Re: TAG Vol 13 no. 1

["Mary McCaw" <marymccaw@mediaone.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>
To: <aga-mcm@thekrib.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 9:18 AM
Subject: Re: TAG Vol 13 no. 1


> On Wed, 22 Mar 2000, Neil Frank wrote:
>
> > I had a chance to take a quick look at the latest issue at the NEC and I
> > was VERY IMPRESSED. Congratulations Mary!!
> > I haven't received it in the mail, so I did not yet read content, but
> > overall layout and 2 sided color insert on Amazon trip was VERY nice.
Color
> > and clarity was better than PAM!!
>
> Here here!  The only thing that I was going to comment on was the
> under-resolution cover photo.  Karen told me that universal did that, not
> us.
>
> This brings up something I wanted to ask at the NEC, but never got a
> chance to: Mary, I was wondering it we could move towards doing all the
> layout ourselves and just having the printers handle the printing?

Actually, we do do the layout ourselves.  Bob Day who lives in PA does it in
Page Maker, and then Universal does the type setting.


 It seems that every time Universal handles part of the layout, they botch
the
> job.  In one of last year's TAG's, I had to send them a graphic of my
> lighting chart.  Delays and resendings aside, I sent it in no less than
> three different formats, including encapsulated postscript, which should
> have theoretically scaled very cleanly and printed with nice crisp lines.
> Yet when I got the final issue in the mail, it was fuzzy and anti-aliased,
> as if they'd taken my bitmapped version and just rescaled it down.

The thing I have discovered about Universal is that to ensure things will be
the way I want them, I have to have them fax me any changes so I can approve
them.  If I didn't, they botched things.  The cover for the latest TAG is an
example.  I told them to use a cover photo we have on file and picked the
color.  I didn't ask them to e-mail me the cover proof.  I trusted them.  So
instead, they used the poor photo from the Batterman article.  I couldn't
believe it!  I also had to call them regularly so they would meet various
deadlines I set up with them.  If I didn't call, they wouldn't finish the
next step on time.  We are long overdue on a new publisher, and I think
getting a new publisher will solve many of our problems.
>
> One other advantage of doing all the layout would be that a PDF could be
> sent around via e-mail or posted on a private website so that corrections
> could be made before everything goes to the printers.  I have no idea how
> we do things right now, so I'm not sure of the feasibility of this.  But
> it would sure be nice.

After Bob does the layout, I do the proofreading.  I could use another pair
of eyes.  My philosophy is that at a certain point, getting it simply out
becomes the top priority.  I could use a proofreader or two which would work
out fine, but adding more people than this has the potential for slowing
down the process.  The other thing is, when you e-mail things, the recipient
doesn't receive them exactly the way the sender sent them.  The spacing,
especially, changes in the process.  That's why in the proofing process,
hard copy is the only way to go.

Mary
>   - >
> PS: Got our first entrant on the showcase!!!
>
> PPS: James is asking about those two TAG reprints again for the website.

Please explain to him that my computer has been in the shop and I will get
to it as soon as I can.  Between you and me, I appreciate his eagerness, but
doing TAG has been like a real job.  I'm a good writer, but I knew 0 about
publishing when I agreed to take it on.  So it has been very time consuming.
Next week, I'll be interviewing publishers, continuing to work on n2, and
will be flying out to IL for parent's weekend at my son's school and will be
gone from Thurs. - Sun.  Also, I am "interviewing" John Glaeser for an
article by e-mail. So James' request by necessity isn't at the top of my
list of priorities.

Mary

>
> --
> Erik Olson
> erik at thekrib dot com
>
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