Jon Christensen
Above: George Christensen presents a BBW plaque to Mary Lou Goforth. |
Our Bookbuilders West community benefits from attracting quality professionals to the business. The BBW Annual Crash Course in Book Production is a valuable educational tool to help those considering careers in book publishing.
The 1996 Crash Course was held at the Grosvenor Hotel in South San Francisco on May 15. The event offered a well-organized, single-day general overview of the production process. Thanks to George Christensen, Arlene Cowan, Mary Lou Goforth, Casi Kostecki, Gwen Larson, Don Smith, Brooks Vitalone, and Roy Wallace for planning and administering the event.
Book Production and Copyediting: Karen Judd, McGraw Hill. Karen offered an overview of the details involved in the production editing and copyediting process. She emphasized the variety of opportunities available across the publishing profession at this level. From an experienced buyer's point of view, she explained the skills required for each type of editing work and offered practical tips for those searching for assignments.
Jon Christensen keeps up with the latest happenings. |
Book Design and Illustration: Jeanne Schreiber, Mayfield Publishing. Jeanne offered perspective on the relationship between general design principles and book work. She emphasized that many important guidelines predate desktop computers. Although tasks have been automated and simplified, basic design rules still apply. Jeanne warned the group against trying to bill themselves as "designers" simply because they have a computer.
Paper Selection: Cathie Johnson, Zellerbach Paper. Paper selection is an important and complicated process, yet many publishing professionals know little about it. Cathie explained paper classifications, coatings, basis weights, and other frequently encountered yet misunderstood areas. She also provided an overview of the coating process.
Book Composition and Desktop Publishing: Gloria Fontana, GTS Graphics. Gloria offered an informative set of tips which reflected the emerging realities of all-electronic book composition. As the composition process has changed over the last ten years, refining it to meet each project's needs has been an ongoing challenge. The presentation ranged from a brief history of typesetting to fundamentals of type and an overview of the production process.
Prepress and Film Preparation: Barbara Redman, Color Tech Corporation. Barbara covered the stage between the desktop and the printing press, explaining the changes that are occurring in the prepress industry. Although direct-to-plate imaging is likely to gradually supplant lithographic film, much of the same prepress knowledge applies. As well as an overview of color separation, Barbara offered tips on the preparation of digital art and files.
Plates, Printing, and Binding: Mary Lou Goforth, The Press of Ohio. Mary Lou covered the final steps of the book production process, from imposition through offset printing to binding. Technology is also impacting this stage as on-demand printing becomes more feasible. Regardless of the method used to put the ink on the paper, however, this is where proper planning throughout a job pays off in both scheduling and quality.