Monday, April 20, 2009

Lost in the Details - SoFoBoMo

"Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it." Cardinal J. Newman

Over the weekend I worked on dropping images into Booksmart, not for the SoFoBoMo project, but because I wanted to see how Booksmart works and get some ideas about book design. I guess you could say it was in a way preparation for SoFoBoMo. I found myself caught up in several topics that needed investigation. At least I thought they did because I wanted my book to be perfect.

First of all, I wanted to be sure that my monitor is properly calibrated. I got the Epson 4000 running on all nozzles and then printed an image. The print matched the monitor so I know that as I apply the B3 profile for Blurb, I'm headed in the right direction with my corrections.

Then I started worrying about sharpening the images. What would be the best level for a Blurb book. This led me back to a couple of Scott Kelby's books to do a bit of research. Then I played around with looking at different sharpening techniques on prints.

Next I decided that four of the prints I had already dropped into the book would need to be redone. So by the end of the day, I had added nothing to the book.

"Perfection is the enemy of creation." John Updike

When I start on the SoFoBoMo project, I cannot get lost in these kind of details in order to make a perfect PDF book. There will not be time. First of all I have some pretty tough time constraints due to travel during May and June. I'm going to have to give up perfectionism but according to John Updike that might let me be more creative. Let's hope so.

7 comments:

Babs said...

Love the quotes - and exactly the reason why my blog is not perfect....ha.

Unknown said...

"Perfection is the enemy of creation"...very well thought by John Updike...Billie, you will have a great book, I am sure of it. Worry some but, go to sleep at night. Do not over stress and the fact that you are a bit perfeccionista, means you care about your work. Keep us informed as far as your progress. Con paso firme.

Juha Haataja said...

Have you solved the problem of getting a good PDF file as output from the Booksmart software?

I have used the software to make a printed book with Blurb but never used it for making a PDF version.

Billie Mercer said...

Juha,
No that is not solved. I have decided to just do the PDF book for SoFoBoMo because of so many time constraints during my month. Then if I like what I have done I'll make a blurb book from it. But I do have some other projects that I'd like to make into a book so while I'm waiting for my sofobomo month, I'm playing around with booksmart.

Billie Mercer said...

Alfredo, I'm not setting myself up for a "great book" but I do expect to finish a book. However, I like the way the word perfeccionista looks and sounds.

Robert Longpré said...

Hi Billie. I am not going to worry about the final platform at this juncture. I will submit the book as a PDF document using MS Word and A5 paper size set at portrait orientation so that it looks more like book size rather than full paper size. Hopefully this will make it easier to read when I finally publish it at ISSUU. Good luck - it's almost time.

Ann McDonald said...

Billie, did you remember that I have made a Blurb book out of the 19 Battlefields photographs? I am so pleased with it. Carry on. The SoFoBoMo project will just whet your appetite.