Yesterday I wrote about making an ebook from an art book. It was like a call for ideas. And here it is one sample of that. An article struck me right this morning: Future of publishing: Reinventing the concept of the book
It is a pleasure to see that somebody understand the real use of the interactivity in the books life.
I'll try to search for more products like that and post them here. Would be an interesting journey.
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Make an ebook of that
The news that draw my attention this time is about a special book. I is something like an art book for chiefs. You can find it here.
I bet it is a delight to turn a pages of a book like that. On the other hand I wonder something very simple. Are we able to put such a feeling into an ebook?
I'll start the answer to that using another question: What is that thing that makes an art book?
If you read the article you understand some of the aspects:
- Special support (art-quality paper and a kitchen-proof plastic-coated manual)
- Very good design (most cookbooks are very good at that)
- True workmanship (50 people participate to this project for as long as 5 years)
I think I've already answered the main question.
I'm not worried about the support. You just have to think about a case enhancement for one of the leading slates on the market. Take an iPad for example, put it in a nice leather cover and here you have the support. Shiny, and very luxurious.
What about the rest? Well the rest is the same old story. Designing an ebook is like doing the same thing for a good book. You just have more freedom to use not only good typography and nice images and lots of free space but also new media and smart features to surprise the reader.
Depending on the features you want you can create an entire app to serve as a book or if you want to have it cross platform create it as a PDF using all the clever things the format provides.
Actually if you sell the device with the book already loaded you might find that the production costs are lower than the paper version.
Here we are again with the same old question: Why nobody tries to create good looking ebooks? Or may be I don't know about them? Please be so kind and give me a sign if you know about any.
I bet it is a delight to turn a pages of a book like that. On the other hand I wonder something very simple. Are we able to put such a feeling into an ebook?
I'll start the answer to that using another question: What is that thing that makes an art book?
If you read the article you understand some of the aspects:
- Special support (art-quality paper and a kitchen-proof plastic-coated manual)
- Very good design (most cookbooks are very good at that)
- True workmanship (50 people participate to this project for as long as 5 years)
I think I've already answered the main question.
I'm not worried about the support. You just have to think about a case enhancement for one of the leading slates on the market. Take an iPad for example, put it in a nice leather cover and here you have the support. Shiny, and very luxurious.
What about the rest? Well the rest is the same old story. Designing an ebook is like doing the same thing for a good book. You just have more freedom to use not only good typography and nice images and lots of free space but also new media and smart features to surprise the reader.
Depending on the features you want you can create an entire app to serve as a book or if you want to have it cross platform create it as a PDF using all the clever things the format provides.
Actually if you sell the device with the book already loaded you might find that the production costs are lower than the paper version.
Here we are again with the same old question: Why nobody tries to create good looking ebooks? Or may be I don't know about them? Please be so kind and give me a sign if you know about any.
eBook design
At least it happened. Somebody tells the truth: http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/01/ebook-design-conversion-quality.html
The best thing that can happen in the ebook world is to begin working on the design side of the page. It is really strange the fact that so many good publishers that have good looking books in print avoid doing the same thing on the electronic side.
Wake up please.
Just converting to EPUB is not enough. You have to put something else in that file to make it a readable book. A page means typesetting, spaces and proportions. If you put also some video and sound you have to be more than a simple designer ... better be a director.
Enjoy reading the article.
The best thing that can happen in the ebook world is to begin working on the design side of the page. It is really strange the fact that so many good publishers that have good looking books in print avoid doing the same thing on the electronic side.
Wake up please.
Just converting to EPUB is not enough. You have to put something else in that file to make it a readable book. A page means typesetting, spaces and proportions. If you put also some video and sound you have to be more than a simple designer ... better be a director.
Enjoy reading the article.
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