Puzzled of Peterborough

Graham, have you considered on-line POD? I have published in various formats over the years, including CD/DVD, Digital Subscription Service, protected electronic (PDFs with security devices), DTP, and conventional publishers of various sizes and strategies. Frankly, I have come to be rather fed up with all these methods.

I have discovered that a few Print-On-Demand internet based publishers (will not name any here, but there a few to chose from)– not all of them mind– can and do produce impressive results. Obvously, taking maximum control over the appearance and formatting of your project will be paramount, and some of these services do cater to that method. I find that, for myself, removing all of the argy-bargy of DTP and copies of books sat about (ad nauseum) has been a revelation.

The price ponts are a bit high, no question about that, but even so still fairly competitive given the genre you are looking to work within. At the very least, worth a look.

And what about security? I have given up on security, actually. I find that every work I have issued– in print or digital– has been copied and made available on various sites (usually in PDF, often Russian ones) for download within 48 hrs of publication. In the current realities of the internet (etc), I see no way to stop such theft. Indeed, the whole concept of Copyright seems to be dying a death just now….

But, that is a topic for another day. Do have a look at internet POD when you get the chance.

Lord, Quark. Haven’t used that since version 3. I used to work at an Apple re-seller servicing he print industry and still wince at the memories. Quadra 650’s, giving the printer an external SCSI disk with the files on and hoping it didn’t get dropped, RIP-ing files and manually checking 4 colour films before sending them to press…

But I digress….

For me a book will always be preferable even if it costs a little more because of the durability and flexibility. I work in digital media today and CD-ROM/PDF solutions always have problems.

1) Copying/Unauthorised distribution (Look at how many Osprey or After the Battle books you can get snag on-line).

2) Durability of the media (CD-ROMS too easily broken/scratched plus they only have an approx 5 year lifespan if stored properly).

3) Any format you use has to be future proof likewise any application that might be needed to read it. PDF does have PDF/A format for archival purposes but its not perfect.

4) Any DRM has to work in the future too. If I buy a book now I still might want to read in 3 yeas from now.

For me books are great – they are always there, won’t ever be in a format that’s obsolete and you only need Eyeball MkI to read it. If its something you need in the field, don’t need any equipment to use it.

I genuinely fear the move to digital storage for useful reference and history books as it won’t belong before suddenly we can’t read them and the information is lost. Just look at the BBC’s Doomesday project for an example. Compare that to the tons of books published in the 40’s/50’s I own which I can still enjoy and trade today.

Just my tuppence.

I did not say it was brilliant – we’re about to update!

Congratulations, you won’t miss the 3170 I can assure you! 😀 If you need any advice on currrent digital copiers, feel free to drop me a PM..

Apologies, copier geekery done, back to topic!

Slightly off topic advice from a Canon accredited copier tech – ditch the iR3170C!

I did not say it was brilliant – we’re about to update!

I’d be really grateful if you could explain this to me in simple terms.

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Canon iR3170C – a four colour digital printer, now about 3 years old. Prints 33 black and white or 7 colour SRA3 ‘sides’ per minute. Note, although this sounds obvious, a sheet of paper has two ‘sides’

Slightly off topic advice from a Canon accredited copier tech – ditch the iR3170C! It’s a godforsaken piece of rubbish with terrbile productivity (sooo slow!) and equally as awful colour quality. we are in the process of purging out all of our remaining 3100 series thanks to the magical 3 year end of life period. Go for a Konica Minolta C220 series, it’ll astound you!

Graham,
I’d be interested to hear why you prefer using Quark instead of InDesign? I’ve used both in the past and gladly dumped Quark for the later!

Simple answer – inertia. I been using Quark since 1991 having previously tried RagTime and Pagemaker. I’m ‘conservative’ in my page-layout design (look at any of our titles and you’ll see what I mean) I loathe and detest photo-bleeds with a passion, hate putting a picture as a spread – especially if it is not centre of section and having used Quark for that amount of time, why go to the bother of learning (re-learning?) a whole new bunch of software that basically does the same thing anyways?

Hi Graham

Haven’t seen you since Biggleswade in the 80s, and I have your early DH series – I had provided you some details on the Oz Dragons, Rapides, Express, etc.

I agree with Don Clark’s comprehensive input. I prefer a book – I do enough of staring at computer screens as it is (and yes, it does send you blind).

Some of the books that have been produced in Oz may be of interest – you may have come across them over there.

The “In Australian Service” military aircraft series, light blue glossy card covers with coloured sideviews. Perfect bound, up to 250 pages. These don’t seem to give way, as the pages appear to be glued up to 5mm from the spine. Easily read spine and readily found on the bookshelf.

The “Red Roo” series, red taped spine with titling, laminated cover, up to 120 pages. These are not glued to the same extent as above, but none of mine to date have given way.

Spiral & Comb binding. Yes I don’t care much for either as well. Have some. The early “Red Roo” (up to 180 pages) used plastic comb binding with no spine titling – but that could be possible. I have several wire spirals. One is Ian Baker’s “Colouring Book” series – a compendium of Vols 1 to 25, 100 pages – but no spine titling possible with this. Also have some of the RAF Squadron Profiles, so with a few it is a bit of fumbling around.

The “In Australian Service” approach of additional glue on the perfect bind is the most prefereable of these options.

Merry Christmas everyone. 🙂

Graham,
I’d be interested to hear why you prefer using Quark instead of InDesign? I’ve used both in the past and gladly dumped Quark for the later!

mainly I think (but I am by no means sure of) because they cannot see what the title is as far as a spine showing on a bookshelf.

Maybe I am missing something but if there is no spine or it is too thin to permit showing the title why not print the title on the front (or if you are really perverse on the back) cover of the book. Seems simple.

Planemike

Like Sky High I do prefer a book but have the same problem with being able to afford them. My father was a printer in the letterpress days so I do appreciate the work that goes into producing a book (even though in many ways it is much simpler with modern methods) so I appreciate that there isn’t much that can be done to reduce prices. I also appreciate that the author needs some return on his/her time even if the book sells few copies.
I have had problems with books coming apart that use perfect binding but realise that the options available at a viable cost are pretty limited.
I associate wire binding with limited life books such as annual civil aircraft registers which many spotters replace every year. I don’t like the idea for “long life” books partly because I like to be able to get them out of my bookcase by referring to the title on the spine and also because wire binding sticks out past the edges of the book so that the wires tend to get intertwined if you put two wire bound books side by side in the bookcase.
Incidentally I have many books which I bought, scanned quickly and have never managed to find the time to read in depth. I doubt that I would ever have even found the time for a quick scan in digital format so I probably wouldn’t have bought digital versions.

I’d be really grateful if you could explain this to me in simple terms.

I’ll try…. but this is still sorta complex!

QuarkXPress (“Quark”) – is a computer application for creating and editing complex page layouts in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment. It runs on MAC OS X and Windoze.

The most recent version is QuarkXPress 8.5 and it allows publishing in English (“International and U.S.”) and 36 other languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, German, Korean, Russian, French, and Spanish.

CMYK Photoshop – is what is regarded as the ‘Full’ version of this imaging software, processing and printing in four colours (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) sooner than the ‘Lite’ more simpler RBG three colour system.

Quad Core Macs – a processor with four cores, for higher speed processing.
Fiery RIP – a RIP (Raster Image Processor) is software takes your image and text and tells the wide format printer where and how to place each squirt of ink on the paper. The PostScript (from Adobe or an emulation from Harlequin or comparable) tells the printer how to make the alphanumeric portion of your text look nice (eliminates the jaggies). It also acts a data buffer to ensure quicker, and repeatable printing. They usually incorporate their own hard drives and ‘firmware’ for data processing.

SRA-3 – oversized A3 paper size used so as to be able to ‘trim down’ to A3.

Canon iR3170C – a four colour digital printer, now about 3 years old. Prints 33 black and white or 7 colour SRA3 ‘sides’ per minute. Note, although this sounds obvious, a sheet of paper has two ‘sides’

Duplexing – prints on both sides automatically.

Lamininated covers – a shiny, plastic coating. Domestic use is by using ‘pockets’ fed through a heater machine. Industry standard is using a machine that looks something like a mangle, with two heater bars that heats up (to around 200 deg C) two rolls plastic film that has heat-setting adhesive that is applied both sides of the cover, then pressed to the paper by rollers. We use two rolls at a time, 300 metres in length, and this can be used all in one go for large laminating runs.

My position is straightforward. I infinitely prefer a hard-cover book. I am happy to use the internet for research and investigation but nothing gives the same pleasure as sitting with a well produced book. My problem is cost. Many high quality aviation books are, for me, very expensive, so I have to be very selective. I am not in any way suggesting that the books are overpriced, such are the costs of high quality production these days, but I wonder if that is one reason for the contracted market.

My position – like me – is simple. I prefer to have a book. If it’s one I know and use frequently, I can find what I want far quicker than if it’s in digital or online form. But if the choice is between having a resource in digital or online form or not at all, then it’s a ‘no brainer’. It’s better to have something than nothing!

For those who are interested, we currently use industry-standard Quark Express 8 and CMYK Photoshop running on Quad-Core Macs through a Fiery RIP to a high resolution SRA3-size Canon iR3170C duplexing colour printer. Covers are laminated through a 300 metre dual sided continuious roll machine.

I’d be really grateful if you could explain this to me in simple terms. As I’ve said, I’m only a simple chap!

I have to admit that I like a book – there is no substitute for a real book(EG:Stephen King) for reading for pleasure.

However , for research, I find that PDFs (whether on disc or saved on the PC ) are infinitely more convenient.

The one problem that the internet has brought us is the “compounding errors” situation where one website copies the info on another site without any real idea whether it is correct.

A glaring example…The NZ Maritime museum website has a page about the SS Oriana(the old one not the present one) where it states that the vessel was involved in a collision with the USS Kearsarge (an aircraft carrier) in March 1962.
In fact the collision took place in Dec 1962- I know this mainly because I was working on the Oriana at that time.

I wrote the NZ Museum best part of a year ago pointing out the errror – no reply, no change , and since then several other sites have copied the incorrect info.

I suppose one could say that this sort of thing happens with books with errors- but misinformation is far easier disseminated via the internet.

I do not believe we will ever see the complete disappearance of hard copy…but I can see an eventual end to many periodicals etc in favour of online publishing.

LOL, Surprised there is someone left on this world that’s using Quark!:p
I wouldn’t go digital. It’s too limited in reach. As you say, you can read a book whenever/wherever you want. Plus once you sold a digital copy, who knows where it will end up? One can make millions of illegal copies.
Can’t you thread stitch them instead of staples? Or is that what you mean that can’t be done?

If perfect binding has been a problem, you could try castleated or burst binding which basically cuts slots into the gathered page bulk before the cover binding glue is applied – the glue oozes into the slots and makes for a firmer bind. I use this method for larger titles.

I see you’re still using Quark… vintage tools for vintage aviation publishing eh?!

I have tried converting some of my older books into PDFs and onto CD; however there again the market is rather small and difficult to control. Once a copy is sold it could be turned into hundreds costing pennies. With new media coming out, such as iPad and similar there might be a way out by charging for downloading onto such media; some magazines are already doing it.

Richard J. Caruana

As a mod (even if I am an old friend of Grahams), I see no problem with this thread. Its not advertising per se, and anything that gets a discussion going that might see more information out there is a good thing IMHO.

Bruce

I don’t disagree with you Graham hence my opening comment of, “I can hear the cries of heretic now …”

That said, I believe that digital media could be the way forward; most phones, cameras, gadgets etc already come with digital or online manuals and people are becoming more comfortable with the medium. Whilst I don’t see it replacing every printed item it could be the way forward for subjects with a limited interest.

Ok… some interesting points already.

It would be easy to call me a Luddite, but there are lot of indications that by far and large most ‘readers’ of aviation books are not into the digital age – certainly bookshops are not set up to handle that sort of output.

Likewise many things about t’interweb are way too transient – here today, gone in the next nanosecond, no matter HOW good the information or images are.

I’m not against the digital side of things, but I remain to be convinced about the commercial security of CD/DVD either as Apps, PDFs or whatever – likewise as to the long-term lifespan (10+ years) of the storage media.

There are also very good technical reasons that digital media are far too prone to ‘failure’, having lost data on more than one hard drive, memory sticks and innumerable CDs. I operate a rolling 5 year plan for our data back-up (and that includes backing up the back-ups) and we STILL have come perilously close to losing data.

Without a doubt at the moment all indications we have is that our clients LIKE hard copy they can have on their desk, read while t’wife is watching Stenders or simply take up to bed with them.

Or is this another can of worms for possible discussion?