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a textbook solution

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2012-01-23T13:39:52+00:00

Last week Apple announced iBooks Author, free software aimed at making textbooks for the iPad. Here are my first thoughts on Apple's announcement, which has created a fair amount of debate in the few days since it was made.

First, to set the scene, iBooks Author is a one-trick pony: it can't do anything else but create iBooks for iPad, but it seems to do that rather well (better than, for example, InDesign does at present). It isn't a generic eBook solution and isn't meant to be.

iBooks Author is aimed first at increasing Apple's market share and second at furthering the interests of authors. Having said that, it looks like it could be successful in both of these aims. We can't ignore it.

Any iBooks created using iBooks Author can be distributed freely. That has to be a plus. But some folk are not too keen on being locked in to Apple if they want to sell files created by iBooks Author, which they will be if they aim use it for commercial publishing. But there is an answer to that view (just don't use it!)… and another but in response, and so on...

Apple has chosen to recover its costs by iBook sales rather than charge for the software used to create them. A recipe for differing world views to surface. The business model isn't all that different, I suppose, from how iPhone apps are created (the Apple software to develop them is free to developers, but any apps constructed using it must be sold through the App Store). Software developers are used to working with several cost models, including this one; the general public isn't, and hence the debate.

As far as I can see, all that Apple wants is control over sale of files created by its software, not over the content of the files, which remains with their authors. Anyone can choose not to use iBooks Author (or create an ePub in parallel with something else, such as InDesign, for sale through another channel).

It is more sophisticated than I expected would be the case for a version 1 release (it even has MathType integration). It has been influenced by, at least, Keynote, Pages and iWeb. It will be interesting to see what versions 2 and 3 bring. It isn't InDesign, with all its bells and whistles and flexibility, but it isn't trying to be.

Anyone involved in digital production will definitely have to watch this carefully. Apple has just enabled millions of people to become digital publishers. For free (if their iBook is free). Or for 70% of sales income (if their iBook is for sale). Apple takes 30%. Publishers, take note.

There may be a great number of poor-quality iBooks, or attempts at such, by authors who don't understand the copy-editing, layout and proofreading processes. But I think there will also be publishers (Apple already has Pearson on board) who see the opportunity for this software to be used as a professional assembly platform for digital publications, and as an alternative to conventional typesetting. We are preparing to offer this service as well.

The price of digital textbooks will fall, with many more copies being sold than in the past. iBooks Author is just another part of the jigsaw.

Christmas and New Year plans

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-12-15T22:42:37+00:00

We want to wish everyone we do business with a very happy Christmas. That doesn't just mean our clients, but also all our authors, editors, artists, indexers, printers, distributors and anyone else and who has helped produce one of our publications over the past year.

We are closed for business on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 December, and again on Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 January 2012.

Only a few members of staff have chosen to work between Christmas and New Year. Normal service resumes on Wednesday 4 January 2012.

project management tips for Christmas shopping

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-12-12T16:41:48+00:00

It’s the most wonderful time of the year...

But it’s also the most stressful, especially when it comes to hitting the shops. So here are my top three tips for tackling Christmas shopping, which should also come in handy for project management within your business.

1. Be specific

Never accept a vague idea from a friend for buying a gift. ‘A jumper would be nice.’ So you buy her a blue jumper and it transpires she hates blue; had you bought it in red, however, she’d have been delighted. To avoid such scenarios, ask people to be as specific as they can when they are telling you what they would like for Christmas (or, even better, ask them to create an Amazon wish list!).

As I trudged through the slush in Edinburgh this weekend, it felt a million miles away from only 6 months ago when I had enjoyed A Midsummer’s Night Dream in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens on a long summer’s evening. Part of Shakespeare’s famous comedy really stuck with me: Oberon’s brief to Puck (to drop the juice of a magical flower into Demetrius’s eyes) was not specific enough, and there the problems began.

Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.
Did not you tell me I should know the man
By the Athenian garments he had on?
And so far blameless proves my enterprise
That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes;
And so far am I glad it so did sort,
As this their jangling I esteem a sport.

Puck

Project managers can learn a lot from Oberon and Puck: brief as specifically as you can. If you don’t, you will eventually end up running into problems with quality, cost and schedule, even if they don’t seem obvious at first.

2. Manage expectations

Probably the most difficult person to buy for at Christmas is the new boyfriend/girlfriend. How much do you spend on each other? What if you appear too keen/not keen enough? What if one of you buys the other an amazing gift, but it isn’t reciprocated by the other?

Have a brief, subtle chat with the other half to gauge what you will buy each other and how much you plan to spend. Communication is key. If you are clear in each other’s expectations early on (and this could be applied to the rest of the relationship) neither of you will be disappointed or embarrassed.

In our business, it’s the same with any new client. To forge a strong relationship early on, we need to ensure that we know exactly what is expected of each other. Communicate openly with your new client right from the start and you should be able to avoid difficult or awkward situations, and the risk of potentially losing the client will be significantly reduced.

3. Always have a back-up plan

Your mum has requested a particular gift. As it’s so straightforward, you leave buying it to the last minute. But when you reach the shop, said item is sold out – not just in this branch, but nationwide. The gift that your mum had her heart set on is impossible to purchase.

Good project management is about having foresight. It’s thinking early on what could possibly go wrong at every single stage, and having some sort of alternative in mind for when it’s needed. Because, according to the laws of project management, things never run smoothly and nothing is ever easy. Be prepared: you might get surprises along the way, but by having a bit of foresight those surprises won’t be as nasty as they would sometimes like to be.

Finally, a sincere thank you to everyone who has read this blog over the course of the year. We want to bring you useful tips and insights as well as entertain you, and we hope you have enjoyed it. Happy Christmas to you all, and may 2012 be everything you wish it to be.

mountaineering prawns

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-12-01T14:46:30+00:00

First things first, this blog posting isn't meant to be a substitute for professional proofreading. It is, however, meant to help proofreaders by summarising a few of the more common errors we seem to encounter when checking proofs.

Next, a confession: while most of the following blunders have been encountered in proofs that have been typeset elsewhere, usually abroad these days, we are not too proud to admit that we have made these types of mistake too. We constantly aim never to make the same mistake twice, of course, but sometimes these errors have sneaky ways of reappearing.

