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April 21, 2008
InDesign and the Balkans
I’ve been working on my talk for next weekend, when I tell all the students going out to Kosovo this summer, a little bit about the history of the Balkans. It’s hard to tell a little bit about the history of the Balkans, because there’s an awful lot of it, especially if, like me, you start at year dot.
OTTOMAN EMPIRE 1299 to 1923
At the end of the Thirteenth Century the Ottomans came up from Turkey, with their large foot-stools and strong coffee. Perhaps more to the point they brought Islam, which added a third religion to a cooking pot already boiling over with the curdling mix of Eastern and Western Orthodox Christianity. The stew thickened.
The Ottoman Empire lasted for over 600 years, though a lot of the foot-stools had to be recovered. The locals never quite managed to kick the Ottomans out, but not for want of trying.
Then I decided I would print out the stuff I had unearthed and oh-my-lord things got complicated. A few sheets of A4 paper have now ended up as a 34 page booklet, the size of a CD case, complete with pictures.
To do this I had to climb the computer equivalent of Mount Everest, well alright then, Snowdon – but in the fog. [and just for the record here’s a picture of me standing on the top of Snowdon, in the fog]
So, back to book design. Mr Jones, quite rightly when all’s said and done, insisted I use InDesign to do the job right. But first I remembered my Art College days, when Eric Bain taught us this sort of thing in the typography class, start off, as always, with a pen and paper.
Then go make the computer do what you want. Ever tried getting a computer to do what you want? Exactly. Anyway, I wrestled for a bit then found a few buttons that did exciting things and have ended up with 34 pages, 33 of which are not entirely dissimilar to this:
Posted by john at April 21, 2008 07:49 PM
Comments
I need to know how to make one of those books ....that looks great and just what do I need to make them ,....... lots of patience : )
Posted by: paula at April 22, 2008 01:01 PM
............ you could have even enrolled Hayley into the equation if you were intending climbing Mount Everest,I wonder if she has a similar photograph of herself at the top of her great climb ? : )
Posted by: paula at April 22, 2008 02:58 PM