Tag Archives: iBooks Author

Okay, now I’m excited

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Knitting, Pattern, teaching classes, Thoughts, Writing

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When I’m inspired,
I get excited because
I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.
[Dolly Parton]

Yesterday, I laid out and printed copies of a pattern for a class I’m scheduled to teach next Saturday. I used Adobe Illustrator to produce the chart, Adobe Photoshop to process the photos, and Adobe InDesign to lay out the pattern. I could easily save and distribute the layout as a PDF file.

I have been itching to try a layout in iBooks Author (Apple’s new, free software). Since I already had an assortment of images and text in a folder, I simply opened one of the templates in the new software, and placed my own content. With a little tweaking, I was ready to preview it in iBooks on my iPad 2. The images above are screen shots of the pages as they looked in iBooks (they were larger of course and quite readable). If I’d had a video demonstrating how to work this knitting technique, I could have placed it in the book as well.

For a number of years, I have been producing PDF files that can be read paperless (read that, on any PC or Mac that has a free Adobe Reader). In the past couple of years, I have been converting print books to ePub files for use on such devices as Nooks and Kindles. I’ve been researching ways to produce apps that include visually rich content, audio and video. I’ve learned the most from taking courses on Lynda.com.

Although I’ve learned a lot of technical stuff over the years, I am still a graphic artist at heart and have avoided crossing over into application programming. This new software opens a new world to me and it can only get better.

eBook Production

20 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Thoughts

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Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.
[Mahatma Gandhi]

I’ve been following various news blurbs and discussions about the iBooks Author software release. The main dissenting voices have discussed the Apple license stipulation that the books produced in iBooks Author are only to be sold in the iBook store (or something to that effect). These discussions display varying degrees of alarm. Other that that, I’ve read little else against Apple’s new, free software. Here are a few of my thoughts:

1. I was delighted when I could trade my bottle of rubber cement for a waxing machine back when I pasted up art boards for print production. When I saw how clean a Linotronic printed out a ruled line, I never again used a ruling pen. So I’m certainly going to give iBooks Author a try. My publishing production output is too small to use Adobe© Digital Publishing Suite in order to get a book prepared for the iBook store in the form I imagined.

My one self-imposed rule has always been, only move to a new technology if it meets or improves upon the industry standards. If I can produce a nicely designed, bug-free, multimedia, interactive eBook to sell in the iBook store with iBooks Author without having to stand on my head and hold my mouth right, then I’ll do it. Then I’ll lay out the book in other ways to sell in other places which takes me to my next point…

2. Books used to be produced only in hard cover. Then they went into two versions, hard cover and paperback. Now books are often published in multiple versions—hard cover, paperback, PDF format, ePub, Kindle format, etc. I just assume I’ll be producing books in multiple formats. This often requires specialized layouts, and tweaking electronic files differently depending upon where the book will be sold. I bend one way to fix an eBook to sell on Amazon, and another way to sell on Barnes & Noble. For images, print requires a higher resolution than other publishing routes. I try to do whatever sells a good quality book.

3. InDesign will continue to be my layout application of choice I am sure (I used to say that about Quark XPress). However, I can already see how I can use the assets (photos, text, illustrations, etc.) that I use in an InDesign layout to assemble an iBook Author book.

The bottom line? I’ll keep my eye on my goal and stay flexible in considering solutions to production issues.

iBooks Author

20 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Favorite Things, Review, Thoughts, Writing

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Without the playing with fantasy
no creative work has ever yet come to birth.
The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.
[Carl Jung]

I’ve been waiting for this since 1961. Back then I had a summer job through an Indiana University research grant. In the study, one group of children sat in a traditional classroom to learn reading skills. The members of the other group received individual instruction using a mechanical device. The device used scrolled paper to lead the student through practice cycles. I was a machine facilitator. On the bus ride home after each session, I dreamed of a science-fiction device that would replace the clunky machine.

I was a nursing instructor in the early 70s when I took a course about developing self-instructional packages. I even wrote a package that focused upon learning how to compose and evaluate a plan in a variety of settings. Since it was non-linear, I realized I needed to have control over the book design process so I went back to school. I studied graphic design and have focused upon publication design ever since.

When I bought my first personal computer in 1982 (4k and no hard drive or software), I taught myself basic programming so I could compose small learning packages. I recall that my first program had something to do with multiplication tables. When it worked, I thought about the twenty years of baby steps I’d taken toward the kind of learning tool I dreamed about in 1961.

Having spent hours formatting eBooks in the past couple of years, and searching for ways to create interactive, enhanced books without having to learn programming, I told myself that we are getting close. Then I read the news on my iPad last night and saw an article about iBooks Author. I fell asleep and dreamed of the science-fiction device I used to think about riding the bus. In the middle of the night, I awoke and knew I’d not go back to sleep until I fired up my computer and installed iBooks Author.

When I opened this software, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. I am familiar with the interface because it is similar to other Apple applications so I only have to learn some details. Then I’ll kick start my imagination, and I am on my way to doing what I dreamed about 50 years ago.