In my hand, a pocket book edition of the Norwegian Free Culture book!

Wed, 19 Aug 2015 22:10:00 +0200

Today, finally, my first printed draft edition of the Norwegian +translation of Free Culture I have been working on for the last few +years arrived in the mail. I had to fake a cover to get the interior +printed, and the exterior of the book look awful, but that is +irrelevant at this point. I asked for a printed pocket book version +to get an idea about the font sizes and paper format as well as how +good the figures and images look in print, but also to test what the +pocket book version would look like. After receiving the 500 page +pocket book, it became obvious to me that that pocket book size is too +small for this book. I believe the book is too thick, and several +tables and figures do not look good in the size they get with that +small page sizes. I believe I will go with the 5.5x8.5 inch size +instead. A surprise discovery from the paper version was how bad the +URLs look in print. They are very hard to read in the colophon page. +The URLs are red in the PDF, but light gray on paper. I need to +change the color of links somehow to look better. But there is a +printed book in my hand, and it feels great. :)

+ +

Now I only need to fix the cover, wrap up the postscript with the +store behind the book, and collect the last corrections from the proof +readers before the book is ready for proper printing. Cover artists +willing to work for free and create a Creative Commons licensed vector +file looking similar to the original is most welcome, as my skills as +a graphics designer are mostly missing.

First paper version of the Norwegian Free Culture book heading my way

Sun, 9 Aug 2015 10:15:00 +0200

Typesetting a book is harder than I hoped. As the translation is +mostly done, and a volunteer proof reader was going to check the text +on paper, it was time this summer to focus on formatting my translated +docbook based version of the +Free Culture book by Lawrence +Lessig. I've been trying to get both docboox-xsl+fop and dblatex to +give me a good looking PDF, but in the end I went with dblatex, because +its Debian maintainer and upstream developer were responsive and very +helpful in solving my formatting challenges.

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Last night, I finally managed to create a PDF that no longer made +Lulu.com complain after uploading, +and I ordered a text version of the book on paper. It is lacking a +proper book cover and is not tagged with the correct ISBN number, but +should give me an idea what the finished book will look like.

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Instead of using Lulu, I did consider printing the book using +CreateSpace, but ended up +using Lulu because it had smaller book size options (CreateSpace seem +to lack pocket book with extended distribution). I looked for a +similar service in Norway, but have not seen anything so far. Please +let me know if I am missing out on something here.

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But I still struggle to decide the book size. Should I go for +pocket book (4.25x6.875 inches / 10.8x17.5 cm) with 556 pages, Digest +(5.5x8.5 inches / 14x21.6 cm) with 323 pages or US Trade (6x8 inches / +15.3x22.9 cm) with 280 pages? Fewer pager give a cheaper book, and a +smaller book is easier to carry around. The test book I ordered was +pocket book sized, to give me an idea how well that fit in my hand, +but I suspect I will end up using a digest sized book in the end to +bring the prize down further.

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My biggest challenge at the moment is making nice cover art. My +inkscape skills are not yet up to the task of replicating the original +cover in SVG format. I also need to figure out what to write about +the book on the back (will most likely use the same text as the +description on web based book stores). I would love help with this, +if you are willing to license the art source and final version using +the same CC license as the book. My artistic skills are not really up +to the task.

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I plan to publish the book in both English and Norwegian and on +paper, in PDF form as well as EPUB and MOBI format. The current +status can as usual be found on +github +in the archive/ directory. So far I have spent all time on making the +PDF version look good. Someone should probably do the same with the +dbtoepub generated e-book. Help is definitely needed here, as I +expect to run out of steem before I find time to improve the epub +formatting.

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Please let me know via github if you find typos in the book or +discover translations that should be improved. The final proof +reading is being done right now, and I expect to publish the finished +result in a few months.

Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from August 2015

In my hand, a pocket book edition of the Norwegian Free Culture book!

First paper version of the Norwegian Free Culture book heading my way