A Revolution in Publishing:
Use CPS to obtain high quality from the very beginning
Are you a Publisher, Editor or Typesetter?
Re-invent your business with Calibar’s new approach!
There are 4 major parts in creating a book: copyediting, typesetting, author corrections and creating deliverables (PDF print, PDF web, eBook, mobi, xml, etc.). Usually the author sends a manuscript, which will be copyedited in word then either imported in InDesign or converted in xml and after that imported in InDesign. The typesetting will be done more or less automatically, depending on the typesetting system that it is used and a first proof is created as PDF-file. The author/proofreader marks the eventual errors in PDF, then these are implemented and verified. The second proof goes to author/proofreader and so on until there are no errors.
There are more and more CMSs that can typeset automatically and create deliverables with just one click. But those CMS need a standard input (a well styled word file or xml file). So, if the processes of typesetting and creation of deliverables are more and more automated, it remains that the copyediting and corrections cycles to be automated also. In fact, these 2 are closely related one to each other, because the better the copyediting task is, less corrections we will have and vice-versa. Moreover, most of the corrections are related not to grammar and spelling, but mostly on normalization of the content throughout the book like: using of dashes, punctuation, logical and uniform callouts, etc. So, everything depends on the quality of the copyediting part. If we obtain a good quality in the copyediting process, we’ll have fewer corrections and, accordingly, fewer cycles of corrections.
And here it comes the Calibar’s innovation: we included copyediting (the non-linguistic part) in our typesetting system. Basically, we do not use Microsoft Word for copyediting but InDesign and we do it semi-automatically. Moreover, our system can use AI (Artificial Intelligence), thus getting better and better every day. In fact, we use the powerful ‘grep’ option of InDesign in order to map complex patterns and get them normalized.
With a single click we import the Word file to InDesign and we assure 100% accuracy for any character attributes: from bold or italics to double underline or strikethrough. Even the indexes are 100% transferred and also the cross-references to page numbers. Actually, we open the Word file, we code it, then import the word into InDesign and decode it. Then we place the footnotes and do an automated copyediting. In order to assure a good quality for copyediting we have a series of validations and reports, which lets the operator to take decisions wherever he wants to change something (or not). Then we have a mapping tool which groups all paragraphs into virtual lists – taking into account not only the paragraph styles that are used but also their individual attributes, like: space before, font size, etc. We let the operator confirm that grouping is correctly done, we validate that all titles with prefixes are in logical order and then we style them. We also normalize the separators between prefix and text for lists and titles. Then we manage vertical spaces, like: space between 2 consecutive titles, paragraphs with or without “indent”, separate quotations, lists, etc. From current text, we pre-style all tables and resize them, we assign all images to the same object style, etc. In the end we have a clean and standard file that can be exported in whatever file format is desired: indd, xml, html, rtf, eBook, PDF.
To summarize, we produce a high quality from the very beginning in order to have less and less corrections. We do not use anymore Microsoft Word for copyediting because its lack of stability and limitations in patterns. We’re more focused on InDesign, because here we have a much better control of our content. In the end, we are 100% sure that our content is well normalized.
For a better understanding, watch the below video:
Keep following us on our website for more detailed information on our modules: Import, Copy Editing, Styling, Validation, Table of Content generator, etc.
