DTP in de Praktijk book
Real-world Desktop Publishing guide book written and designed
Real-world Desktop Publishing guide book written and designed
In 1991 I started my writing career for MacWorld magazine in the Netherlands. I wrote to sections for the magazine, a monthly workshop and a tips & tricks section. After a few years the chief editor of MacWorld asked if I would be interested in 'bundling' the sections into a book for Addison Wesley publishers. The end result was DTP in de Praktijk, translated real-world desktop publishing. Almost 500 pages in black and white and a great cover by Albert Kiefer. The book was a sell out with 5000 copies. I wrote the text, designed the layout with the special two-column grid and asked lot's of friends and colleagues from Kothuis, my employer, to cooperate in the project with their illustrations and design practices. To emphasize the real-world practise the book aimed to radiate. I also did the desktop publishing myself in QuarkXPress.
A few years later a second edition was published by Pearson Education which I coproduced together with Robert Henrigs, Jan Ris and in the lead was Hans Frederiks, now the chief editor of Dzone magazine.
A few years later a second edition was published by Pearson Education which I coproduced together with Robert Henrigs, Jan Ris and in the lead was Hans Frederiks, now the chief editor of Dzone magazine.
The cover concept was turned into an illustration by 3D-specialist Albert Kiefer. Using the typical magnifying glass of the printer and the icons of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and QuarkXPress. The main programs in that area and in the book.
To emphasize the vector-based drawing technique of Adobe Illustrator.
Fractal Design Painter was used in a workshop example to show coloring technique of Albert Kiefer.
The original Adobe Illustrator looks quite basic in this screendump of an infographic.
The cover of the second ediion of DTP in de Praktijk with 3 co-authors and still a national bestseller.