But that's why proofreading is a profession and why professional proofreaders exist. And don't believe any typesetter who tells you that they create perfect proofs.

wrong leading
It's not always easy to spot, but watch out for the wrong leading being applied to the final line of each paragraph. This oversight is usually caused by the end of paragraph marker having the wrong leading, and hence causing the final two lines to have incorrect interline spacing.

Once you see one, watch out for others.

misapplied corrections
Are you checking revised proofs? Do you sometimes wonder why some proof corrections appear not to have been made at all? Well, take care. When you discover corrections that appear to have been missed consider that the typesetter applied them in the wrong place. Does the word or phrase concerned also appear just before or after the place in the text you are checking? It may be that a correction has been made, but in the wrong position. Missing corrections = look at the surrounding text for other places where your typesetter could have made the correction through carelessness.

This is a common mistake for those new to layout work; experienced typesetters shouldn't make this type of error at all.

transposed figures
This one is more frequent than you may think. Typesetters may, for example, import all the figures for a spread at once, thinking that they will remember which is which, but then forget. This problem usually happens in highly illustrated texts, perhaps with several dozen or even several hundred figures. Typesetters can become too confident after placing the first 30 or 40 figures and can easily get figures 44 and 45 the wrong way around, with figure 45 being shown above the legend for figure 44 (and vice versa).

Another cause of transposed figures is that the production editor or project manager has named them wrongly: The file called Figure_52.6 should really be called Figure_52.7, and so on. In this case the typesetter can place the figures 'correctly', in order, but the resulting problem is the same.

Whatever the reason, in all cases the future legend will not match the figure it describes. This mistake will be easy to spot if the legend refers to a blue square and all you can see is a pink circle, but can be difficult to spot if you have a series of almost identical figures, with only incremental changes in each, e.g. maps with more detail being added gradually.

mirror images and wrong orientation
Not so common these days is the mirror image of a figure, but watch out nevertheless. These are always easy to spot when there is text in the image; they are not so easy to spot if the image shows, for example, a surgical operation being carried out, when certain organs should appear on the left- or right-hand side of the patient as appropriate.

Similarly look out for a figure rotated by 90º. Don't rely on authors to submit figures in the correct orientation. Now, while those might seem very easy to detect, we did once produce proofs of an aquaculture book with mountaineering prawns, bravely climbing a vertical rock face under water, rather than crawling across the ocean floor. But we did catch that before the proofs were sent to the author. Honest.

hard hyphens
Once almost eliminated in hard copy, these are beginning to crop up again in eBooks. Discretionary hyphens should appear only when required, when the word is split over two lines, and at the proper places to break the word concerned. Some typesetters, again usually the inexperienced, will insert a hard hyphen inside a word to get the break at the right place (e.g. to have ther-apist rather than the unpleasant the-rapist). While their intentions may be noble, a hard hyphen is a very bad thing. If the page reflows a hard hyphen will appear inside the word even when it is no longer at the end of a line. Experienced typesetters know this and avoid the problem by using discretionary hyphens.

This explains my reference to eBooks. Some books, originally produced in hard copy only, have now been repurposed for Kindle or iPad. When the pages reflow to accommodate the differing screen sizes and line lengths, the concept of firm pagination disappears, and words containing previously undetectable hard hyphens reflow. The hyphens that appear in mid-word look ugly and are a result of unnoticed problems in the past.

in conclusion
Detecting the problems is important, and to do that one must be eternally suspicious. More important is trying to put processes in place that ensure the problem doesn't recur. That can be easier said than done, but doesn't mean not trying. If you are a proofreader, then don't trust anyone, not the production editor, not the copy-editor and certainly not the typesetter. Good colleagues will welcome your feedback on generic problems: it is in their interest to get as much right as possible. Ego-less production = high-quality proofs.

job opportunity

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-10-24T22:17:43+01:00

We are looking for a production editor with a life sciences background. See here for more information.

what difference does it make?

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-10-10T09:11:31+01:00

Our clients, particularly if they are not publishers themselves and unfamiliar with the publishing process, are sometimes uncertain of what to ask us for when working with their text. It whittles down to two essential tasks: copy-editing and proofreading, always in that order. Here I try to explain the difference between them.

What is copy-editing?
Copy-editing is, essentially, tidying up, but not in any ordinary sense. Picture a messy teenager’s bedroom: it needs gutting, for want of a better word. Time and effort are needed to, firstly, figure out where to start, and then to do the actual tidying. The teenager isn't usually part of the process, nor is the author when it comes to copy-editing.

The scale of the intervention required means that it is time to bring in the professionals. When it comes to text, then, copy-editing involves knowledge, skill and commitment. It’s much more than checking spelling and grammar. A copy-editor makes text readable. Copy-editing also involves making decisions on and applying style and consistency. References and their citations need checked and, sometimes, fact checking may be involved.

A big part of copy-editing now is also preparing the text for the typesetter or web designer so that text can be flowed in more easily and proofs and web pages created more quickly. This largely involves paragraph or character styling, or tagging, during which the copy-editor identifies (think of it as labelling) every piece of text (e.g. headings, numbered lists or quotations).

Macros and wildcard changes, such as those mentioned recently, can be very useful clean-up tools for professional copy-editors, but they don't replace the need to read every word in every sentence, making improvements as required.

Note that a copy-editor does not substantially rewrite or restructure text – this is the realm of the development editor (who would work on the text before copy-editing).

What is proofreading?
Proofreading is fixing the fine detail and checking for any errors not picked up by the copy-editor – essentially part of quality assurance.

Let’s return to the messy bedroom, which has now been tidied by mum. She stands back and feels satisfied at the hours of work she has put in. Then dad comes along, and immediately spots a few things out of place – there’s a CD in the DVD pile, there’s now only one dirty sock left on the floor, and only just in view. Cue marital strife. Changes are required to make the room look perfect, but they should, by now, be minimal changes.

Proofreading is done on proofs following typesetting (proofs are usually very good these days, but never perfect). Proofreading is only truly effective if it is done with fresh eyes – by a proofreader who is ‘blind’ to the text, who hasn’t copy-edited or previously worked with the text in detail.

A proofreader checks for accuracy, completeness, consistency and for layout errors (e.g. figures 54 and 55 have been transposed, some text has mysteriously vanished).

No text should be rewritten at this stage. By this time, web pages have been designed or paginated proofs created, hence changes are more awkward (and therefore more expensive) to make, which is why it’s so important to sort out as much as possible during copy-editing, before any press or web layout is carried out.

