Alleviating Prepress Anxiety : How to Manage Your Print Projects for Savings, Schedule and Quality

Rating:
Summary: A valuable guide
Review: Alleviating Prepress Anxiety is a book for administrators who have been asked to produce corporate materials. If you have been placed in this role, and more and more administrators are finding themselves overseeing the production of brochures, catalogues, flyers, business cards, reports and training materials, there is a lot to learn and this book is an excellent primer. The lessons are also reasonably applicable to those who want to produce their own promotional materials, including self-published authors, publishers, web-site owners and, in particular, corporate freelance or technical writers. The world where copywriters were able to work in a vacuum, oblivious to things like typeset, layout, design, and other graphic criteria is gone.

At less than 170 pages, including well spaced text, extensive tables, key terms, bibliography and lengthy glossary, this book is not long, nor is it revolutionary in what it covers. Those with many years of experience in the print trade probably won't learn anything significantly new here, but for those who need to learn from the ground up, and fast, the book covers a lot of ground. There are detailed chapters on planning each project, analysing the competition, matching the message to the audience, working out quantity and quality, choosing team players, print brokers and ad agencies, graphic designers, binders ad mailhouses. The heart of the book is in the chapters on type and design, inks and papers. While this may seem like mundane detail to those who work with words, there are thousands of readily available typefaces, and the wrong point, font or ill structured design can ruin an other well written piece. There is a chapter on working with photographs including tone and colour, choosing the right paper, envelopes and overall coordination of the piece. Although the book is addressed to administration staff in a large corporation, many of the examples including the opening chapter of a romance novel, and it is interesting to see the difference, and impact, of using various design elements, typefaces, colours and fonts. At the back of each chapter is a list of key terms.

Once the project is ready for press, there are chapters dealing with obtaining quotes, including quote request proformas ready for re-use. The book ends with an interesting look at how the office of the future might operate, and other trends. Throughout the book are 18 war stories, which provide real life examples of what can go wrong, and which add life to what is a fairly technical manual. The book avoidss delving into serious design, the crafting of good copy or how to use a desk top publishing package, although there are references, and plenty of other books which deal with these issues. The focus overall of Alleviating Prepress Anxiety is on saving money, meeting a schedule and producing professional print results. Regardless of whether you are an administrator or PR coordinator for a large company, the head of a small one, a self-published author looking to produce your own promotional material or a freelancer producing print materials for someone else, Alleviating Prepress Anxiety is a valuable guide which can save the novice from costly mistakes, and provide the more experienced person with a useable reference.

Rating:
Summary: Everybody's a Project Manager
Review: Here is a manual that deserves all of its stars just for putting a glossary at the back -- something manuals used to do quite by custom and still a great, great idea! In addition, there are over 35 tables that show everything from how to plan a project to the characteristics of papers, all the kinds of envelopes, type faces, bindings, budgeting, how to evaluate a printer, "request for quote" samples, and more. Photos and clear diagrams abound. It's all relevant whether you're going to use a printer or do it on your own desktop.And did I mention that the book itself is only half an inch thick? This is a genuine handbook: small, clear and loaded with information. Straightforward, witty writing takes you through the information as though a sympathetic person were showing you exactly how to do a new job. Such a person would be as rare, in real life, as a manual that's not the size of a cinder block.As the forward points out, technology-driven work changes have meant, "more often than not, end-product quality control is delegated to the admin coordinator." In other words, everybody is a project manager. Lucky for people who are doing print projects, there is a long history of what works and how it's done, and the author has left her 20 years of experience as a note in a bottle.

Rating:
Summary: I thought this was a great desktop and print primer.
Review: I think it's spcifically suited for the self publisher, small business owner, office manager or anyone who uses desktop publishing or coordinates graphic design and printing. It helped me save time, money and stress because I read it and referred to it over and over again.

I found it easy to read and packed with information. This book was written specifically for me, the layperson, not the professional graphic designer. It gives you tips, terminology and techniques you need to manage your print and design projects more effectively.

Rating:
Summary: A "must" for aspiring desktop publishing.
Review: In Alleviating Prepress Anxiety: How To Manage Your Print Projects For Savings, Schedule And Quality is an invaluable, "reader friendly" instruction manual for the novice small press "desktop" publisher. Ann Goodheart draws upon her more than twenty-years of "hands on" publishing experience in showing how the aspiring publisher can save money, time, and stress by defining concepts for printed projects; choosing design and print vendors wisely, developing cost-effective production terms, understanding the basics of type and design, selecting papers and colors, and writing concise printing specifications. Enhanced with case studies and an extensive glossary, Alleviating Prepress Anxiety is a "must" for anyone venturing into desktop publishing for the first time, and has a wealth of practical, useful information for even the more seasoned publisher.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: This is a rehash of what most pros already know. If you're brand new to a job requiring you to oversee print production, then it may be marginally useful. It would be better to buy your printer rep lunch and pick their brain.

Rating:
Summary: Great Place to Start
Review: This is the book to get if you are an aspiring publisher. The easy to read format will point out a lot of things you need to be aware of as you travel the very bumpy road into publishing and printing. You'll learn ways not only to publish a great piece but how to save money as well. Some of the many topics include:

Define the concepts for printed projects Choose design and print endeavors wisely Select paper and colors Write concise printing specifications Work with photography Taylor projects to fit budget Implement your own design and type

For example, it's pointed out that if you need 5,000 brochures you'd better check to be sure you are guaranteed 5,000 brochures. It's not uncommon to have a run of 10% over or under. While often times you may be charged for the over you don't get a discount for the under not to mention you may not have enough brochures if you "assume" you are going to get what you actually paid for.

This is a quick and inexpensive way to get comfortable with the publishing world. You can't go wrong with this one.