chuq%plaid@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (08/12/87)
A Desktop Publisher's Guide to Pasteup
by Tony Middleton
Plusware, Colorado Springs, CO
$15.95
ISBN 0-942005-00-7
Finally, a book for The Rest of Us. If you're tired of seeing dozens of
books on how to use all those neat Pagemaker features that are described in
the Pagemaker manual, volumes upon volumes of books on layout and design
(Kids! you TOO can use Helvetica in new and unusual ways!) and gosh-wow
burblings on how neat Desktop Publishing Is, and How It Will Change Your
Life, then take a close look at this book.
Tony Middleton has written the book I've wanted to see for a long time. This
is a book for desktop publishers about all of those little, unimportant
things that the neglected to tell you about when you got into desktop
publishing -- unimportant things like printers, and pasteup, and putting
together your publication so that the printshop doesn't laugh at you.
Once you've figured out how to make your layout program do what you want it
to do, you get your stuff laid out and printed, then what? The Desktop
Publishing folks like to imply that they are a Complete Solution, that once
the computer is done with it all your problems will be solved, your acne
will clear up, and you'll get that big promotion.
What they dont tell you is that your problems are just beginning. Desktop
Publishing is little more than glorified typesetting, under the control of
the user. Once you get the thing set, it needs to be printed, bound,
distributed and (hopefully) oggled. To get it printed you need to get
mechanicals done, photographs halftoned, illustrations stripped in, the
printer happy, and dozens of other steps that nobody mentioned when you
started that project.
Middleton not only mentions them, he brings them down to earth. He starts
out by giving you an overview of all those little details you weren't told
about when you bought Pagemaker. He clues you in to the tools you need
(including brand names, tradeoffs, options and alternatives) and WHY you
need them, how to deal with artwork, with photos, and how to merge your
desktop publishing material into a completed master.
From there, he walks you through building a set of mechanicals, the
actual document the printer will use. And he discusses the different types
of printing, the tradeoffs, how to find a good printer, how to keep them
happy and how to get a good, cost effective final product out of them.
This is the first desktop publishing book that has nothing to do with
desktop publishing. It is about all the other facets of traditional
publishing that a desktop publisher needs to know. I recommend the book
highly (if that wasn't obvious already) -- both for current desktop
publishers trying to improve their product and for possible folks trying to
get a feel for what they're getting themselves into.
chuq
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Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ
We live and learn, but not the wiser grow -- John Pomfret (1667-1703)