Copy-editing is about making the text clear, consistent and correct; proofreading is ensuring that it is.

Do you need a copy-editor or a proofreader?
You’ve established that you need a professional to look over your work – but what service do you require? Ideally, both, but time and budget constraints often play a part (see my guest blog post on the value of having professional material proofread).

The SfEP has provided helpful, detailed descriptions on what is involved in copy-editing and proofreading and answers to other common FAQs. Or you may decide that this page is a suitable next port of call, in which case I look forward to working with you.

new design software

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-10-03T21:36:47+01:00

Our migration to Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 should be over by the end of October.

There's not all that much for typesetters, but there's enough that's new regarding ePubs and XML to justify the upgrade.

more wildcard tidying

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-09-15T19:28:57+01:00

The following change will remove a space before a question mark and a closing parenthesis in just one pass through the file you are editing. It is an extension of the idea described in our posting of 12 September (shown below).

Start at Word's Find and Replace dialog box. Tick the option titled Use Wildcards.

Find what: " ([\?\)])"

(You shouldn't, of course, enter the quote marks themselves, only what they contain. They are used to show that you must enter a space.)

Replace with: \1

If you like this, please let us know by adding a comment, either below or on our Facebook page. We can see from log files that our previous wildcard tips have been downloaded several hundred times, and it would be good to know more about what kind of tips you would like to see in the future.

tidying punctuation using wildcards

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-09-12T16:37:56+01:00

The following change will remove a space before a comma, full point, semicolon and colon in just one pass through the file you are editing.

Start at Word's Find and Replace dialog box. Tick the option titled Use Wildcards.

Find what: " ([.,;:])"

(You shouldn't, of course, enter the quote marks themselves, only what they contain. They are used to show that you must enter a space.)

Replace with: \1

The above idea is capable of considerable development, for example to remove a space before a closing parenthesis or question mark. You could also create a wildcard change to remove spaces after certain symbols, such as £ and $.

There's more: you can make a Word macro to perform the above wildcard changes, and all those we have posted previously. Doing so means that you won't have to type in fiddly expressions all the time.

wildcard summary

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-09-08T11:02:38+01:00

Here is a summary of the wildcard changes we published recently, either here on our Facebook page. Thank you everyone who replied saying how useful they are, whether on Facebook, Twitter, posting below or by email.

In all cases start at Word's Find and Replace dialog box. Tick the option titled Use Wildcards.

removing multiple paragraph marks

Find what: ^13{2,}

Replace with: ^p

removing multiple tabs

Find what: ^t{2,}

Replace with: ^t

removing multiple spaces

Find what, enter " {2,}"

Replace with, enter " "

(You shouldn't, of course, enter the quote marks themselves, only what they contain. In both cases they are used to show that a space is required.)

hyphens between digits to en rules

Find what, enter this: ([0-9])(-)([0-9])

Replace with, enter this: \1^=\3

multiple spaces wildcard tip

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-09-05T13:27:40+01:00

Last week's wildcard tip proved popular, so here is another. This one will reduce any number of multiple spaces, e.g. two spaces after a full point or embedded in a sentence, to a single space. Try it first on a test document that you know contains multiple adjacent spaces in more than one place.

Start at Word's Find and Replace dialog box. Tick the option titled Use Wildcards.

– In Find what, enter " {2,}"

– In Replace with, enter " "

You shouldn't, of course, enter the quote marks themselves, only what they contain. In both cases they are used to show that a space is required.

– Now select Replace All.

The above tip will make documents you are editing much tidier.

browser compatibility

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-09-01T15:05:24+01:00

This month we are upgrading our site to be compliant with HTML5. For this reason, and others, we cannot continue to support as many versions of each web browser as in the past.

You should not, in general, experience problems with any modern, standards-compliant web browser. However, if you do run into any, please note that this site has been tested with and should render properly on the latest versions of the most popular browsers (source: w3schools browser statistics):

Firefox
Internet Explorer
Chrome
Safari
Opera
Camino

If you use some, but not all, older versions of the above browsers then you may experience viewing problems, in which case we apologise for any inconvenience.

We believe that building a modern web site, which will comply with emerging technologies and offer new features, serves our clients better in the long term than continuing to support browsers that are already obsolete or are likely become so during 2012.

we are recruiting

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-08-22T14:18:07+01:00

We are looking for a production assistant. This is an entry-level post for a science graduate.

See our current vacancies page for more information about this particular job and how to apply. And see this page for general information about working for Prepress Projects.

about Mac OS X Lion

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-08-17T13:45:08+01:00

We have started our migration to Mac OS X 10.7, also known as Lion.

Our first impressions are favourable. There's a lot to like, but no new features that we consider essential. On this occasion we are in no hurry to upgrade.

Apple has now released the 10.7.1 update and we may a little longer to be certain that we don't need to wait until 10.7.2. In any event, we should have about six staff on Lion by October.

about Techtool Pro

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-07-12T13:44:39+01:00

We have decided to invest in Techtool Pro 6 for all workstations to help with on-going maintenance and fault diagnosis. We've been experimenting with Techtool for some time and have only good news to report.

Among other things, we discovered minor directory problems on two workstations, which Techtool fixed admirably, and more quickly than our previous method. And Techtool's volume and file optimisation features have been put to good use too.

guest blogging

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-06-28T12:39:52+01:00

You might want to check out Kate Rosengarten's blog, and not just because she recently asked me to provide a guest blog entry.

Kate offers a comprehensive range of professional services and her blog makes good reading too.

sympathy for the bookseller

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-06-13T21:23:32+01:00

I am still mourning the loss of Borders Books in Glasgow, a year and a half after it closed. It was considered the ‘meeting place’ for many Glaswegians. (And I’m sure ‘Glasgow’ could be replaced with any city of your choice.) I’d always turn up early before meeting a friend so I could spend some time browsing the books and hearing new music downstairs at the listening posts. In fact, my friends would often have the same idea and we’d literally stumble upon each other inside rather than outside the store.

Borders actively encouraged browsing. It was possible to spend whole afternoons there. Some days, my friend and I would head straight for the self-help section, purely for indulgent fun. But it felt nicer than a library: there was an unstuffy atmosphere in which you could really relax and enjoy yourself. Borders had a passion for all types of media – books, magazines, CDs – and that passion could be felt throughout the store. Staff didn’t glare at you for leafing through books and magazines. (The magazine selection, including foreign ones, was one of the best things about the store.) It was one of the few places in the city centre that brought together people of all ages and all interests. It was also somewhere to go in the evening because of its opening late (the sort of café culture that we’ve never quite managed to grasp in Scottish city centres).

