With a background in book printing, I am seeing this issue through the lens of publishing trends this month. First off, our lead article by Dr. Richard Adams takes a “how-to” approach to eBooks, and in particular, EPUB files. This is a great article if you have been curious about how to work with this file format. While EPUB has been around for some time now, I find that a lot of advancements have occurred quite recently. Prior to InDesign CS 5, exporting to this format was quite messy. Rich’s article includes some interviews with individuals whom I consider Canadian experts in the field. In fact, two of the interviewees (Erin and Nic) are the ones who taught me about eBooks and ePublishing. Small world of printing and publishing it is!
We also have in this issue a much-anticipated drupa wrap-up from Jason Lisi. It is always next to impossible to capture the whole show because of its vast size and variety. We have been covering stories throughout our news section and e-newsletter for what feels like the better part of this year. Jason’s article wraps up drupa season without rehashing some of these news stories. While the size of the show can be overwhelming, Jason points out that being there reminded him about the power and strength of the printing industry. His most memorable piece of technology released at the show was Benny Landa’s new nanographic presses. While these presses are not yet commercially available, when they do arrive they will offer sustainable, fast, and extremely precise digital printing solutions. I am a big fan of Benny Landa, who is considered by many to be the father of digital press technology.
Both eBooks and digital presses have revolutionized the publishing industry. Electronically delivered books as well as short runs of titles using digital printing have had a significant impact on the world of publishing. This impact will only continue to create change. We are in a world where a child can log on, author a book, and have it delivered in two weeks. I think that that is an amazing place to be!