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Digital Book Design and Publishing
by Douglas Holleley.
Clarellen and Cary Graphic Arts Press at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, U.S.A., 2001.
ISBN: 0-9707138-0-0.
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, 2022 X Avenue, Dysart, IA 52224-9767, U.S.A.
E-mail: ballast@netins.net
Dozens of books are currently advertised as handbooks for publication designers. In many cases, these are not only unhelpful, they are confusing, largely because they attempt to appeal to all people for all purposes. Full of enticing technical tricks, the overall result is not a primer but a hodgepodge. Refreshingly, this book is not one of those, but is instead a legitimate handbook that identifies, demonstrates, and explains with unusual clarity the quintessential aspects of typography, page layout, illustration, image scanning, paper selection, printing, book binding, and copyright. For artists and illustrators, there is an especially valuable part on "Alternative Methods of Acquiring Images." The author is an Australian-born photographer and book artist, many of whose "artist's books" are reproduced here as examples. While his chief interest is in printed "digital books," the title is somewhat misleading because his attitude and the information presented are applicable to a far wider range of printed forms. Any digital artist or graphic designer, at any level, could gain from this book, in part because it itself is exemplary of the worthy things it recommends. For more information, see http://wally.rit.edu/cary/CP_pages/CPnewRelease.html.
(Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 16, No. 4, Summer 2001.)
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