Amazon came on the scene in the UK around 13 years ago, completely changing book-buying habits (along with supermarkets and television book clubs). Bookshops have survived since, but only just – we now have only one (struggling) bookselling chain on the high street.

I’ll admit that, as a consumer, if I want a particular book I’ll buy it from Amazon because there I will find it at the lowest price. I don’t even need to shop around: I know I won’t find the same quality product cheaper anywhere else. But there’s something about browsing in a bookshop that will never be matched by sitting at a computer and instantly ordering a product. Browsing leads to spur-of-the-moment purchases, and to inspiration. But do these impulse buys lead to enough sales? Am I a hypocrite for desperately missing Borders when I click ‘buy’ on Amazon at least twice a month?

For years now, booksellers have not had it easy. And now the challenge they face is the e-book. Amazon and Waterstones reported recently that downloads are eclipsing printed book (hardback) sales. Are we losing the book as a physical product? Whether this is a good thing seems to be largely down to personal opinion, but what is very clear is that technology is changing how we consume culture: first, it was music, now it is books.

By no means do e-books feel like the final product, the way things will always be: technology is constantly evolving cultural products. It’s exciting to be part of that, but it’s nerve-racking too because we can’t predict the direction in which it is all heading. In our area of work (production) e-books are opening up many new opportunities, but in the world of bookselling there seems to be a sense of printed books versus e-books, and the opportunities for adaptation are not as obvious.

But a new era for Waterstone’s has begun. It has a new owner, and a new managing director, James Daunt. The Guardian recently published an interview with Daunt, but it didn’t actually hint towards how he would tackle the rescue of Waterstone’s. Whatever he does, it looks like embracing e-books is going to have to be part of his plan. We wish him luck.

London calling

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-05-30T15:29:23+01:00

Last week I embarked on a marketing trip to London, resting in Soho cafés when I could find the time. (One celebrity spotted: Jessica Hynes, née Stevenson.)

London has a rather different publishing scene from the quiet banks of the Tay here in Perth: only six hours away is what seems to be the centre of the world.

I felt a real sense of things happening in London first, then gradually infiltrating their way across the country. For example, I noticed how quickly technology is changing the daily commute; that digital media are very much to the fore in London. Londoners are no longer (rudely?) reading the newspaper that belongs to the stranger beside them on the Tube: they’re blatantly reading others’ iPads instead. Advertising in Tube stations is on huge electronic billboards, like a scene from a science fiction film. (To my amusement, I heard many Londoners curse when they had just missed a Tube train… even though, when I checked to see when the next train was coming, it was due in only two minutes. That’s two minutes of inconvenience to a Londoner.)

Location can impact on a business’s success, but of course it is dependent on the type of business. For the type of work we do, mostly facilitated by email and the internet, it doesn’t really matter where we are based. We have clients all over the UK, and further afield in Europe; in fact, we have only one client based in Perth itself.

Being in Perth doesn’t stop us from visiting clients: we are less than an hour from Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, from where we can easily catch flights and trains. Meeting clients face to face, and cementing business relationships, is certainly one of the highlights of the job for me.

The publishing scene that I encountered in London was one of huge corporate offices and high security. But most of all, it was a publishing scene of opportunity. I returned to Perth inspired, my head brimming with thoughts and ideas – but how could I turn that into new business? As much as I hate to admit it, it seems I am becoming a marketer.

sustainability at work

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-05-11T18:47:02+01:00

As it's Green Office Week, our sustainability committee, pictured below, has taken over this blog to tell the world how (and why) Prepress Projects is going green…

We’ve always considered ourselves to be a green company, but that really only meant that we recycled paper and cardboard and didn’t use disposable cups.

These days more and more of our clients are asking for formal proof of our environmental credentials, so we decided to form a sustainability committee to lead the company towards EMAS accreditation. As we have masochistic tendencies we decided that we were capable of gaining accreditation without the need for outside help; this meant a steep learning curve where we did a lot of floundering and reading. However, all this research into environmental management systems gave us a bit of a wake-up call: there was so much more that we as a company could be doing with very little effort.

Easy changes included enabling double-sided printing, changing the computer sleep settings, using rechargeable batteries and removing the water cooler. We found our staff to be receptive to these changes, further cementing our belief that most people would like to do something for the environment, but are prevented from doing so by general unawareness or impassiveness.

The sustainability committee meets regularly so it makes it quite easy for us to work towards EMAS accreditation as well as coming up with new and interesting environmental initiatives.

In March, the company took part in Climate Week, and in conjunction with the Forestry Commission submitted two teams for the Climate Week Challenge. Unfortunately, our innovative ideas on the future of car sharing failed to win but everyone enjoyed themselves, and we will be back next year. The Challenge was also a great opportunity for us to meet the Forestry Commission people (we’ve only been sharing a building with them for more than 5 years) and they have invited us to plant some trees with them later this year to offset our carbon footprint.

Our most popular innovation has to be our food co-operative. Each week a local farm, Gloagburn, makes a delivery run to the office. Gloagburn’s farm shop is very well stocked and supplies many groceries such as eggs, potatoes, oatcakes and millionaire’s shortbread. The eggs are particularly popular, probably because they are free range and high quality but less expensive than the supermarket equivalent.

It’s fair to say that at first our motives were probably more selfish than altruistic, but now we’re converts and are trying to make everyone see that being green can be fun and doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming.

who chose publishing?

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-04-27T12:59:20+01:00

Last week I attended a very useful training seminar on employment law held by Creideasach Employment Law Specialists in Alloa. Lucy, our Publishing Manager, has been working hard to ensure that all our policies are informed and up to date, but as she was on holiday I attended in her place.

Realising that employment law can be described as nothing other than a minefield, it made me very glad not to be a lawyer. And, having almost completed a Professional Certificate in Management with the Open University, with a module on finance, I am even more relieved not to be an accountant.

Neither career ever took my fancy. If I wanted to be something, it was probably either a weather girl or a journalist. It was only towards the end of university life, graduating with a degree in history, when I realised publishing could be a possible career: and that wasn’t what I had planned when I entered university to study biochemistry.

Publishing is a tough industry to break into and, unless you are Stephenie Meyer’s commissioning editor, chances are you’re not making that much money. So why do so many people want to work in publishing?

