Time Inc.

Living Digitally in a Four-Color World
January 1, 1999

When it comes to computer-to-plate printing, more printers and publishers join the ranks of the believers every day, either experimenting with CTP with their four-color jobs, or switching to it by Tatyana Sinioukov Despite some limitations, as discussed by industry professionals below, CTP for four-color book production saves time and money and offers faster turnaround and higher quality than a conventional, film-based workflow. That's why more and more printers and publishers join the ranks of the believers every day, either experimenting with CTP with their four-color jobs, or switching to it completely. According to Frank Ervin, vice president of training and technology at

The Color Checkpoint
January 1, 1999

The color image scans produced for Time Inc. Home Entertainment books must be top quality. To assure himself that proofs he's reviewing represent what will ultimately be printed, Editorial Operations Manager John Calvano asks prepress houses that work for Time to run out a test page every two weeks on the devices regularly used to print proofs. The page includes three images from some of his previous jobs--images for which he knows what to look for--as well as industry-standard color patch strips. Since a book's scans are often produced in batches over several weeks, the test pages help him check for color consistency over time.

Making CTP A Reality
January 1, 1999

Browsing in bookstores while holiday shopping last month, perhaps you glimpsed Entertainment Weekly The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, People's Unforgettable Women of the Century, The Life Millennium, or Time Almanac. If so, you know that a hallmark of these publications is meticulous treatment of photos and color. John Calvano, editorial operations manager at Time Inc. Home Entertainment, is one of the behind-the-scenes individuals responsible for overseeing quality of those publications--and more. When all is said and done, at the end of 1998 Calvano expected to have overseen editorial production for 8,000 pictures within 10,000 pages across 37 titles (or 52 if

The Electronic Book Arrives
November 1, 1998

by Tatyana Sinioukov The next big idea -- the electronic book--has materialized in this fall's releases of SoftBook and Rocket eBook by the two Silicon Valley companies, SoftBook Press, Menlo Park, CA, and NuvoMedia, Palo Alto, CA. BookTech asked some publishers their opinion about a possible onslaught of e-book products. Even those who don't believe it will lead to a sudden death of the paper book want to know how the e-book will read, how it will feel when held, how, if at all, it will affect the book-publishing and book-selling businesses and, ultimately, consumers' perception of a book. Is a book a