Dear Colleagues,

A resource of possible interest.

Have not read it, so I can't say how
good it is, but the themes are important
to those who are producing books and
Web sites -- and to the increasing
number of doctoral candidates who
are setting their own theses in book
form.

Best regards,

Ken Friedman


   Wednesday, February 13, 2002



   Cornell Professor Offers a Guide to Producing Handsome Books
   on Home Computers

   By SCOTT CARLSON



   Douglas Holleley, an educator and photographer, is the author
   of Digital Book Design and Publishing, recently released by
   the Cary Graphic Arts Press of the Rochester Institute of
   Technology and Mr. Holleley's own press, Clarellen. Mr.
   Holleley's manual details the ways that modern technologies
   and software can help aspiring authors or artists produce
   their own books at home, taking the power that has belonged to
   publishers for centuries and putting it instead in the hands
   of the people. Mr. Holleley is currently a visiting professor
   of art at Cornell University.

   Q. One of the subjects that you discuss in your book is that
   digital technology has made the task of producing books
   easier. What sort of effect do you think this has had on
   publishing in general?

   A. It gives the author the ability to follow their thoughts
   through from conception to bound book on the printed page.
   This obviously has quite big implications for the publishing
   practice. At one time, you would have to meet with a bevy of
   editors, publishers, literary agents -- there is a whole
   structure of the publishing industry that can now be bypassed.
   The sticking block is of course the one of distribution. Even
   then, that is less of an issue than it was years ago in that
   you can publicize your work on the Web. Now, you're never
   going to compete with a book chain and it's never going to
   replace the browsing in a bookstore. But it does mean that a
   greater number of books can be published without that sort of
   editorial control.

   Q. But the Web is a free-for-all publishing environment, and
   90 percent of that is rubbish. Did the expense and difficulty
   of publishing of yesterday cull the weak ideas and the
   garbage?

   A. It's still a very time-intensive, laborious task. Unlike
   the Web, there is still a capital investment. Because we're
   still developing a tangible, booklike object, there is a
   reality check. ... When you start printing it out on paper, it
   very quickly either looks good or looks bad in a way that
   Web-based information doesn't. There is a whole history of
   standards always hovering in the background that can really
   severely criticize you if you do something naive or
   inappropriate.

   Q. So the book format lends some seriousness to it.

   A. I think so. There are plenty of self-published books that
   aren't well designed or produced, but there are plenty of
   commercial books that aren't well designed, either. A lot of
   them are computer textbooks. ... When we invented computers,
   paradoxically the first thing we had to do is create books to
   explain to people how to use these computers. And the books
   that were created were a bit of a departure; they emphasized
   technique and means rather than address the quality and
   potential of the media.

   Q. Aesthetically, what can digital technology do for
   bookmaking that couldn't be done before?

   A. Well, I'll tell you what it can't do: What none of these
   things can do is substitute for a knowledge of type settings
   or styles, a knowledge of how these have been used in the
   past, an appreciation of the history of this, and how these
   can be used on the page. In the book, I tried to remind people
   that this might be a new way of doing things and one that
   offers many advantages, but there is nothing intrinsic in the
   medium that gives you the knowledge about how to apply these
   things in such a way as to make them look aesthetically
   pleasant or consistent with hundreds of years of typographical
   progress and practice. Same with the images: It can't make the
   pictures for you.

   Q. Do you have any fear that some of the old skills and
   technologies might be lost -- like metal typesetting, for
   example?

   A. The short answer is, yes. There are different levels of
   worry. The obvious worry is the disappearance of hot-metal
   type. But it was disappearing long before we had computers --
   offset printing did that. If anything, I think that computers
   have the ability to make up for some of the losses when
   photosetting replaced hot-metal typesetting, which is kind of
   cool. Phototypesetting was mechanical, and unless you were
   very rich, you had a fairly restricted set of fonts to choose
   from. The computer allows a typographical diversity that is
   quite astonishing.

   Q. So what's the future of the book in a digital age?

   A. You will never replace the convenience, the access, the
   beauty, the tactility, the freedom from having to plug
   something in and turn it on. Everyone thought that when the
   computer came along this would replace paper, but in fact the
   opposite has occurred. There has been an explosion of paper.
   So one of the things that you quickly learn about the computer
   is that it is a medium that invited speculation because it
   appears to have so many possibilities. But almost always these
   speculations prove to be so perversely opposite of what you
   expect; we can only sit, watch, wonder, and keep our fingers
   crossed. That's one of the delightful things about it.


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  Copyright 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education