It has a bit of a reputation as a glamorous, exciting industry, thanks to tales from Canongate parties and books like Marian Keyes’ The Other Side of the Story. I can vouch that, even though I work in publishing, my life is definitely not that fancy. Today’s dilemma is whether I should brave going to the sinister-looking local pub for a drink at lunchtime or just stay safe in the office as usual.

So I began to wonder: how many people in publishing always wanted to work in the industry, and how many feel that it was never deliberate or planned out, that publishing simply found them?

I asked around the office. Out of 18 people here, there are at the most five of us who specifically wanted to work in publishing. The majority never aimed to be editors or typesetters. Some of the preferred career choices include egyptologist, fighter pilot and West End actress. Some of the abandoned career choices include navy officer and banker.

It’s funny how things work out. I can’t sum it up better than John Lennon: ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.’

inspirational science

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-04-07T17:54:00+01:00

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of attending Uncaged Monkeys in Glasgow, a night of science entertainment featuring, among others, physicist du jour Professor Brian Cox, libel victor Simon Singh and Dr Ben Goldacre, whose book Bad Science has been flitting between staff in our office for a couple of years now. Compering was Robin Ince, a comedian who is unashamedly interested in and enthused by science even if he doesn’t necessarily understand it.

That evening science was exciting, inspiring and witty. The star of the night was undoubtedly Professor Cox, a brilliant ambassador for science because his infectious enthusiasm can kindle even the dullest topic.

Robin Ince and Brian Cox explained how they were inspired by Carl Sagan, the American scientist best known for his television series Cosmos in 1980. In turn, their enthusiasm visibly inspired individuals in the audience. It seemed like we were involved in a string of inspiration, which is a nice allegory for science itself: a chain of knowledge passed down through generations and built upon by future scientists.

Science communication is becoming big business. It’s now a discipline in itself, with dedicated journals. Science is no longer inaccessible and confined to professors in ivory towers, and, thanks to nights like Uncaged Monkeys, it’s even hilarious.

At Prepress Projects we don’t play as big a role in science communication as Professor Cox, but we still take pride in what we do for the public understanding of science. We ensure that the science in the papers and books we edit and proofread is communicated as well as possible. Great scientists could have amazing experimental results, but without being written clearly and concisely those ideas will struggle to reach the wider scientific community and earn the praise they deserve.

At Uncaged Monkeys it quickly became obvious what makes an inspirational communicator: knowledge, passion and enthusiasm. We hope that when we edit scientific material we also exhibit these attributes and contribute in our own small way to communicating the author’s message.

nit picking or quality control?

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-03-23T18:14:28+00:00

Traffic wardens are often considered as having one of the most unpopular occupations in society. So where do editors rank in popularity?

Say a friend announces on Facebook that he has just seen you’re photos from last night: do you bite your tongue or do you feel compelled to politely correct him?

Generally, I forgive most mistakes. However, it is hard to look so lightly on professionally published material with errors. I cringe to read less people in a government press release. Recently, too, Prepress Projects asked the BBC why it has simply stopped using the degree sign, as in 22°C, when reporting temperatures on its news websites (e.g. 22C). We never did receive a response.

Unfortunately, editors have occupations that infiltrate into their daily lives. I find I am biting my tongue an awful lot more these days so I don’t end up being the annoying friend. But, as editors, are we not advocates for the quality of the English language? Is it not part of our role to maintain this quality, even if that means bringing our work home with us?

An implication of the self-publishing phenomenon, in which authors bypass publishers and so there is less quality control, could be a fall in standards of written English. This is just one example of how technological innovation is quickly changing the world – but I will argue that there is still a place for us editors, and there will be for quite a while yet. Even if that means occasionally annoying our friends.

is being online business critical?

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-03-11T16:43:20+00:00

Yesterday we found ourselves with the office broadband connection 'down'. Following some investigation by our Publishing Technologist, it was found to be an equipment-related failure on the part of our internet service provider. By the time the engineer had sorted us out with new equipment, we had been offline for just over four hours.

Was this a minor hindrance or a major disaster? Did our work patterns change dramatically in those four hours? Did we sit and twiddle our thumbs?
At Prepress Projects we have the advantage of being able to work 'offline', mostly copy-editing and proofreading, two of our principal specialisms. But what about those menacing queries? It's become a natural reaction among many of us to simply 'Google' a query. 'Use a dictionary!', we hear you say – and true enough, many of us found ourselves dipping into the office's extensive collection of English-language reference material. But if, for example, you are trying to expand an unfamiliar organisation's acronym, this can be resolved within a minute going online... but it's a little harder to figure out without Google's help.

As an aside, this raises yet another question... have we become too reliant on online resources such as Google and Wikipedia?

So, at first glance, being offline wasn't too much of a problem for us. In fact, some of us even relished the opportunity to get on with some 'hands-on' work without the interruption of emails and the distractions of Twitter.

But the truth is that the internet is critical to our business. For every 500 or so emails we receive each day, we receive perhaps 10 phone calls at the most. Ten years ago, there were many more phone calls. But 20 years ago? Over the past 15 years, the internet has moved from being a dial-up luxury to a tool critical to running a successful business. (What technology will be next to move from 'luxury' to 'critical'? How will we know?)

So much of our business is no longer dependent on location. The internet and email means that it wouldn't matter if we were based in Perth, Australia, rather than Perth, Scotland (of course, we'd prefer the weather in the former). That's how we've found ourselves working for clients all over the UK and Europe. Every day we deal with authors, editors and suppliers in countries as far afield as Jamaica and Japan. And being online is crucial not just for keeping in touch with contacts: many journal management systems that we use all day, every day, are internet based. The internet is critical for our marketing, too.

Over four hours, perhaps the connection failure wasn't too critical. But if our time offline were stretched and stretched, it could have been disastrous. Is it too much to say that every hour offline was an opportunity lost?

If you were forced offline for a week, how would you, or your business, survive?

about technology

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-03-01T13:36:19+00:00

The next version of the Mac operating system, Lion, will be released this summer. Needless to say, we plan to upgrade shortly afterwards.
.

our 20th anniversary

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-01-31T09:37:20+00:00

Thank you to all clients, suppliers, former employees and business acquaintances who got in touch to congratulate us on our 20th anniversary.

We have been reading your kind letters and emails and watching the video clips that you sent all weekend.

