Alice’s Adventures in Alt-Text Land
Down the Rabbit Hole Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do:…
Artworking and Typesetting
A typesetting goldmine: Peter Kahrel’s online repository of free scripts
At first glance, it may not look like much—but Peter Kahrel’s extensive online repository of free scripts is an essential resource for anyone who works…
BookMachine Unplugged: Talking Production – exploring the world outside Adobe
Wednesday 12 February saw the first BookMachine Unplugged event of 2020, with a packed house filling the Arboretum in Covent Garden. Just as with the…
Just your type – new font formats come to InDesign
The most interesting new feature of InDesign 2020 – the latest major update of our industry standard page layout software from Adobe – was the…
Automation is great, but it won’t work for my books…
The most common feedback from publishers when chatting about automation is the belief that their publications are beyond what automation can do. As a book…
88 mentions of Brexit. The election manifestos are published.
We are now halfway though the six-week build-up before the 2019 UK General Election and this is the week that all the major political parties…
The Publishing Machine: How automation makes space for creativity
It is a curious thing, publishing books. I’ve never been sure if it is more art or science; either way, there is no doubt that…
Content vs. Design: a tug of war?
Working in ELT, Content and Design should have a symbiotic relationship. The design supports the content and the content works effortlessly within the parameters of…
Vector graphics: a no-nonsense guide
Rich Hardiman, founder of Comic Printing UK, tweets about everything from the best way to format a bleed to Taylor Swift’s latest album, providing useful…
What does your proof actually prove?
proof /pru:f/ noun • a trial impression of a page, used for making corrections before final printing. verb • make a proof of (a printed…
The first Unplugged event of 2018: Talking Production
Abbie Headon is BookMachine’s Commissioning Editor and runs Abbie Headon Publishing Services. She champions fresh approaches to solving the industry’s challenges and can be found…
Smart, scalable and responsible print production [Heather O’Connell interview]
Heather O’Connell has more than 20 years experience in the publishing industry and worked her way up from controller to senior management positions at Penguin…
Judge a book by its cover … and its typesetting
Of course the cover is important – you don’t need me to tell you that, but I think the internal pages of a book are…
A beginner’s guide to white space
Most people involved in writing or publishing are aware of the phrase “white space” and realise that the visual impact of a text, whether on page or screen,…
A guide on book title punctuation
For the trained eyes, there is nothing more annoying than looking at a book which is just one letter away from perfect. It is possible…