ISBN 13: 9780130194657
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 458