There are embarrassingly too many of you to get back to personally quickly, but we will try to do so in the weeks ahead. Thank you again: it certainly doesn't feel like we've been doing this for 20 years!

investor in people award

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-01-19T19:32:48+00:00

We have been recently been reawarded Investor in People status as from 1 January 2011.

This is the second time that we have been reassessed and passed a review by an independent assessor.

Naturally we're all very pleased about this. We would not have gained this without active participation from all members of staff.

Particular thanks are due to our Publishing Manager, Lucy Harrier, who co-ordinated all internal activities and external arrangements with the Investors in People organisation in Scotland.

merry Christmas everyone

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-12-21T14:48:47+00:00

We want to wish everyone we do business with a very happy Christmas.

That doesn't just mean our clients, but also all our authors, editors, artists, indexers, printers and anyone else and who has helped produce one of publications over the past year.

We are closed for business on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December, and again on Monday 3 and Tuesday 4 January 2011.

Only a few members of staff have chosen to work between Christmas and New Year. Normal service resumes on Wednesday 5 January 2011.

closed on 17 December

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-12-13T19:00:00+00:00

We will be closed from 1 pm this Friday, 17 December, for our Christmas Lunch.

weather update

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-12-07T16:49:36+00:00

Our situation has improved and most people are working more or less normally this week. A few members of staff are working at home or making up time using our flexible working arrangements.

At present, we consider the impact on clients to be relatively minor, and certainly not as bad as we expected might be the case a week ago. If your project has been affected then we ask for your understanding while we catch up.

The bad weather continues and it remains cold and icy here in Perth (this morning it was −17ºC). We expect an improvement towards the end of the week.

more severe weather

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-12-01T15:55:20+00:00

The bad weather continues. Several staff are snowed in or unable to travel to work because roads or bridges are closed to traffic.

Where possible, those affected are working from home. Inevitably, however, some projects will be delayed until things improve.

If you are one of our clients, editors or authors then your understanding during this difficult period will be appreciated.

making hay

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-12-01T10:54:21+00:00

Make hay while the sun shines... or the snow falls.

We have been able to forge ahead with our software upgrade programme more quickly than expected because so many people have been absent from the office. We now have 12 people on Office 2011 and 15 on Acrobat X Pro. Everyone else will follow after Christmas.

In addition, every Mac workstation has a complete makeover. Every update to Creative Suite 5 has been applied. Our electronic calendar software has been upgraded. New maintenance and utility software has been installed. And our IT boffin even smiled once this morning.

weather update

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-11-28T20:05:56+00:00

We are currently experiencing severe weather conditions here in Perth.

It is possible that some staff may be unable to get to work during the next few days, as several are based some distance outside the city. If you are one of our clients then we ask you please to accommodate any delays that arise from bad weather.

Safety first.

software plans

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-11-16T13:42:19+00:00

We should have 12 people upgraded to Office 2011 by the end of November. Everyone else will be upgraded from January 2011 onwards.

We also expect to have most, if not all, staff on Acrobat X Pro by Christmas.

This continues our long-standing policy of investing in the latest or most functional software so that our staff can provide the best service possible to clients.

SfEP visit

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-10-28T12:41:24+01:00

We're expecting some visitors from various local groups in Scotland later this afternoon. It's always nice to meet colleagues who work in publishing.

Let's hope that no one asks a question that we can't answer.

London trip

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-10-08T17:31:41+01:00

Three members of our management team will be in London in mid-November to visit one of our larger clients.

If you would like one of them to call in and discuss a potential project then please get in touch and we will try to arrange a mutually convenient time.

weekly competition

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-09-27T18:12:07+01:00

The theme of our final competition is untranslatable Scoticisms. Get your entry in before noon on Friday!

Find out what's happening by following us on Twitter (@prepressperth).

typesetting recommendation

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-09-20T17:42:09+01:00

We want to recommend Tritomson, a small but very capable company based in Manila that produces consistently high-quality work using Adobe Creative Suite.

They understand both print and digital publishing. They are easy to deal with.

If you are looking for a first-class typesetting supplier based in the Philippines then look no further.

our next competition

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-09-17T16:42:30+01:00

... begins on Monday 20 September.

Find out more, including who won previous competitions, by following us on Twitter (@prepressperth).

watch out...

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-09-10T17:43:47+01:00

... there's a comp about.

Our next competition will begin on Monday 13 September. Find out more by following us on Twitter (@prepressperth).

The theme of the competition is spelling and grammar mnemonics. Get your entry in before noon on Friday!

twitter competition

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-09-01T08:58:43+01:00

If you follow us on Twitter (@prepressperth) you will notice that we are running a weekly competition throughout September to celebrate the launch of our promotional mousemat.

A new competition theme will be announced each week. Each competition (apart from the first one) will open on Monday at noon and close on Friday at noon (BST). The winner will be announced by 4 pm each Friday.

The first theme is great public misspellings and it closes at noon on Friday 10 September.

To enter you have to tweet your response to our theme. Your tweets must be tagged with #prepresscomp for them to be entered into the competition. Anyone (except our employees) can enter but you have to do it via Twitter.

The tweeter of the best tweet (as judged by our management team) will receive £20 worth of Amazon vouchers, which we will send via email to the winner.

Get started here. Remember the tag! #prepresscomp

XML conversion

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-08-20T16:56:54+01:00

When you receive service from a supplier above and beyond what might be reasonably expected it is only right to give credit.

We would like to recommend Graham Every, a developer specialising in XML conversions that have to meet the needs of specific DTDs, to any organisation that has to to implement complex conversion from InDesign to XML. If you work with him then you will not be disappointed.

our management team

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-09-24T11:50:56+01:00

We're republishing this news item as so many clients have commented on it (and it's not that everyone has said how good-looking we all are, only that it allows them to put a face to name).

___________

We replaced our Twitter photo today with a picture of our management team. Well, all, that is, but one team member, David, chief boffin and Technical Director, who took the photograph.

Who's who?

Well, that's Andrew Davidson at the back. Andrew heads up our humanities team and has been with the company just under 6 years. He is one of the company's most experienced project managers.

At the front, left to right, we have Catriona Vernal, Lucy Harrier, and Helen MacDonald.

Cat heads up our science production team and has been with the company just over 3 years. Among her other responsibilities, she is the editor of a technology transfer journal we produce for the Welsh Assembly Government.

