Y59.1400: Print Technology for Publishing

ONLINE

WhatTheyThink.com

Started in 2000, WhatTheyThink.com is the largest, most heavily trafficked online community in the graphic communications industry. WhatTheyThink.com provides daily news, interviews, commentary, research, and other resources to its members. Its goal is to provide unbiased, real-time market intelligence to print and publishing executives. The site's "Premium Content" is available by subscription only, but the abundance of free daily material makes WhatTheyThink.com a valuable resource for anyone interested in keeping up with trends and developments in print technology for publishing.

BOOKS

Many of these titles are periodically updated to keep pace with advancements in the technologies they cover. Check the publishers' catalogs or Web sites to be sure of selecting the most recent edition.

Print Production

Langford, Bert N. Working With A Magazine Printer. Self-published by the author, 2003. 316 pages, paperback.

In Working With A Magazine Printer, Langford compacts a vast body of personal knowledge about magazine manufacturing into a practical template that other production managers can use to improve their own performance in the role. He roadmaps the process so thoroughly and with such practical finesse that it's hard to imagine any production manager not wanting to keep a copy close by both as a day-to-day problem-solver and as a long-term career guide.

Langford begins with the premise that printing an issue of a magazine is a business activity in which every task can be financially modeled, tested, and optimized to the benefit of the publisher's bottom line. He then applies financial yardsticks to everything that occurs from one end of the production cycle to the other, both in the publishing office and in the printing plant. He demonstrates how it all can be done with detailed calculations, astute rules of thumb, and working documents for drawing up job specifications, spelling out performance standards, nailing down RFPs (requests for proposal), and much more.

Working With A Magazine Printer is equally valuable as a guide to print manufacturing processes. Although he includes a brief section on rotogravure for very long print runs, Langford confines the technical discussion mostly to web offset lithography, the most efficient printing method for most magazines. The book is not a primer for beginners, but for those with basic exposure to the dollars and cents as well as the nuts and bolts of magazine printing, it will be indispensable. (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

Dahl, Fred. Book Production Procedures for Today's Technology
• Evaluates and redefines book production procedures in light of the rapidly changing technology of prepress and manufacturing.
• Explains the production manager's role--the procedures, the pitfalls, the practicalities--in shepherding a book manuscript through to printing and binding.
• Steps through the process using a simplified Book Production Model.
• Elaborates on each step in the process, chapter by chapter.

Heavily integrated with examples, illustrations, and sidebar notes, the text is directed to the needs of the book production professional--a step-by-step manual geared to today's publishing technology. Order directly from Inkwell Publishing Services. (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

Cost, Frank. Pocket Guide to Digital Printing.An excellent introduction to digital presses, computer-to-plate technologies, and digital production workflows. Order it directly from Delmar Publishers.

Adams, J. Michael, Faux, David D., and Rieber, Lloyd J. Printing Technology (Delmar Publishers). (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

Daly, Charles P., Henry, Patrick, and Ryder, Ellen. The Magazine Publishing Industry (Allyn & Bacon). See chapters 7, 8, and 9 for a detailed examination of the magazine manufacturing process. (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

Wilson, Daniel G. Lithography Primer (2nd ed.) (Graphic Arts Technical Foundation Press)

McIlroy, Thad, Southworth, Donna, and Southworth, Miles. The Color Resource Complete Color Glossary (The Color Resource/Graphic Arts Publishing Inc.)

Prepress and Color

Romano, Frank J. Pocket Guide to Digital Prepress (Delmar Publishers). VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: a must-read book for anyone who is serious about understanding today's digital production workflows.

Southworth, Donna, and Southworth, Miles. Pocket Guide to Color Reproduction: Communication and Control (Graphic Arts Publishing Inc.)

Southworth, Donna, and Southworth, Miles. Color Separation on the Desktop (Graphic Arts Publishing Inc.)

Ihrig, Emil, and Ihrig, Sybil. Preparing Digital Images for Print (Osborne McGraw-Hill) (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

Parsons, Bill. Electronic Prepress: A Hands-On Introduction (Delmar Publishers).

PERIODICALS

With the possible exceptions of Publish,Folio:,and Editor & Publisher at an unusually well stocked magazine stand, these periodicals are available only by subscription to qualified recipients. However, most of them have informative Web sites, and you may be able to obtain printed copies from friends in the business or from your employer.

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management
Cowles Business Media
P.O. Box 4949
Stamford, CT 06907
203-358-9900

Editor & Publisher
11 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 675-4380

Publish
International Data Group
Subscription Department, P.O. Box 5039
Brentwood, TN 37024-9816
(800) 656-7495

Digital Output
13000 Sawgrass Village Center, Suite 18
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
(904) 285-6020

High Volume Printing
Innes Publishing Co.
425 Huehl Road, Bldg. 11
P.O. Box 1387, Northbrook, IL 60065
(708) 564-5940

Graphic Arts Monthly
The Cahners Publishing Co.
245 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011
(212) 463-6834

American Printer
29 North Wacker Dr.
Chicago, IL 60606-3298
(312) 726-2802

Printing Impressions
North American Publishing Company
401 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19108
(215) 238-5300

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