“Print Production Essentials, 2nd edition,” an upcoming book from Adobe Press, is being written and the layout is being done entirely in Mac OS X using Adobe InDesign 2.0.
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“We’re using a full ColorSync workflow and the new OpenType fonts,” Kevin O’Connor, the book’s author, said in an Apple Creative Design article. “We’re doing it this way not only because it’s a better way to work, but also because we’re showing people how to produce quality digital graphics projects with the latest tools. It doesn’t make sense to use anything else.”
The new edition provides a “cookbook-style” approach to using all of the Adobe prepress and production software, including Adobe Photoshop 7.0, Illustrator 10, Acrobat 5.0 and InDesign 2.0. Print Production Essentials is geared toward designers who are producing their own files for publication, service bureau employees who want to improve their file-handling knowledge, and anyone involved in creating and printing files on paper. O’Connor is obviously a fan of Adobe products and of Mac OS X.
“When you consider how young Mac OS X is, it’s astonishing what a beautiful job of design Apple has done,” O’Connor told Apple. “It’s just stunningly stable. It’s an aesthetic pleasure to work with; it’s clearly the future of creative work.”
In his office, the author and color guru uses InDesign 2.0 on a Power Mac G4 with a 22-inch Apple Cinema Display. On the road, he works on a Titanium PowerBook G4. O’Connor also likes working in Mac OS X because it supports OpenType.
“The typography features of InDesign 2.0 support OpenType and are just breathtaking,” he said. “If you’re a type nut like I am and you love good font design as I do, this is an incredible program for setting type.”
The combination of InDesign 2.0 and Mac OS X lets him implement a full ColorSync workflow, he adds.
“The cool thing about ColorSync is that it lets me work in a whole RGB workflow,” O’Connor said. “I can leave all of my images in RGB — which is, after all, how I acquired them — and not have to convert them to a specific CMYK destination until I go to that destination. If you need to send files to more than one destination, you haven’t ruined the color by converting it to one flavor of CMYK.”
He also thinks that Mac OS X is “light years” ahead of the traditional Mac operating system.
“We’re just beginning to scratch the surface of the promise that is there,” he said. “I’ve already created an entire publishing workflow in Mac OS X. Just imagine what we’ll be able to do in the years ahead.”