Background to our service

Range of services offered

1. Proof-reading/editing of manuscript
   Your manuscript can be proof-read or edited by us on a hard-copy printout before you submit it for desktop-publishing. You will be advised about spelling, punctuation, language, consistency and conformity to house style. Quotes are provided on a per page basis on inspection of the material to be handled.
2. Scrutiny of page proofs produced by your desktop-publisher
   If your production is already in the desktop-publishing stage, we can check the page proofs and advise you whether correct typesetting conventions are being used. You will be alerted to any problems with the layouts, line breaks, special typographical symbols, appearance of type, etc. Commercial typesetters do not necessarily check these things for you. Quotes are provided on a per page basis on inspection of the material to be handled.
3. Full DTP and production service
   We also can typeset and see your entire manuscript into print. You will be given the opportunity to check the proofs at every stage of production. See DTP service below. Quotes are provided on a per page basis.
4. Training in desktop-publishing
   You will be encouraged to bring your manuscript/portions of it along to the training so that the training can be based on your own work. See Training topics available below.

DTP service

1. Preparation of document for DTP: proof-reading and formatting of manuscript to make it DTP-ready, applying house style and establishing consistency.
2. DTP: design, layout and typesetting.
3. Liaison with authors and editors: obtaining and implementing their input in the page proofs.
4. Seeing the work into print: obtaining imaging/repro and printing quotes, briefing the imaging/repro bureau and printer, checking litho-positives, matchprints and dyelines.

Training topics available

1. Background to the desktop-publishing phase of production
   
   
   Preparation of document
   • House style: conventions, technical editing and issues of consistency in texts and reference lists.
   • Formatting/cleaning of manuscript in preparation for typesetting, application of DTP conventions.
   
   Design phase
   • Design formats for: academic (scientific) books, manuals, reports, journals and conference proceedings, newsletters and information sheets.
   • Layout conventions: paragraph alignments, heading levels, positioning of graphics/figures and tables.
   
   Typesetting phase
   • Menus and features of the PageMaker program: how to set up a template, how to set up a style sheet, how to assemble and process the publication (see below for detailed outline of topics).
   • Digital scanning of graphics on flatbed and slide scanners: issues of resolution, scan-type settings, sizing, particular requirements of printed output.
   • Elementary principles of resizing and retouching graphics: formats (bitmap, grayscale, RGB or CMYK colour), removal of blemishes on images.
   • Page ordering in sections: binding type and signature page counts, implications of this for the spread of colour through the publication.
   • Preparation of material for imaging and repro: both for monochrome litho-positives and colour separations.
   
   
2. Hands-on PageMaker training
   
   One-to-one tuition/demo sessions and hands-on practice.
• Getting started: menus, tools, ruler measurements, zero point, snap-to options, pasteboard.
• Starting a document: page sizes, setting margins, adding more pages, setting up master pages, seeing master page items on document pages, page numbers, headers, footers, multiple columns, cross-columnar text alignment..
• Working with text: text tool, magnify tool, width of text blocks, adjusting text-block window shades, importing text from a word processor, controlling page flow when placing text, editing with story editor, positioning text blocks, connecting text blocks, rotating text.
• Formatting paragraphs: text alignment, setting alignment as a paragraph specification, indents and setting them (left, right, first-line, hanging), setting tabs, controlling widows and orphans, hyphenation and control thereof, adding lines or space above and below paragraphs, working with the control palette.
• Dressing up text: (from menu/type specifications box/control palette) accessing and choosing fonts, setting type size, setting type styles (e.g. bold, italic, small capitals, etc.), understanding space (leading, letter space, word space, kerning, tracking), changing these settings (by means of control palette especially), shifting type up and down.
• Managing files: saving faster vs. saving smaller, undoing errors, cloning documents, opening copies of documents, exporting text.
• Using styles: styles palette, defining new styles, adding type, paragraph and hyphenation characteristics; saving, editing, copying, importing and removing styles.
• Using drawing tools: drawing lines/boxes, modifying lines/boxes, changing line/box specifications, adding patterned fills to boxes, controlling lines and fills, rounding box corners, object layers, creating drop shadows, drawing ellipses, circles, polygons, grouping and ungrouping objects.
• Adding graphic images: importing, positioning, sizing, cropping, inline and linked graphics, adjusting image quality, controlling display of graphics, making items non-printing, saving in libraries, rotating.
• Adding colour: opening the colour palette, defining colour, spot vs. process colour, choosing Pantone/process colours, using the colour palette.
• Printing: choosing printer, creating printer styles, paper size, printed page orientation, reducing printed image, printing larger than paper, adding crop marks, creating PostScript files for imaging/repro bureau.
• Indexing: adding an index entry, generating index.
• Story editor: display mode, spell checking, find and change (words, type and paragraph attributes, special characters).
• Some plugins: balance columns, bullets and numbering, sort pages, create keyline, prepare for imaging/repro bureau.
• Creating books: combining chapters into a sequential structure using book command, rearranging order of documents in book list, adding and deleting documents in book list, updating book list, changing and updating page numbers automatically.
• Tables: conventions, differences between PageMaker and Word/Excel for preparing tables, table setup in practice.
• Special DTP characters and conventions: en-dash vs. hyphen, ellipsis dots, multiplication signs, line-break pitfalls.

During the training period, a DTP work station will be made available for a few hours a day for trainees to be able practise their skills in using the program.


3. Your role in progress of the manuscript at the imaging bureau and printer
   
   Litho-positives: the product: single pages, reader's spreads, ready-imposed forme-size litho-positives, monochrome, colour separations.
   • Checking of litho-positives and matchprints: what to look out for.
   
   Dyelines: page size, book sections and page arrangement for page imposition on formes.
   • Checking of dyelines: what to look out for.


4. Your liaison with the imaging bureau and printer
   
   • Obtaining quotes, briefing imaging/repro and printer's reps, follow-through of job until completed product released.

Contact details: