Customer Reviews

Print Publishing: A Hayden Shop Manual

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[from BN] The phrase "soup-to-nuts" was invented for books like this. Donnie O'Quinn covers it all, from prepress to ergonomics, trapping to project management, halftones to choosing the right equipment, preflight to evaluating color proofs. This stuff was formerly scattered across dozens of books and magazines -- if you could find it at all. How to set up a media dexterity workstation to handle all your file transfers. How to cope with color spaces and color management -- including a realistic look at ICC color profiles. O'Quinn initiates you into the ancient mysteries of trapping, describes preflight processes and workflows that minimize the likelihood of error, and walks you step-by-step through proofing every aspect of a print project, from text to presswork.

This is the voice of experience. When to use stochastic screening, and when not to. How to adjust your client's (or your own) expectations regarding the accuracy of color. Which Unsharp Mask settings are most likely to do the job. How to convert a Mac Type 1 font to a Windows Type 1 font without losing hinting and internal font information. And on, and on. For anyone who can't afford fouled up print jobs, this is an amazing resource -- an instant classic.

Donnie O'Quinn tells you everything you need to know about modern, DTP-based print publishing in one book! Well, of course that's not true - but he really does get to the bone of what someone *ought* to know. Despite sending documents to printers and repro-houses over a number of years I still learned plenty, and was enthused to become a meticulous 'print publisher'. Believe me, someone new to, or on the periphery of, print publishing could learn more skills and better practice than some folks who've worked in the industry for years just be absorbing what's in the book. I'd reccomend it to any pre-press worker, designer, DTP-operator, hands-on editor, production staff. It's a classic.

While the version I purchased was outdated by several years (almost a decade?) I still found the majority of this book extremely relevant for all print production, publishing and graphic design related topics - as a starter at least. Topics include things like packaging for print on various CS software, trapping, inks, paper, scanning, file specs, etc. It has pretty much everything (in general) one would need to know to get started with info that is standard for the industry. Keep in mind though, you'll have to find another resource for the information that is outdated - but as mentioned previously, everything else in the book remains relevant and it is still worth the few dollars it costs to have it in your collection.