🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi Neil --

I'll do a sample chapter for my design -- showing all the elements that have been identified by the editors -- text, heads, boxes, captions, lists, extracts -- there can be dozens of elements. From this sample chapter everyone has a good visualization of what the book will look like. After the design is approved, I'll write detailed type specs if requested, or they can work from my Quark style sheets. You're right -- the specs can never cover everything, but they should give instructions for contingencies. The next step in the standard textbook production flow is for the production mgr to request from the compositor a cast-off -- or firm estimate of book length -- chapter-by-chapter. (Exact count? No -- but close) If adjustments to the design are necessary, they are made at that time. The compositor has instructions up front on how to handle widows and orphans. Project editors and in-house design staff review the pages for any remaining issues, art placement, etc. There may be more efficient ways to do all of this, but the textbook industry is slow to change. I still have client (a major typesetter for college books) that is still at Quark 4.

John