Preparing DrM-Blog for Publication (Printing)

Today was largly invested in preparing posts from the DrM-Blog in Centaur MT font for publication (printing).  The posts are then put into Adobe Pagemaker 7.0 and then distilled by Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.0 Expanded.  The finished book (in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format) will then be transmitted electronically to Lightning Source for printing.

As I work I make editorial changes with regard to themes and chapters.  I need to finish some administrative details such as purchasing a block of ISBN numbers, completing my Lightning Source registration, and exploring options for sales of the book.

The real challenge will be to see how to motivate readers to purchase the book.  I had to decide whether to keep the journal/diary (day-by-day) format or to organize it by related themes and chapters.  So far, themes and chapters are winning.

New Font for Blog Book

I have been working on converting this blog to a book.  One of my concerns was the type face (font) I was going to use when the book goes to print.  My 95-year-old mother has trouble reading small print and I find more and more people gravitating toward large-print books.

I went to the public library yesterday looking for some audiobooks by Rick Riordan.  While looking for the audiobooks, I actually picked-up a print version and the librarian (Thanks, Amy) showed me the front page with the publication data that included the font used for the book.  The book was easy to read and I liked the font.  The font used for The Last Olympian was Centaur MT, 13 point.

I came home and looked for the font on my computer.  Unfortunately I didn't have it and I immediately went to Adobe.com.  I have used Adobe Type Manager for years and thought that Adobe would have the font.

While Adobe Type Manager is largely outmoded--built-in to such programs as Windows Vista--the font was available from Adobe.  I don't know if anyone remembers the "typeballs" used by the IBM Selectric typewriters.  Each ball was for a font and you had to purchase and to change the balls when you wanted to change type face in your typed documents.  The fonts for the computer work in a similar way.  I had to purchase and download three different fonts--Centaur Std, Centaur Std Italic, and Centaur Std Bold--in order to have the three types of fonts I need for the book.  The good news is that they were available and I was able to purchase, download, and install (after using Adobe help menus) the fonts on my computer (in Windows Vista) and in two Adobe programs, PageMaker 7.0 and Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Pro Extended.

You won't see that type face on this blog except in a picture I will include here.  It will work for the book and for the onscreen version of the book.  I need to contact my print-on-demand printer tomorrow to make sure everything will work when I present the finished book in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format for publishing.