Electronic Publishing Update -- 1996


Laura Ackerman-Shaw
 Bookbuilders West's annual Electronic Publishing Update on March 7 attracted nearly 200 enthusiastic attendees. The presentations covered topics from electronic file preparation to on-demand printing, CD-ROMs to the World Wide Web. Wendy Wood, CEO of the Copy House, hosted the information-packed day, encouraging people to ask questions of the speakers. An ISDN line and Internet connections were even installed in the meeting room, thanks to Chet Grycz, so the audience could directly experience what the speakers were talking about.
The Future of Electronic Publishing

Thad McIlroy


A self-described ambassador to those in traditional graphic arts, keynote speaker Thad McIlroy is the executive director of the Worldwide Publishing Consortium, a nonprofit association that trains and supports users of open publishing systems. He discussed the key trends and technologies that are shaping the digital future, including new input sources like Photo CD and digital cameras, image processing technology like direct-to-press, electronic document formats like Adobe Acrobat, and new publishing media like the Internet and World Wide Web. It is no longer a question of how but where are we going. There are approximately 22 million Macintoshes and 300 million PCs in use and he sees a future for both platforms with current computers as digital typewriters. He cited the hand-held UPS delivery-tracking computers with scanning capabilities as useful special function computers. Hardware has impacted color imaging. A color scanner that was $250,000 ten years ago is now $25,000. Scanners in the $4,000-$5,000 range can imitate the sensitivity of a drum scanner with dynamic range and resolution. The best digital cameras ($30,000) may be better than a drum scanner. Color publishing software continues to improve. Photoshop is now like a Scitex imaging station. Of greatest significance to the publishing community is the maturation of color management systems such as ColorSync 2.0 or Kodak CMS that automate the color process. The best systems allow high quality color reproduction without a high degree of understanding. Type continues apace with the proliferation of fonts‹with 70 vendors originating approximately 10,000 fonts. Adobe offers Multiple Masters that allow alteration of type, and Panose describes fonts numerically.
Color printing has undergone enormous changes. Direct-to-press is changing how color printing is being purchased-each impression can be unique because price is no longer associated with quantity. Each unit is the same price, you buy only what you need. Less dramatic is direct-to-plate technology where a prepress device drives the printing press. Here the ink level is set digitally and is a more controllable process with less need for craft.
Moving from the ink-on-paper world, McIlroy discussed the Internet from e-mail to the World Wide Web, the latter having the most significant impact on the publishing community. Like desktop publishing in its early stages, the WWW design tools are poor, but in time there will be better tools that are easier to use for less money. McIlroy is convinced that the Internet and the WWW are the most important graphic communications element since Gutenberg. When DTP changed publishing, we went from a manual to a digital procedure of putting ink on paper. With growth of more than 20% a month, the WWW is a whole new approach for publishers.
Publishing without paper requires a different language, HTML, not PostScript. He offered a quick glossary: HTML is the standard for online pages; Acrobat mummifies print pages, SGML offers a code structure for content; Java animates the page. HTML came from nowhere to be the authoring language of 30-40 million pages, even though the code structure is not very flexible. Emulating ink on paper is not easy with these tools, and is unnecessary in this medium.
He cautioned that as we look at where this is all going, we should not be thrown off by red herrings: low resolution of monitors (who really likes to read on a monitor?), economic issues of how to make money on the Web, and the existing structure of the publishing market. Remember, the typesetting industry basically died in five years with the popular acceptance of desktop publishing.
So how do we define book publishing? (1) Acquiring, manufacturing, and distributing information in book form. (2) Making ideas and information generally known. (3) Providing content. The core of our business is the process of making ideas and information available, not what physical form it takes. The author remains at the core of the model in both book and Web publishing, but the access to the distribution system is direct. Now McIlroy finds himself looking at books and asking, Did it have to be a book? He sees the book as a technological and economic construct and the Web liberating the content of the book message from the form. Consider the alternative forms to the book-film, picture, game, CD-ROM, software, Web site, database-all are tools of expression available to use as publishers, most of which were not even a consideration a decade ago. In the graphics communications channel, you start with text, amplify with graphics-a book with pictures. Go beyond that to multiple media, adding sound and movement. Add interactivity and the piece changes with user input-that is the power of WWW.
In defining the future, McIlroy illustrated technology in the "cone of uncertainty." Take those technologies that you believe will affect the way you work and create a timeline. What can you do today? McIlroy advises publishers to assess the real strength of their business in terms of profits and growth. Buy only today's technology, never buy technology promises but build the promises into your planning. Map a 2-year plan with staged transitions to the technologies further out in the cone of uncertainty.

