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Non-Technical
Author Guide #2 FOR PTR AUTHOR SUBMISSIONS INCLUDING CAMERA-READY COPY Illustrations |
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When a book is to be illustrated, the author and the publisher are presented with three important considerations: procurement, reproduction, and cost of artwork. The selling price of a book is, in large part, determined by its manufacturing cost. In determining which illustrations to use, a number of facts should be considered. Will a particular illustration contribute enough to the book to be worth the additional expense? If it will, it should be used, but it should be worth the proverbial thousand words. Acquiring a picture or drawing and photographing it for reproduction costs much more than drawing the art yourself with graphics software or having type set that will occupy the same space. Illustrations also add to the length of the book and consequently increase the cost of paper, printing, and binding. All this is not meant to discourage illustration, but only to encourage careful selection-a chart, a picture, a diagram may do the work of several pages of description and also add greatly to the sales appeal of your book. By all means, however, cut out illustrations that do not relate to the text. Your book will have a greater chance of success without them. At
the time you start work on your manuscript, discuss with us the question
of whether your book requires illustrations and, if so, how extensively
they should be used and how they will be provided. If you are considering
supplying the illustrations yourself, you must send in samples to the
production department before you get too far. In this way we can make
certain that your work does not go to waste. We need to make certain
that your files are both compatible with the page makeup program that
we will be using and that, from an artistic point of view, they meet
our standards. Gathering Illustrations Once it is determined that your book needs illustrations, the next questions are: where do you find them and how do you choose them? You, of course, are the best judge of what is suitable illustration material for your book-whether a photograph, a chart, a graph, or a drawing most clearly expresses what you wish to convey in an instance. Our advice is to start early and to explore your field and your sources thoroughly so that your ultimate choices are as well considered as the words of your manuscript. All too often, an illustration is chosen as an afterthought, conveniently picked from a ready source or sketched in an offhand manner. Again, we urge you to consult with us if you have any questions about what would be suitable illustrative material. Our Art Department is always glad to suggest sources of artwork and to help you judge the quality of the work done and the reasonableness of the fees charged for it. In fact, if you are going to purchase artwork, YOU MUST SUBMIT SAMPLES or other indications of what you propose to use before spending time and money in obtaining what may be unsatisfactory art. This is especially true if you are planning to draft the art yourself. There is no way we can overemphasize the need for you to submit samples before producing more than a handful of pieces of art. We need to discuss the software program you are planning on using, as well as the different ways of saving the files to make sure that they are usable. If you are planning on using art that is not new, possibly from a source other than yourself, you must secure written permission from the source to reproduce the illustration (see our section on permissions elsewhere in this Guide). Be certain to supply a credit or courtesy line, however, for all such illustrations, whether or not permission is required.
Color Illustrations in full color represent a very substantial expense, both for the preparation of a suitable drawing, or for the procurement of a photograph, and for the cost of four-color separations. In addition, for satisfactory reproduction such subjects must be printed on a special grade of paper that normally has to be inserted into the book by hand after printing. These added costs may make the pricing of a book difficult-even impossible. Therefore, before you decide that you would like full-color illustrations in your book, be sure to consult with your editor to determine whether use of color can be justified. If, for instance, it is absolutely necessary to show a spectrum in a physics text or an example of a famous artist's work in a book on watercolor painting, obviously we would have to use full color. But such needs are strictly limited. Preparing
Illustrations Line
Drawings Preparing
Electronic Art
Preparing
Art Disks If you integrate art with text in a page-makeup program, you will need to also supply us with the original art files separately, especially if the art was created with a different program. For example, if art is created with Adobe Illustrator and EPS files imported into Quark XPress or FrameMaker, we will need the Illustrator files as well as the Quark and Frame documents. When art is included with text in FrameMaker files, be sure that the art is in an anchored frame, anchored in the correct position in the text. Otherwise, even minor reformatting may cause the illustration to be separated from the appropriate text. FrameMaker will allow art frames to overlap text frames and vice versa. Be especially careful about the placement of frames to one side of text copy, since reformatting may cause overlaps or leave gaps. Avoid using file-compressing software, unless you can also provide us with the means to decompress your files. Unless you are providing us with "camera ready" files, keep the art on disks separate from those containing text files. Label each disk with the author's name, title of book, hardware and software (include version), all typefaces used (for example, you might use Helvetica for type and Symbol for Greek characters or math symbols), and the format files are saved in. Or include all the information but for the author, title, and hardware on a readme file on the disk. Include a printout of each piece of art with the following information written on it: author's name, title of book, figure number, hardware and software (with version number). Supply a font suitcase (copies of screen and printer fonts). Don't use TrueType. You MUST USE ADOBE PS fonts only. Halftones
The method of reproducing this type of art also makes it inevitable that some of the detail of the original will be lost. Therefore it is important that the original copy be the best you can find. Select clear, sharp, glossy photographs with good tonal contrast. Be sure that details are as distinct as the larger elements of the picture. Avoid dull or matte finish prints, which are harder to reproduce satisfactorily. Select your pictures with an eye to composition and dramatic emphasis on important details; a good picture tells a story and elicits a response from the reader. Study each picture carefully to determine whether cropping-eliminating unimportant parts at the top, bottom, or sides of a picture-would improve its effectiveness. Indicate lightly the areas to be cropped on a tissue overlay on the illustration; never mark the photograph or artwork itself or cut it to size. If any lettering, arrows, or numbers are to be added to the face of the photograph or if any special instructions should accompany it, indicate them on a tissue overlay. Never make any mark on the face of the photograph itself. Write the figure number in the margin of the picture, or if there is no room, very lightly on the back. Even the slightest dent marks from the back will show through onto the surface of the print and will appear in the reproduction, as will smudges, cracks, and scratches caused by careless handling. Do not mount photographs and never paste, clip, or otherwise insert them in the manuscript or use clips to fasten them together-the mark of a paper clip can ruin a photograph. Capturing
Screenshots using HiJaak
Figure
Numbers and Captions Some books require no figure numbers for the illustrations, but even then a temporary number should be assigned to each of them and keyed into the manuscript to enable the production editor to identify the illustrations and place them correctly if you are not already doing so yourself. If, as you are keyboarding the manuscript and if we are to make pages later, you know where the figures are to go, type, for instance, (((Fig. 3-4 here))) on the proper page on a separate line, centered from left to right. Otherwise, when the typing is completed, make a marginal note (circled) on the manuscript page to show where each illustration is to be placed. Generate a list of captions for each chapter and place the list at the end of each chapter file, identifying captions by figure number or temporary identification number and including any necessary credits. Be sure that spelling, symbols, capitalization, and so forth, are consistent with the style used in the text.
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