Digital Book Design and Publishing

For several years I have used Digital Book Design and Publishing to teach students how to combine their photography and writing to create artist's books that rival professionally printed publications. This book goes right to the heart of what you need to know: How to correct images for the highest quality reproduction of photographs, whether scanned or from digital sources; how to use typography, instead of letting typography use you; how to sensitively design a layout with picture and text, depending on the expressive message of the book - something dreadfully lacking in most "how to" books; how to bind books and create portfolios that challenge the traditional definition of what one might think a "book" is; and how to avoid breaking copyright laws. The book is richly illustrated with every kind of book you can imagine, which motivates students to think in non-traditional ways about artist's books. The information is also perfect for someone with more prosaic projects, such as a cookbook or first aid instructional booklet (both of these were projects done by students who didn't fancy themselves as "artists.") This book is especially good for people who are computer phobic. Holleley makes you feel like your computer is your best friend. When you buy this one book, it's like getting 5 books for the price of one. A great deal, a great inspiration - a must on everyone's bookshelf.

Let's set the record straight. What this book is NOT is a comprehensive guide to help you in setting up a book design & publishing shop, although it does provide an excellent primer on the topic for those of us not coming from the print industry. What this book is tailored for is the audience of photographers, artists, designers and writers who want to "go" one more step beyond just putting together the content elements for their works.The book is assembled around five building blocks: -Establishing a Layout Style: designing and typesetting the book.-Assembling the document digitally: goes into some detail about the most popular page layout program out there, QuarkXpress. Although it covers the most importants elements of version 4 (version 6 is out as of this writing), most of the "tips" provided will still be useful. If you need a 'bible' on the topic, you will need to pick up the "QuarkXpress Bible".-Preparing images for reproduction: the art of scanning and retouching images.-Printing the document: considerations about color space, printing from different applications (Quark, Acrobat), effect on different types of paper, printing to InkJet printers and so on.-Binding the book: depending on the binding resources at hand, this section might offer a lot more information than you will ever need to know about the topic.Finally, there is a short section devoted to the very debated topic of copyright and the law. In general, I found the book to be very useful and beautifully illustrated, but it still is a primer. For each of the sections mentioned above, in order to deeply understand and get a command of them, you will need other references. I give it 4.5 stars.

Holleley's new book Digital Book Design & Publishing is a masterful vision that brings together all the elements of the new digital technologies into a resource for photographers, artists, authors, historians, teachers and anyone who would like to see their information made into a single document.This book will appeal to a wide community of readers -- not just the desktop publisher or publications designer. Aside from its essential information of publishing in a digital age, it also celebrates the book as a medium which will always portray the very best of the minds of people. Whether your book becomes a mass produced best seller, or a hand-made, one-of-a-kind art treasure Holleley's Digital Book will help you make it happen. Educators:I also feel strongly this is an important book for educators. College and University level graphic design, printing, publishing and even journalism curricula planners should seriously consider integrating this book into their plan. As a university instructor myself, I can see this as an important part of any visual art and literary foundation program. It will arm those freshmen with a superior breadth of understanding in preparation for the higher level courses.Fred ShowkerEditor/Publisher: DT & G MagazineThe Design-Bookshelf dot com