Re: Couple of naive questions
On 1/3/07, Francesco Pietra <chiendarret@yahoo.com> wrote:
Couple of naive questions:
--Trying to upload to the editor's web site a
manuscript in *.odt format, the answer is "unknown
type of file".
--Then, trying to upload a *.png file, the answer is
again "unknown type of file".
Checking the guidelines for authors, the site is right
and I was wrong: text should be in doc format and
graphics in flat jpeg, no impressive export of povray
recognized.
My first (naive) question is: am I too much ahead (in
publishing tools) or are the editors in organic
chemistry so much behind (in publishing tools)?
The underlying problem with publishing is the high cost of the
typesetting equipment and printing. It is hard to make money
publishing, so many organizations are still running decades old
equipment. The editor may have a current system, but ultimately
everything has to end up in the same format they were using in 1990.
Because MS Word is so widely used, there are well-tested ways
(PostScript drivers, import filters to proprietary typesetting
packages) to feed the typesetters. If you have a phototypesetter with
a PostScript RIP, you don't want to let just any PS file onto the
machine -- many PS files take hours to render at typesetter
resolutions, or want to use "zero" width lines, etc. that produce
useless plates.
At any event, my second (naive) question is: what
about editors in other areas?
Many shops will accept any format that prints on their laserwriter --
they just scan it on a high-end scanner and save to a format they
like. Some shops that are fussy about quality will even have an
artist trace over the scanned artwork.
Many publishers contract out the jobs of converting author files to
plates or the format they use. At one time there was a small company
in Toronto that specialized in subcontracts for school textbook
layout. They used FTL TeX (on m68k macs long after the PPC Macs came
out) to create EPS's of each page, which they "placed" in Quark so
they could deliver Quark files to the publisher. A couple years ago
I did some work with with a Japanese press that was still using m68k
Macs to run the RIP and drive the typesetter.
--
George N. White III <aa056@chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia
Reply to: