Publishing manufacture

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When publishing production , book production or short production , is known in the publishing industry summarize all the steps to the material production of a publishing product. In a broader sense, this also includes planning, coordination and control of the manufacturing process. After all, manufacturing refers to a department in the publishing house.

Material production

Publishing production comprises six stages, some of which influence one another:

1. Design

At the beginning of production, the equipment is determined, such as book or newspaper format , size, color, paper and type of cover . A graphic artist designs the book cover - often independently of the production - in coordination with the authors or editors , editing and marketing departments , the image of which is henceforth used in publisher previews , in book trade catalogs , etc. Then, at the time of the contract to composing and printing for proofreading the manuscript, a manufacturer developed the pattern layout for the inner part, the page layout , grid system and typography sets.

2. Prepare the manuscript for the sentence

The edited manuscript is checked for the sentence , for example for completeness and special cases in terms of content. Composition instructions are created and special design features are noted in the order.

Images are viewed and, if necessary, scanning , color correction and retouching are commissioned.

3. Composition and correction

Mostly by - according to the specifications of the pattern Layoutes and the sentence statement, the book is desktop publishing or media-neutral XML batch process - in sentence given. Images are integrated as placeholders, raw scans or fine scans, depending on the state of work . Authors or editors , editors or proofreaders then receive a page break for review. The resulting corrections are incorporated into the sentence and, if necessary, further correction steps (revision) are initiated. The corrections by the author, proofreading and proofreading (mostly read by external proofreaders) are summarized (collated) in a make-up copy. The manufacturer sends this final correction version to the typesetting as an imprimatur .

Finally, all images are integrated in print resolution. The set is optimized with regard to the printing process ( final drawing , e.g. definition of the print raster and output color profile , trapping ) and checked. The result today is usually a printable PDF file, e.g. B. by PDF / X .

4. Prepress

In the prepress be analog photos and illustrations scanned . Image data to be retouched , isolated and trimmed. To assess the quality of the images, proofs (and in rare cases proofs ) are created and the images are post-processed if necessary. The film exposure is part of the pre-press, but has lost much more important because printers today their plates often by to Plate Computer expose directly from the data.

5. Pressure

For printing , sheets (usually 8, 12, 16, 24 or 32 pages) are first assembled or electronically imposed from the printable data or films and then printing plates are produced using computer-to-plate . Printing is mostly done using offset printing , with large print runs also using gravure printing or with small print runs also using digital printing (up to the production of individual copies, see Book on Demand ). Color printing is usually done using the CMYK process, so that this is four times the effort compared to pure black printing . Based on the proofs, the print image can be checked and corrected directly on the printing machine.

6. Bookbinding

During bookbinding , the printed raw sheets are folded, bound, trimmed and covered with a cover . Some of the bindings are still being refined (around 5 to 15 percent of the novelty covers by German publishers). Eventually, the finished books, notebooks, magazines or newspapers may be shrink-wrapped individually or in groups or wrapped in paper. Industrially manufactured softcover be as publishing cover referred.

Planning, coordination, control

Since the individual processing steps of the production are partly dependent on each other and publishers are usually commercial enterprises with the intention of making a profit , the material production requires continuous support through planning, coordination and control with regard to costs and meeting deadlines.

planning

The cost planning essentially comprises the manufacturing calculation . Based on experience and specific project-related offers, the costs (usually the unit costs outside the publishing house ) for the technical production of a product are estimated. Together with the sales expectations of the marketing department , this information forms the basis for a contribution margin calculation .

The scheduling determines, starting from the planned publication date, on the basis of the workload for the individual stages of production, key data for manuscript submission, typesetting, printing date, etc.

Coordination - process control

Since various internal and external parties involved in the production process are involved in the individual work steps, a strong coordination, especially of the processes and deadlines, is necessary. Deviations from the cost and schedule planning as well as quality problems must be recognized early and efficiently compensated. Due to the trend to outsource publishing-specific activities to external parties, manufacturing is increasingly given the task of a control station for process control.

In some publishing houses, the production department is also responsible for the availability of the backlist , which means that it independently triggers subsequent editions .

control

Accompanying the manufacturing process, quality and adherence to deadlines are checked on an ongoing basis, for example using material samples , signature sheets , proofs , prints or notices . After production, the finished product is checked, as is the costs based on the invoices from the external service providers.

Manufacturing department

Since publishers often do not design and set their products themselves and almost never have their own printing or bookbinding shop, the main task of the production department is the planning, coordination and control of the production process. Manufacturers mediate between in-house departments and external service providers and thus combine the individual services into the finished product. Accordingly, manufacturers should have solid knowledge in the following areas:

Most manufacturers are autodidacts who come from the graphic arts industry (graphic design, typesetting, printing) and who have independently acquired the necessary additional knowledge. At the University of Applied Sciences for Technology, Economics and Culture Leipzig (HTWK) there is a design-economic course in publishing with a degree in engineering. (FH) or, since the start of studies in 2008, as a Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.), At the Stuttgart Media University, the comparable course of study media publishing and publishing production. The Academy of German Media regularly offers chargeable seminars on manufacturing topics.

literature

  • Manufacturing & Management . Book report special, Harenberg, Dortmund 2008.
  • Ina Steinbrück, Stefan Krause: Production . In: Erhard Schütz u. a. (Ed.): The book market book . The literary business in basic terms. 2nd Edition. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-499-55672-2 , p. 131-135 .
  • Dietrich Kerlen : Textbook of the book publishing industry . Hauswedell & Co., Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-7762-1002-8 .
  • Rainer Groothuis : How do books come to earth? About publishers and authors, manufacturers, sellers and: the beautiful book. In addition to a small product knowledge . DuMont, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-8321-3164-7 .
  • Bramann, Merzbach, Blana: The production . Saur, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-598-20067-6 .

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