Back to Writing and
Publishing Archives.
Writing and Publishing, Part 34:
Becoming your own publisher:
Design and Manufacturing Techniques Continued:
Creating Output Files:
In this essay, I will be discussing the creation of output files
for the book manufacturing process. We have already discussed
the application files and the graphic files. To refresh our memory,
graphic files are the files from the photos and drawings we may
have put in our documents. The application files are the page
layout files we created in our page layout program. In my case
the program was Adobe PageMaker.
Now we are at the point where we can create the files which we will deliver to the book manufacturer. One of these could simply be the application file for the cover, wherein the book manufacturer creates whatever other files are needed. In all of my books the manufacturer actually preferred the application file. This took me out of the loop and avoided delays when adjustments were necessary. I get that the cover manufacturing process is as much art and magic as it is science. I'll leave it to them.
For the inside files, we must create files which can be used by the manufacturer to create the printing plates. I have already discussed the various processes of printing plate creation. Now we can concern ourselves with the how of creating the files we need for this process.
My procedure is to use the application files from PageMaker to create Postscript files. I will then use the Postscript files to create Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The PDF files are the ones the book manufacturer will actually use to create the printing plates.
I have touched on the advantages of using PDF over Postscript, but it can be expanded on. In Postscript, fonts and graphics are specified, but not necessarily included within the file. This means that the imposition software, which is used in plate creation, may not be able to locate the fonts or graphics when the job runs. This can cause a system crash which really irritates the prepress people.
Worse, however, is that the software may substitute a different font for the one we specified. Sometimes, the fonts installed on the manufacture's machine will be different that the ones we have. This can happen even though the font names may be the same. Welcome to the confusing world of fonts. This can cause what is called text flow. Simply put, the different font may be slightly larger or smaller than the one specified. Then, everything gets shifted and text may appear where it was not supposed to or it may not appear at all.
In PDF, when properly done, the fonts and the graphics are embedded in the file. The imposition software does not have the option of looking for substitute stuff. It simply processes what it gets from the input file. This gives us some assurance that what we saw on our desktop is what we will get in our finished book. In addition, the PDF files can be proofread on our computer to make sure of the layout. We can also print these files and check them. This makes blueline proofs unnecessary in most cases, which saves time and expense.
For the actual file creation I will follow the standard naming conventions I have created previously. I will have one application file for my cover, called cover.p65. I will have one application file for the front of the book named part00.p65. I will have one application file for each chapter, section or part of the remainder of my book, named part 01.p65 through part xx.p65. For each of my application files, I will create a corresponding Postscript file and a corresponding PDF file.
Creating Postscript files is nothing more than a tedious procedure. When I first created the application file templates, I specified a number of parameters, including the target printer. In my case, I specified the Linotronic 530 printer. This is what the book manufacturer wants me to specify. It works for his equipment.
In creating the postscript file from PageMaker, I must specify the printer again in the print dialog box. To create postscript files, we proceed the same as though we were printing our application. the difference is we print to a file instead of to a printer. This can be specified in the print setup dialog. There are other print parameters to be set. It is best to do this in cooperation with your particular book manufacturer. What you do will be very similar to my print dialog procedure, listed here.
Creating Postscript Files
Select File - print.
Document
Select Linotronic 530 to file
Select Linotronic 530 V52.3 PPD
Copies = 1
Select desired range and Both pages
(In my procedure the desired range will be all)
Select print blank pages Portrait mode
Nothing in book
No collate, reverse, proof or reader's spreads
No ignore non printing settings
Paper
No printers marks, No page information
No center in print area, No tile
Scale = 100%
Select custom 6 x 9 cassette
(This 6 x 9 is the page size for a particular book. In practice
it will be whatever size we selected when we laid out the book.)
Options
Tiff image data normal
Send ASCII
Fonts Postscript and True Type
No error handler
Select write postscript to file - Normal
Select page independence
Enter a path and name for the file
Color
Select Composite - Greyscale
Optimized screen default
No mirror, negative or preserve EPS colors
If you have been using a computer, this is pretty much familiar to you. When everything is set, we click on save and the file is created. Notice that when we print to file the print command changes to a save command.
In creating the PDF files, it is just as easy and tedious. Adobe Distiller version 4 is already set up properly. We simply launch Distiller and do the following.
Creating PDF files from Pagemaker 6.5 Postscript files
Launch Acrobat Distiller 4.0
Select Press Optimized.
Under Settings - Font Locations, enter the path to the required fonts folder.
Under Settings-Job Options, select the Fonts tab.
Select the path to the saved fonts.
Select the fonts and move them to always embed.
Then it is simply a matter of opening the Postscript file and saving is as a PDF file. If you do not specify a path, the PDF file will be saved in the Postscript file directory.
Once the PDF files are created, they can be read using the Adobe Acrobat which is the reader for the PDF files. This program will show you the pages of your document just as they will appear when printed. We can also print the pages to supply the book manufacturer's reference set.
The final thing is to deliver the files and required documentation to our book manufacturer. I will put all of the appropriate files on a CD ROM disk. For this it is handy to have a CD-R or a CD-RW drive. Always check with your manufacturer to make sure of what media they can handle. I would be shocked if they could not read a standard CD.
All of the manufacturers I have worked with will also require a printout of the book from a postscript printer and a printout of the cover file. For the cover, it may be necessary to tile the output and tape the pages if you do not have a large format printer.
With this essay, I have completed what I think is important
about the creation of the book from the author's conception to
the actual manufacturing. Next time, I will begin my discussion
of marketing considerations.
Back to Writing and Publishing
Archives.
|
|
|
|