Lucy is Publishing Manager and as such is the senior manager in the business. She is responsible for producing HTA Journal, which at over 12,000 pages annually requires its own dedicated team. She also manages our editorial office business and is responsible for human resources across the whole business.

Helen is our Managing Director. She started the company almost 20 years ago as a freelance editor. There are now 19 people in the Prepress Projects including copy-editors, production editors, designer/typesetters and editorial office specialists.

our first iPad

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-07-30T16:54:01+01:00

We've just bought our first iPad. Very impressed. We're fighting over it.

Great for impromptu presentations to clients and others.

good work Rhonda!

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-07-20T16:21:17+01:00

The murderer of our managing director, Hermione McDougall, was revealed as our very own social media consultant, Cate Springer.

Cate's dastardly deed was uncovered by Rhonda Baker, a proofreader in our legal department.

murder and mystery

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-07-09T17:35:17+01:00

Our annual company outing is on Sunday 18 July. This year's outing will take the form of a murder mystery.

Over 20 staff and guests will be out and about in Perth and area looking for clues and solving them. If you see anyone with a deerstalker and magnifying glass then you'll know who they work for.

The denouement will take place towards the end of the afternoon and be followed by food and refreshments.

new Macs ordered

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-07-08T16:40:57+01:00

We have ordered our first Quad-Core 27-inch iMacs.

These are for our design and typesetting team. Amazing processors. Loads of main memory. Some of us can hardly wait.

fix for InDesign CS5 running slowly

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-07-07T09:13:49+01:00

Finding InDesign CS5 slow when using features such as Span Columns and Balance Columns?

Go to InDesign | Preferences | Interface and under Options set Live Drawing to Delayed or Never.

Delayed is the same as CS4. Never will probably make things a bit faster. But Immediate might make ID run slowly on Macs older than a year or two. It is set on by default. This fix should bring about radical performance improvement.

From the help manual:

Live Screen Drawing Select an option to determine whether the image redraws as you drag an object. If Immediate is selected, the image redraws while you drag. If Never is selected, dragging an image moves only the frame, and then image is moved when you release the mouse button. If Delayed is selected, the image redraws only if you pause before dragging. Delayed offers the same behavior as in InDesign CS4.

promotion news

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-07-06T19:58:09+01:00

Good news on the promotion front: one of our production editors, Petra Abbam, will become a senior production editor on 1 August.

Petra has been with us for 2 years and is a graduate in Computer Science and French.

wildcard tip for MS Word

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2011-08-31T09:09:22+01:00

We often provide regular clients with editing tips and tricks, and some clients have even incorporated these and other suggestions into their internal work processes.

As an example, try the following wildcard find and replace in Microsoft Word. It will find every hyphen between digits (e.g. as used in page ranges in reference lists) and replace them with proper en dashes.

Open a test document that you know contains hyphens between digits.

From Word's Edit menu select Replace. Tick the option titled Use Wildcards.

– In Find what, enter this: ([0-9])(-)([0-9])

– In Replace with, enter this: \1^=\3

– Now select Replace All.

Used appropriately, the above find and replace can save a great deal of time during editing.

We know a great number of such tips for Microsoft Word, many of which are part of a suite of custom-written macros and toolbars that we use for cleaning up authors' files or for on-screen editing.

If the above tip captures your interest, and you have a suitable project that would benefit from this kind of intervention, then please contact us.

match up

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-06-25T18:04:44+01:00

This is fun. Click a word in the left column then click its synonym in the right column. When you are finished, click Get Answers to see how well you did. Good luck!

Match Up is kindly provided by the nice people at The Free Dictionary

creative suite 5

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-06-22T15:10:16+01:00

Our upgrade to Adobe Creative Suite 5 is more or less complete.

The first projects we are producing with CS5 are already in proof. New features such as Span columns and Keep with previous are being put to good use.

happy day out

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-05-21T12:59:35+01:00

One of our team leaders, Catriona Vernal, took her team on an away-day yesterday, to visit Luath Press in Edinburgh and ScotPrint and Hunter & Foulis in Haddington. We extend our thanks to everyone involved at these organisations.

They brought back the following happy memory.

promotion news

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-04-20T20:19:28+01:00

More good news on the promotion front: one of our senior production editors, Andrew Davidson, will soon take up his new role of Publishing Team Leader.

Andrew has been with us since December 2004, having previously worked for a Cambridge-based translating company. He is a graduate of Edinburgh University, where he studied English Language and Literature, and of Cambridge University, where he gained a PhD in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic.

about bacteria

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-03-13T18:22:04+00:00

When writing about bacteria, the binomial nomenclature scheme should be used, i.e. a genus name and a species name. Both parts are conventionally set in italic type.

The genus name begins with a capital but the species name does not.

Examples include Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Clostridium difficile. The genus name can also be abbreviated to the initial letter followed by a full point and a space, i.e. S. aureus, E. coli or C. difficile. The species name should not be abbreviated, so avoid C. diff.

redundant acronym syndrome

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-03-12T19:02:44+00:00

Watch out for redundancy when following a set of initials with the word for which the final initial stands.

A beautiful example would be the sentence I went to the ATM machine at the TSB Bank and keyed in my PIN number.

Similarly, asap if possible and please RSVP. This is called is called RAS syndrome.

our new mission

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-03-07T15:01:00+00:00

We have a new mission: to save the world's media from embarrassment.

We want to teach the world some basic science, one word or phrase at a time.

Let's start with carbon dioxide. The chemical formula is CO₂. First note that CO₂ is the chemical formula, not the abbreviation (that would be CD, wouldn't it?).

So, it's capital C (the chemical symbol for carbon, an element), capital O (the chemical symbol for oxygen, another element), not a zero, then a subscript 2 to indicate that there are two atoms of oxygen in the molecule. The digit should always be subscript, not on the line and never superscript.

To make this clear, the following are all wrong: CO2, C02 and CO².

reticent

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-03-04T19:19:04+00:00

Reticent is often used when reluctant or hesitant would be more appropriate.

Reticent means taciturn or uncommunicative:

He was reticent about his wartime experiences.

You can't be reticent to do something:

They were reticent to agree.

would be better phrased as

They were reluctant to agree.

Plexiglas

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-03-03T17:17:45+00:00

Note the spelling. It's not Plexiglass.

affect and effect

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-28T18:02:15+00:00

By special request from one of our clients...

This is a tricky one as both affect and effect can be used both as a noun and as a verb. Usually, however, if a verb is being used then affect is correct and if a noun is being used effect is correct.

