Work, Work, Work….

Time to get the next issue of Transit together. It’s quite a big job nowadays – the magazine has grown since I took it over in Spring of 2003. Then, it was purely web-based, with a downloadable PDF version. Laying out the web version took two or three days; the PDF consisted of the website material (minus most of the graphics) on one-sided A4 sheets so that they could be printed out on any printer. Laying it out took – ooh, at least half-an-hour.
Now the web version of Transit is still there, but the printed Transit is a proper A5-sized booklet-format magazine. It’s two completely different versions. For the web version I can use any amount of graphics, including colour photos, and the articles can be any length. The print version has to be squeezed into 24 (or less) A5 pages – that means a lot of careful pruning and editing; it’s all in b&w and additionally, it has to have a cover illustration.
Like the web version, the graphics and photos have to be optimised; I have to lay out the text in a visually pleasing manner; I have to lay out the contents in a logical front-to-back order (with a contents list). Having done that, I have to print it out and thoroughly proofread it. Once the copy is camera-ready, I then have to convert it to PDF so that it can be emailed to the printer. That has turned out to be an operation which is never as simple as it should be. For some reason, my PDF-making program cannot seem to embed certain fonts (which messed up my front cover last time), so I’ll have to check that all the fonts are indeed embedded.
[Later: Had a look on the web and discovered that some fonts can’t be embedded into PDF files; that includes my lovely Millenium font that I use for Transit. O bother!]

Then, I can zip it off to the printer. After which, I can check the web version and upload it all.
I’ve already spent most of two days on the job and it looks like it may well take me until Wednesday at least to finish. Oh well, it’s a paying job….