Industry veteran Philip Arrowsmith has developed a book creation application that takes text and page elements from a database and automatically flows them into templates for paperback book publication.
The Paperback Server application draws on his experience at Sax in Crawley which created and ran an automated design application for CD inlays. The key is being able to describe in code the template of the product and enabling content from a database, including images, to flow into the right position at the right size and for images at the right resolution.
This worked with an SAP database and delivered artwork as a print ready PDF for digital printing on demand for major music company Universal Music. “That principle is still the way we work today,” says Arrowsmith. “This can open up exciting new opportunities and dramatic cost savings with book on demand solutions.”
The Paperback Server application has been tested on both out of copyright texts and new publications. With the old work, Arrowsmith says he has been able to replicate the familiar design of well loved books, like Winnie the Pooh, which have images integrated into the text.
The opportunity is there also to select templates for the same text to create different editions for specific customers, say applying extra wide margins for academic books to allow students to scribble notes. The first intent however is creation of paperback books with a professionally designed look and feel, which is an area where many self publishers can stumble.
The plain text is parsed through VML, a mark up language that predates XML, but which is well suited to Arrowsmith’s application and capable of generating a print ready PDF. This is how the Universal Music application was developed.
“At the end of each day we would run the file from orders received through Amazon, Ebay or other online retailers. That would also generate the labels and delivery notes from the same database. It’s the same principle for books. We just need clean text.”
The target will be smaller publishers and self publishing, feeding to online printers, accessed through Arrowsmith’s Distant Print website. Currently books are printed by PrintedEasy to a 129x198mm format.
Distant Print will also provide the ISBN that self publishers need for bookshops or sales via Amazon; create social media and provide web content if required.