No matter how the marketplace shakes out, he feels it is an indisputably digital world. Digitization of current processes is a top priority. "Share of customer" not "share of market" is the watchword and knowledge is becoming more valuable than any other skill.
On-Demand Publishing
 Heidi Baer from the Copy House used a multimedia presentation to review the emerging technology of print-on-demand and the differences between electronic publishing and traditional offset printing. She sees these processes as complimenting rather than replacing traditional offset printing. Learn Your Digital on Demand ABCs, a primer for their publishing system, was distributed. A Xerox Docutech with 600 dpi black and white output meets the needs of smaller runs. With an easier process (the material needs only be designed on computer and printed online, no plates are necessary), there are savings in cost, time, and warehousing. What types of materials are candidates for print-on-demand? Jobs that are black and white, plain paper, low volume, short turn time, minimal storage, or frequently modified.
Kent Johnson and Jay Sales, digital imaging specialists, gave a demonstration of setting up a PostScript file for their system but encouraged publishers to talk with their suppliers to determine specific parameters. They reviewed some Web pages, noting the need to change information frequently, and gave an overview of the host of editors that allow the lay person to create a Web page.


In House Production

Bill Ralph

Bill Ralph, manufacturing manager of Wadsworth Publishing Company, has seen publishing change substantially during his long tenure in the industry. In the college marketplace, the old textbook model has been replaced by alternative or no material at all. This generation of MTV-reared students wants more dynamic material. The result is a significant decline in the growth of educational publishers. Wadsworth, like others, is in a period of transition-the 1-year old video Bill shared made no reference to the Web. Now Wadsworth is customizing products to meet instructors' needs, sending material to authors via e-mail, and editing "manuscripts" online.

In the past, publishing was a linear process, requiring 4-12 months to make a book. In the traditional production model, the manuscript goes to editorial and design, then to composition and art, then to repro or film, and finally to manufacturing. In recent years the production model has shifted to allow content to be provided to electronic, custom, database, and CD publishing as well as the Web to meet customer needs. How to manage that data is now a topic at launch meetings as is the delivery medium.
Custom publishing is the fastest growing part of Wadsworth's business-the customer says what he or she wants and gets it in five working days. With content from scanned tearsheets or digital files, instructors can add their own materials, and the end result is run through the Docutech. Professors order from 25 to 200 copies averaging 200 pages.

CDs, too, have grown in importance, with their production closely aligned to video production. CDs are alluring to management, costing only $1.50 to manufacture in a day (in quantity). The goal of having all information stored in SGML in a database, ready to retrieve in any form, is attractive, although the reality is expensive. Database publishing is still a future prospect.

Wadsworth is currently developing 13 different Web sites, offering customers tables of contents, sample art programs, catalogs, author home pages, student home pages, software demos, quizzes, job ideas, and convention information.

So what changes? Just about everything. There are fewer players as corporate consolidations are announced with increasing frequency. Bill predicted that the content will be media neutral with more custom products. Virtual classrooms and libraries are sprouting; there are plans for a western virtual degree university in 1997. And there will be new competitors to publishers-software, telecommunications, and cable providers have the delivery mechanism, all they need is the content. How do publishers plan to survive? There will always be room for books. But we need to train staff to develop competencies and skills, learn more about what customers want and what they will pay, and take advantage of technology.

Adobe Acrobat and World Wide Web Browsers


Owen Cooper


In his presentation, Owen Cooper, a consultant, demonstrated an online help reference developed for one of his clients using the WWW. From his experience, Cooper discovered that WWW browsers are well suited to publishing in-house procedures manuals in the form of online help. He cited PC Week as a good example of a product developed for print media that is now published on the Internet.
He cited the ease of creating in this environment: (1) compose in familiar page layout or word processing program, (2) create portable document format (PDF), and (3) use Acrobat Exchange set display and navigating controls. PDF is like PostScript in that it is an open standard and publicly specified. The advantage of Acrobat is that its heritage is Adobe's respect for design and presentation.
A few caveats: PDF is best suited to PostScript printers and documents developed for print may not present well on a computer (screen resolution is a factor). To end the session, he suggested some resources:

