Conquering Complexity in Non-Fiction Book Design

This two part-meeting begins with a presentation on non-fiction book design and winds-up with a tour of a major book printing facility.

Learning objectives:

• Non-fiction books are often much more complex than straightforward narratives, so what’s the best way to approach them?
• Steps you absolutely cannot skip!
• What is a visual hierarchy and why do you need one?
• Separating classes of information visually.
• How to leverage InDesign’s Paragraph, Character and Object styles (including some vital GREP styles) to simplify your work and make it go faster?
• How do you help the reader to navigate the text, and why is that important?

The tour:

Bridge Publications is a state-of-the-art, all-digital facility. The tour will take us through three departments showing how a book is made. We begin with the printing department (HP Indigo and Xerox iGen), continue with the applications department (lamination, stamping, coating) and conclude with the bindery department (soft cover, hard cover, coil).

Directions and Free Parking

Bridge Publications is in East Los Angeles, south of the 60 freeway, east of the 710 freeway and north of the 5 freeway. This is the first time LAIDUG has had a meeting in East Los Angeles. There is lots of free parking in front and on the side of the building.

Meeting Notes

By Alvin Takamori

The nomadic Los Angeles InDesign User Group, in its ongoing effort to spread knowledge throughout the county, met for the first time in East Los Angeles. The meeting took place on July 18, 2019 at the facilities of Bridge Publications, Inc.

The entry area is a very clean, modern space with displays built into the walls showcasing L. Ron Hubbard books, which is primarily what they print there. Yes, this is a Scientology operation. On behalf of Bridge Publications, Ann Arnow welcomed us and gave us an overview of the company and how publishing has changed. The complexities of setting up a print run used to require a minimum production of 2,000 books to make printing profitable. But after switching to digital printing, they can affordably print very small quantities, for instance only 20 books.

The digital printing process is also much cleaner. When printing involves the use of plates and dies, the facilities are usually messy and full of chemicals. After remodeling the entire production area to adopt digital printing, Ann noted that Bridge Publications earned a “Facility of the Year Award” from the California Water Environment Association.

Bridge Publications also carefully planned the redesign of their facilities to work more efficiently. By analyzing the process of producing a book, they were able to reorganize their space, so that production flowed more smoothly from station to station. It saved time and minimized mistakes.

They also included the capability to handle specialty printing processes like fine art, foil stamping, gilding, coil binding, etc. By having everything in-house, they have full control of the production process.

Next, LAIDUG member Alan Gilbertson discussed how he uses InDesign to design non-fiction books.

He begins with a typical chapter and builds a grid that frames how he’s going to layout the information. It’s important to breakdown what the elements are going to be: titles, headlines, subheaders, categories of information, etc. Then consider how to divide up the page. Should it have two columns or three? It’s best to stick to simple ratios like ½, ⅓, ¼, and ⅕ to organize blocks of information.

Alan recommended several books: The Complete Manual of Typography, Grid Systems and The Elements of Typographic Style.

Next, using dummy text Alan creates a hierarchy of information using InDesign’s Paragraph Styles, Character Styles, and Object Styles. He’ll design a base style that becomes a foundation for other Styles. Then he creates Styles for all the elements in a book: a title, a chapter header, body copy, etc. He generates a specific Style for everything. It’s better to have a long list of Styles to choose from than to have any modified Styles.

Alan also introduced GREP. Using code you can describe a pattern and automatically apply changes anytime the pattern occurs. He explained one designed to automate avoiding short words at the end of a paragraph. Create a No Break Style and apply it whenever you have less than 8 characters before a return. The GREP code looks like this: {8}\r

Another example he gave avoids having a single letter or number at the end of a line using the following GREP code: \s+[IaA\d]\s  This represents a space followed by the letter “I” or “a” or “A” or a single number followed by a space. Similar to the previous example apply the No Break Style anytime this pattern occurs.

Gilbertson emphasized that it was important to organize information on a page to make it as easy as possible for a reader to find the information. Have navigation and markers that are consistent and stand out visually. If something is important, make it easy to identify.

Alan’s talk seemed relatively brief, because time for the meeting was limited. In an effort to expedite the proceedings, attendees had the opportunity to pay in advance for attending the meeting, which entitled attendees to raffle tickets that they received as they arrived. The raffle was conducted quickly at the end of Alan’s presentation.

The second half of the meeting was a tour of Bridge Publications led by Camila Miranda. We began in the hallway next to the entry in front of shelves displaying Dianetics books. We were told they are printed in 51 different languages. Previously, using typesetting, the process of changing machines for each language was labor intensive and time-consuming.

Camila pointed out some special edition books that are leather bound and boxed with embossing and gold gilding. They are designed specifically on a city by city basis for places like Tokyo or Dublin with images colors and symbols that are culturally appropriate. These books are sold to pay for the cost of translating books into other languages.

Next, we were led into the production area. It was a vast warehouse space that looked remarkably clean. Close to the entry, there was a large wall chart. It listed every step in the process of making whichever book was currently in production. Laid out on a timeline, it started with a list of materials needed, and worked its way to binding and packaging.

