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For art and design publishers, the challenge of ‘going electronic’ with their publications is greater than that faced by other fields of publishing, for a number of reasons: ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ Visually oriented publications are still more difficult to realize technically in the electronic medium, particularly when designing for a multitude of different reading devices and ebook platforms. Small publishers are under a great deal of pressure to keep project costs low, often due to smaller budgets. However, the need to publish in multiple forms (print and electronic) will inevitably increase costs, unless one does as much work as possible in a way that is not dependent on the medium. In order to make the investment in an electronic publication durable, electronic publications must be sustainable: they should not require constant investment in technical maintenance and version updates. INDUSTRY PROMISES VS. REALITY There is a stark contrast between the fanciful promises of the computer industry and the often harsh reality of the new digital medium. On one hand, publishers, editors, designers and artists tend to overestimate the interactivity and multimedia possibilities of electronic publishing. These extra possibilities do exist, but in most cases bring with them higher development costs and remain specific to one particular technical platform. On the other hand, publishers tend to underestimate how even technically simple and seemingly trivial types of electronic publications can in fact lead to a re-thinking of established publishing practices and formats. When traditional publishing formats are replaced by electronic or hybrid formats, there is a real possibility for transformation. Once the book becomes electronic or hybrid, the permanence, immutability and stability typical of physical books is likely to mutate into dynamic, modular, and participative forms. Such publications can greatly benefit from the networked environment in which ebooks exist. Various types of electronic publications may be subject to different kinds of change. Still, the change will always radical. An exhibition catalog for instance can be split up into interrelated micro-monographs which readers 8
can download and read as individual ebooks. An ebook can be assembled from a variety of sources selected by individual readers, as is currently the case with Wikipedia, where visitors to the website can compile their own collection of Wikipedia articles and export this compilation to an EPUB or PDF document using the Book Creator tool. The possibilities for change can go beyond the rethinking of existing publishing formats, eventually even redefining what a book actually is. WHAT THIS TOOLKIT PROVIDES ‘Going electronic’ – or going hybrid – requires changing the way you work during the publishing process, from delivered manuscript to final publication. The software tools currently in use, from word processors such as Microsoft Word to desktop publishing (DTP) suites such as Adobe InDesign, were created for the world of analog print and desktop publishing. Although it is entirely possible to create electronic publications from Microsoft Word documents (Converting a Docx directly to EPUB using Calibre) or InDesign documents, (Notes on EPUB Development in Adobe InDesign CS6) which are likely to be the standard format used in existing publishing workflows, in most cases this will be a painful, slow, inefficient and expensive process. This Toolkit focuses instead on do-it-yourself (DIY) technical alternatives. Firstly because the Toolkit is primarily aimed at publishers who, in most cases, cannot afford to outsource ebook design to external service providers; secondly because it is aimed at those who wish to keep the design process in their own hands. This Toolkit focuses particularly (but not exclusively) on EPUB3 as an electronic publication format, and on Markdown as a word processing format, because of the specific needs of small-edition publishers in the field of art and design: low costs, ease of use, sustainability, and platform independence. The recommendations stem from our practical experience in collaborating on electronic publication projects with four Dutch art, design and research publishers: BIS Publishers, Valiz, nai010 Publishers and the Institute of Network Cultures. 9
Page 1: FROM PRINT TO EBOOKS A HYBRID PUBLI
Page 4 and 5: COLOPHON AUTHORS DPT Collective, co
Page 6 and 7: 00 CONTENTS 01 INTRODUCTION Industr
Page 8 and 9: 01 INTRO- DUCTION ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞
Page 12 and 13: WHO IS THIS TOOLKIT WRITTEN FOR You
Page 14 and 15: Rotterdam University of Applied Sci
Page 16 and 17: 02 THE BASICS ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞
Page 18 and 19: emphasis’, (rather than ‘italic
Page 20 and 21: POSSIBILITIES OFFERED BY ELECTRONIC
Page 22 and 23: 03 GENRES OF PUBLICATION ∞∞ In
Page 24 and 25: simple and straightforward way. Als
Page 26 and 27: will determine from the start many
Page 28 and 29: (Embedding a Custom Set of Metadata
Page 30 and 31: The publisher may make use of a con
Page 32 and 33: 04 TECHNO- LOGIES FOR ELECTRONIC RE
Page 34 and 35: E-readers E-readers became widely k
Page 36 and 37: ECOLOGIES PLATFORM OPERATING SYSTEM
Page 38 and 39: Aldiko Aldiko is both a storefront
Page 40 and 41: stored online. 8 However it does no
Page 42 and 43: e-readers. Finally, Amazon renamed
Page 44 and 45: 05 DISTRI- BUTION PLATFORMS ∞∞
Page 46 and 47: tions, freemium models, consigment
Page 48 and 49: SCRIBD CHARACTERISTICS • Large co
Page 50 and 51: LULU CHARACTERISTICS • Lulu is th
Page 52 and 53: WORDPRESS CHARACTERISTICS • Exter
Page 54 and 55: Social reading platforms Social rea
Page 56 and 57: PIRATE PLATFORMS: THE PIRATE BAY, L
Page 58 and 59: The most well-known of these is Ubu
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06 GUIDE: HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE EPUB
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For a better understanding of the f
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Creating the required files and dir
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The ‘metadata’ section contains
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DO-IT-YOURSELF EPUB USING INDESIGN
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Styles One of the most powerful too
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Mapping styles to tags Though InDes
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a. Select the ‘EPUB and HTML’ o
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3. Choose Text Anchor from the ‘L
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Tables of contents Ebooks have two
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Metadata Metadata is information ab
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Checklist and export options Before
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DO-IT-YOURSELF EPUB USING PANDOC Pa
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8. Open the EPUB from the folder, o
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Enhancement utilities: Adobe Digita
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07 TOWARDS A HYBRID WORKFLOW BASED
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TRADITIONAL WORKFLOW text IMPORT .i
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finalize the publication. 1 The mos
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document. A graphic designer can qu
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Cleaning up Markdown Since Markdown
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1. Excellent software support. Ther
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Document conversion programs ∞∞
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08 GUIDE: HYBRID PUBLISHING FOR EAC
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When it comes to choosing a publica
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RESEARCH PUBLICATION .md .md .md im
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CATALOGUE PUBLICATION image image p
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∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞
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ARTISTS’ / DESIGNERS’ BOOK .mov
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∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞
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ART/DESIGN PERIODICAL WEBSITE HTML
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09 FUTUROLOGY ∞∞ ∞∞ ∞∞
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of a convergence between these two
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libraries could be the next on the
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10 SOFTWARE CATALOGUE ∞∞ A cata
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Make The GNU Make program helps to
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11 GLOSSARY 128
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AZW Presumably an acronym for ‘Am
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Database An organized, structured c
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Graphical User Interface (GUI) Soft
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L LaTeX A document markup language
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fields other than software developm
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scripting. A related concept is cli
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142 PARTICIPATING PARTNERS
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