The Internet and Web Site Creation

Walter Schild

Walter Schild, a partner in Genex Media, specializes in interactive authoring and Internet production including WWW page development. He surfed the group around the Web, visiting sites and describing ones he helped create.
Eighty percent of all computers sold in 1995 had CD-ROM drives and it remains a powerful distribution medium. Digital video is also powerful, with greater control in the hands of the end user. DVDs (digital versatile disks) are being backed by Time Warner. This offers video stored in a digital format (analog videos degrade with time) and usually refers to video captured via computer and digitized and then stored electronically. It is often used in multimedia production for CD-ROMs.
A network of networks, the Internet started as a US Defense Department project in the 1960s. Now more mail (including internal) is sent via e-mail than via the US Post Office. The World Wide Web started in the 1990s and uses the Internet to communicate much like we use the phone company. With no geographical boundaries, the Internet has 50 million users worldwide and is growing by more than 2.5 million users a month. It has allowed new players in the industry and spawned new businesses.
What is the importance of the WWW to book to publishers? Schild advised not to publish books online, but it is a powerful source for business in the areas of sales, marketing, and customer service offering targeted messages. In fact, many of the most successful sites on the Web today sell books. The WWW will allow for new types of publishing and a different distribution medium as well as allowing small publishers equal footing.
Then Schild took the group to a few sites: Disney where the user can choose color or black and white; Levi Strauss, which uses animation in a few small files to customize the message; and BMW, which places the user right in the car. These Web sites demonstrated that good sites are fun and dynamic and changing. Schild suggested that most people won't read online, but that they want to search online and recommends Netscape Navigator 2.0 (currently free online) as the best browser available.
PDF HTML
Origins PostScript's minutely described page ASCII's 'pageless' stream of text
Vision this page is perfect the Web is one huge document
Fonts/Color author selects viewer selects
Authoring Environment rich limited
Web popular standard official standard


Understanding the New Print Technology

Eric Shropshire

After literally walking off a cross-country flight, Eric Shropshire, a technology consultant for R. R. Donnelley and Sons, covered "the new publishing realities." He noted that while the technology has changed the way we prepare and produce books, the process has not kept pace. His emphasis was on getting it right-the first time. In the last 3 to 5 years, desktop publishing has spurred rapid changes forcing a realignment in the industry. Before this, each person in the process had a task based on a specific trade and skill such as typesetting. Now, everyone can do everything, with the cost of entry being the cost of the technology.
Printers' main objectives remain timely delivery, communication, lower costs, and customer satisfaction. Preparing a file so it works for the printer is critical. New processes such as direct-to-plate, on-demand printing, and digital printing have less proofing. The rules are the same but the responsibilities are different. When you construct a file, you are the typesetter, stripper, retoucher, and proofer.
The top ten reasons files don't run properly (apologies to David Letterman):
Once at the printer, files are checked for media type (integrity, readability, back up), components, and then RIPed and proofed. Problems usually surface when the PostScript file is created. He offered rules for preparing files to avoid problems:
Eric urged publishers to invest in training staff. Most file construction problems are due to people not being properly trained. He stressed that roles have changed and printing is a partnership. We need to respect each other and work together in this increasingly complex arena.
A CD-ROM Case Study

Rick Smolan and Wendy Wood


In 1979, Rick Smolan was in a bar with other photographers and the concept for A Day in the Life of Australia was born. Thirty-five publishers laughed at his idea of sending 100 photojournalists to Australia, but he found sponsors for his "Olympics of photography." With hotels, airline tickets, and film, but no money, he self-published what became a national phenomenon and sold 250,000 copies. The audience received a special treat to end the day, as he presented his recent CD-ROM venture, Passage to Vietnam, winner of the Multimedia title of the year. Rick took us a on personally guided tour of Vietnam and the photographers who brought the project to life and described how he wanted this project to make viewers feel as if they were one of the photographers. His materials are as much about storytelling as design.
Of 2,000 photographs, 300 were selected for the CD. He explained some of the process behind the conceptualization of the clever techniques-the CD had a 3-D icon, commissioned Vietnamese music, essays, and video clips. Special parts included guided tours of "photo galleries" given by the photographers themselves and the editors of Time and Newsweek debating on screen your interactive selections of images to put on the "cover."
Rick also talked about his latest venture, 24 Hours in Cyberspace-a book, a CD-ROM, and a Web site. With 53 sponsors, $5 million, and 1,000 photographers with portable scanners and laptops, this project pushed the publishing envelope while addressing the issue of how to photograph a place as abstract as cyberspace. At "mission control," they had photos and stories coming in from all over the world and going onto Web pages while themselves becoming part of the story as media coverage bombarded them.
A delightful voyage to end an information packed day, showing how publishing can span all forms of media, print and electronic and underscoring the key to the future for publishers: learn about and become well versed in each medium.
Table of Contents: May/June Newsletter
Bookbuilders West Home Page
Last modified: 9/26/96