Affect
As a verb, affect means to influence or to adopt a pose or manner.

The outcome of treatment is affected by patients' degree of compliance.

The girl affected a couldn't care less attitude.

As a noun affect means an emotional state. It is rarely encountered outside the realm of psychiatry. So, most people are unlikely ever to use affect as a noun; however, you may well come across it in medical titles.

Effect
We don't think anyone is likely to have difficulty in comprehending the usual meaning of effect: something brought about; a result.

The effect of treatment was an improvement in patients' quality of life.

But effect may also be used as a verb, meaning to cause to happen.

The drugs effected a significant improvement in patients' quality of life.

Asterix...

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-25T19:37:26+00:00

... was a Gaul. The footnote indicator is an asterisk.

benefactor vs. beneficiary

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-23T18:48:57+00:00

A benefactor provides largesse and a beneficiary is the recipient of it.

phth

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-20T15:12:51+00:00

The above combination of letters is very common in scientific terminology. More often than not one of the consonants is missing, so always, always check. For example

ophthalmology
diphtheria (caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae)
phenolphthalein
naphthalene

Other combinations, e.g. chth, are possible.

ichthyology

job opportunity

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-19T16:08:35+00:00

We have a vacancy for a production editor with a science degree and relevant experience.

If you are interested in working for us then have look at our current vacancies.

Please apply by Friday 12 March 2010.

patients are people

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-18T16:42:40+00:00

Patients are people, as are children, subjects, the elderly, etc.

All of these groups should be referred to using who or whom, not which or that.

more promotion news

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-17T18:19:46+00:00

More good news on the promotion front: one of our senior production editors, Catriona Vernal, will soon take up her new role of Publishing Team Leader.

Catriona has been with us since July 2007, having previously worked as a production editor in Edinburgh. She is a graduate of Glasgow University, where she studied Scottish History and Celtic Civilisation. Among other responsibilities, Catriona's team will produce Advances Wales, a technology transfer magazine that we produce for the Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff.

reoccur

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-16T19:39:05+00:00

No such word. Use recur.

promotion news

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-15T12:15:22+00:00

We have promoted Dr Lucy Harrier to the post of Publishing Manager.

In her new role Lucy will have responsibility for editorial office services and journal production for both public sector and commercial clients. Lucy has been with the company for almost 7 years, and previously was one of the company's publishing services managers.

comprise and constitute

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-12T17:56:25+00:00

This is such a common error that we have decided to harp on about it again.

Comprise means contains or consists of. First, it is never, ever, followed by of. Second, the whole of something comprises its parts.

In contrast, the parts of something constitute, or make up, the whole.

Right: Audiences comprise ordinary people.
Wrong: Audiences are comprised of ordinary people.

Right: Ordinary people constitute the majority of theatre goers.
Wrong: Ordinary people comprise the majority of theatre goers.

practice and practise

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-09T18:00:15+00:00

In UK usage, practice is a noun and practise a verb.

Make it your practice to practise this.

less and fewer

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-06T19:49:37+00:00

A countable noun can be singular or plural, e.g. book/books, person/people.

An uncountable noun does not have a plural form, e.g. information, sugar, respect.

Less is used with uncountable nouns and fewer with countable nouns. I have less information about that because I have fewer books on that subject.

ex-patriots?

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-02-01T16:40:41+00:00

One of our project managers recently came across the use of ex-patriots in a manuscript, which should, of course, be ex-patriates.

This is typical of the the type of mistake that professional copy-editing can correct.

averse and adverse

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-01-30T16:27:50+00:00

averse means having a dislike of or opposition to something. You can be averse to risky investments.

adverse means harmful or unfavourable. You can experience adverse weather while on a protest march.

You can’t experience averse criticism, only adverse criticism.

Similarly, you can’t be adverse to alcohol, beetroot or cats, only averse.

odd journal articles

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-01-26T19:16:40+00:00

We collect amusing book and journal article titles. Here are some from microbiology textbooks:

Stealth and mimicry by deadly bacterial toxins.

Clostridium botulinum: A bug with beauty and weapon.

Post-pasteurian cultures: the microbiopolitics of raw-milk cheese in the United States.

Fuzzy species among recombinogenic bacteria.

Maybe not up to Horace Bent's high standards but we're trying.

web site redesign

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2009-12-24T13:01:29+00:00

Our annual web site makeover has begun. Please bear with us while our Christmas elves dream up a new look for Prepress Projects in 2010.

job vacancy

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2009-12-18T14:14:39+00:00

We have a vacancy for a production typesetter for a publishing or science graduate familiar with Adobe Creative Suite (CS4).

If you are interested in working for us then have look at our current vacancies.

Please apply by Friday 8 January 2010.

office closed dates

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2009-12-11T16:36:39+00:00

Our office will be closed on Friday 25 and Monday 28 December and again on Friday 1 and Monday 4 January 2010.

Normal service should resume on Tuesday 5 January 2010.

November's confusible: lead and led

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2009-11-04T20:21:56+00:00

It is very common to see lead instead of led. In fact, it is rare to see the latter used properly at all.

Quite simply, led is the past participle of the verb to lead. And, of course, lead is also a metal.

So, the correct forms are:

You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think.

I led a horticulture but I couldn't make her think.

forgo and forego

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-01-25T16:56:09+00:00

The latter is more commonly encountered than the former even though it is usually the former that is meant.

forego means to go before or precede

You are unlikely to come across this usage very often, except in the phrase a foregone conclusion. You cannot, for example, forego your breakfast, walk in the park or pre-dinner cocktail.

forgo means to to do without

If the weather is poor, we will have to forgo our ascent of Ben Vorlich.

recent publications

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-01-22T15:33:32+00:00

If you would like to see Academic Business Collaboration, a supplement to Advances Wales, the magazine that we write, edit, design and typeset for the Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff, then have a look here.

Advances Wales has a circulation of over 10,000, with an international readership consisting of key global players in industry, academia, research & development and investment.

We handle all aspects of production: from journalism and picture research right through to delivery of final files for the printer and web publication.

independent web testing

enquiries@prepress-projects.co.uk — 2010-01-08T09:04:03+00:00

Our updated site has scored 8.2 on Nibbler and in fact appears in the top third of Nibbler's top 100 sites. Our score includes a rating of 10 out of 10 in the technology category.

Very pleasing, considering that we haven't even finished our site redesign yet.