Looking around the facility, it was organized into various production processes. There is a black and white printing area, a color printing area, a lamination area, a coating area, a cutting area, a folding area, a binding area, etc. Each area is identified by a sign hanging from the ceiling, like sections of a department store.

Beyond the production area is another vast warehouse space for storage of finished books. It seemed endless, which brought to mind the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, except this facility was clean and well lit. There was aisle after aisle of large industrial racks holding palettes of books. Orders are filled and shipped from this area. However, it is all well-organized using a system of barcode labels on the racks and on the books. This system is so efficient, it allows the entire storage warehouse to be run by only a handful of workers.

After visiting the production area, the tour and the meeting ended with the expectation that we’ll return with an opportunity to see more of the equipment in operation.

Farthest Attendee

The bona fide LAIDUG member who travels the farthest specifically to attend the meeting will receive her or his choice of any one deal at MightyDeals up to $50.00. Mighty Deals offers fonts, templates, apps, e-books, etc. You  need to prove to us that you traveled farthest to attend this meeting. Having recently moved to the area from somewhere else won't cut it. Be prepared to show us indication of your current residence—perhaps a driver's license or a utility bill. Decision of the administrators of the Los Angeles InDesign User Group is final. Winner — Marty Safir

Raffles

Must Purchase Raffle Tickets to Attend—The Bridge Conference Room where the presentation is being held is limited to 20 people. With such a small number of seats, we have decided to make purchase of at least five raffle tickets in advance ($10) mandatory. The purpose of this really isn't to sell raffle tickets. It's to separate those who really intend to come from those who register but don't show up. (Usually that's not a problem.) For those who only want to go on the tour, there are an additional 10 spots with a two raffle ticket minimum ($5).

LAIDUG is supported by raffles of donated prizes. No one is required to participate in the raffles. Raffle tickets are: 1 for $3, 2 for $5, 5 for $10, 11 for $20, 24 for $40, 32 for $50 and 65 for $100. All major credit cards are accepted.

Raffle Prizes and Winners

GoProof from Oppolis Software. 3 month subscription for 2 users. Value $300.00 Winner — Robert Cardenas
Proofing add-on for Adobe Creative Cloud. Version history tracks what has been changed and by whom.

Markzware. Any single product. 12 month subscription. Value $199.00 Winner — William Baughman (MT)
Choose one from the list below:
Q2ID (Quark to InDesign), Convert and open QuarkXPress files in InDesign.
PDF2DTP (PDF to InDesign), Convert PDF files to InDesign.
ID2Q (InDesign to Quark), Convert and open InDesign documents in QuarkXPress.
MT (Markzware), Convert InDesign documents to IDML files readable by InDesign CS4 through CC 2017.
FC (FlightCheck), Check native and PDF files for printing quality.

Expo Creative Asset Manager for Mac from Insider Software. Value $149.00 Winner — Elias Wondimu
Digital asset manager that allows you to view, tag, search and manage images, icons, fonts, audio, video, app documents.

Suitcase Fusion 8 from Extensis. 12 month subscription. Value $119.95 Winner — Candice Ota
Font management program that allows you to organize your fonts from one plane—including system fonts, purchased fonts, fonts synced from Adobe Typekit, Google fonts, etc.

Font Agent Pro 8 from Insider Software. Value $99.95 Winner — Lisa Beck
Windows font management that allows you to organize, distribute and control your fonts.

InMotion Hosting. Web hosting and free domain. Value $90.00 Winner — Terry Hayes
Web hosting company.

DTP Tools Cloud for InDesign. 6 month subscription. Value $77.40 Winner — Marty Safir
Suite of 14 different InDesign productivity tools.

Multi-Find/Change 3.0 from Automatication. Value $49.95 Winner — Marty Safir
Extension for InDesign and InCopy that allows you to manage and execute Find/Change queries in batches rather than one at a time.

Adobe Stock. 15 image licenses. Value $44.00 Winner — Myron Ran
Royalty-free, high-quality photos, videos, and illustrations.

InDesign Magazine. 6 month subscription. Value $30.00 Winner — Robert Cardenas
Monthly PDF publication devoted to InDesign how-tos, in-depth features, and quick tips.

LA Web Professionals Group meeting tickets. Value $7.99 (four raffles) Winners — Terry Hayes, Victoria Hunter, David McCullough, Elias Wondimu
Adobe user group that meets monthly with an emphasis on web design, marketing and the latest internet trends.

About the Presenter

Alan Gilbertson

Alan Gilbertson is a freelance designer and creative director living in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, the “Sun Coast” of the United States. A self-confessed nerd, he loves messing with software to see if it will break, so he has been a beta tester of various products for more than three decades, including all of the Adobe design suite.

Alan is an Adobe Community Expert, a regular contributor to CreativePro Magazine and the Adobe Community Forums, and can occasionally be found wandering the exhibition halls at design conferences looking for coffee and donuts.