Quark Inc.

Book publishers are keeping their fingers crossed that 2005 will be the year the industry shakes off the period of stagnation that has coincided with the U.S. economic downturn. The domestic market continued to remain essentially flat in 2004, but industry insiders are hopeful that the market will soon show growth. The shift toward more flexible production schedules, and resurgence in educational and reference titles will likely be the engines that drive any industry upswing. Another trend in 2005 will be publishers aiming to enhance profitability by leveraging the cost benefits of digital printing and international sourcing. Setting the Stage for Growth

Hazelden Publishing and Educational Services is the world's largest publisher of products focusing on addiction, recovery and prevention. Hazelden books, video and audio programs, direct mail, catalogs and other products are sold in 32 countries - at a high rate of warehouse orders a day. With an output of this magnitude, the non-profit knew it had to upgrade its workflow management system. Hazelden had been working with two prepress vendors and a piecemeal workflow that had evolved over the years. First, each prepress vendor stored Hazelden's hi-resolution images separately in different systems, which caused duplication, versioning problems and retrieval issues. Files were not logically named

Imagine going to the book store in search of a classic literary work, antiques guide or cookbook. To keep costs down, the search is narrowed to paperback titles only. Now, imagine the available selection is limited to poorly-produced detective stories. In today's bookselling climate, this scenario may seem unbelievable, but 60 years ago it was the norm. Back then, the paperback book market consisted mainly of cheaply made fiction books that sold for approximately a quarter. Not until Hayward Cirker, co-founder of Dover Publications (www.doverpublications.com), decided to remedy this disservice to readers, did the market undergo a transformation. "Cirker had

A review of the technology today, and a preview of trends for tomorrow By Danny O. Snow This article: * reviews computer-to-plate (CTP) technology; * discusses its use in four-color printing; * offers tips on how to get the best results using CTP; and * previews future developments. The methods printers use to put words and four-color images on paper have changed dramatically in the past few years. New digital methods have largely replaced traditional processes that involved art boards, cameras and film. Computer-to-plate (CTP) technology allows the transfer of digital files from computers directly to printing plates. Most CTP systems

by Tatyana Sinioukov Perhaps what makes University of California Press so successful is, in part, that its design team consists of people like Nola Burger, who enjoy the daily challenge of making their books stand out At UC Press, five in-house designers choose their projects and leave the manufacturing responsibilities to production coordinators. "We'll look over a list of books that are being launched, and then the designers will meet," explains Nola Burger, an award-winning designer who has been creating book covers, jackets and interiors for eight years; has taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts in San Francisco; and has judged

Contemplating a move to CTP? Here's a quick list of key issues to consider, prepared with the input of managers like you Just how do you begin to hammer out your own plan for computer-to-plate (CTP) printing? One first step is asking your suppliers about their capabilities, so you can see how they might mesh with your own organization's capabilities and goals. To provide our readers with some practical, hands-on advice, we checked with three managers experienced in overseeing CTP work, and compiled their advice into this list of key questions. Special thanks to our field advisors John Calvano, editorial operations director, Time Inc.

Maybe we have an answer to all our prepress problems. It's called PDF. That's short for Portable Document Format. It's Adobe's file format. It's not difficult to grasp the basic principles of what PDF is all about. But it takes more than the page I have here, so please go read our related stories, then come back. All done? Good. (OK, for those of you who hate to flip pages, you should at least know that a PDF file can be made from a PostScript file. PostScript is the final format of a file made with Adobe's PageMaker or Illustrator programs and Quark's QuarkXPress, among others.) So, you

INPUT: a few dollars for new software + a little time to learn to use it OUTPUT: time saved; errors minimized; consistent and dynamic-looking pages Tremendous advantage can be gained through effective application of digital techniques and technologies, advises Irving S. Berman, digital production and workflow specialist for 21st Century Publishing and Communications (21C). Of course it helps to know the tools to use. So Berman compiled this list of concisely described software automation tools to share with BookTech readers. As extensive as it is, it is still by no means a definitive list, he says, and he invites readers to help him add

By Rose Blessing The following are just a few of the many PDF-related tools shown at Seybold San Francisco. www.acquiredknowledge.com EZ-PDF, from Acquired Knowledge With EZ-PDF, a prepress pro can set up PDF Distiller menu settings for a client's typical work and "package" them for the clients to use. EZ-PDF also includes pre-defined styles for common types of work such as digital advertising, large-format output or Web viewing. EZ-PDF can be configured to accept and/or automatically fill in job ticket information, according to the Portable Job Ticket Format specification defined by Adobe Systems. www.adobe.com Adobe PostScript Extreme, from Adobe Extreme is an extensible systems