I’ve had a recurring fantasy of making a screencast of what goes into designing the interior of a book. This week, Lauren Panepinto, in a little under 2 minutes, makes magic, snatching a book cover design apparently out of thin air. And breaking down the transition to digital text, ways to make your phone a better e-Reader, predictions about the future of the book, and a roundup of extraordinary book-related websites. Does it get any better than this? Enjoy!
Lauren Panepinto on Orbit
“Blameless” or “How to Design a Cover in 1:55 Seconds”
“Over 6 hours of my onscreen compositing, retouching, color correction, type obsessing, all condensed down to a slim sexy one minute 55 seconds of cover design.”
Craig Mod on @craigmod
Books in the Age of the iPad
“I want to look at where printed books stand in respect to digital publishing, why we historically haven’t read long-form text on screens and how the iPad is wedging itself in the middle of everything. In doing so I think we can find the line in the sand to define when content should be printed or digitized. ”
nizejpodpisany in Password Incorrect
Four Ways to Turn Your Mobile Phone Into an E Reader
“Mobile phone is a music and video player, gaming console or a mobile office, so why not an e-book reader? I’m not talking about one-time chase for a lost symbol. I’m talking about 15-minute read in a found time.”
Nathan Bransford on Nathan Bransford
Don’t Believe the E-Book Skeptics
“The e-book era is going to be one of incredible innovation and unlimited opportunity, and people who don’t see e-books dominating the future of the book world are ignoring the coming innovation and creativity and affordability.”
Cameron Chapman on NetTuts
Inspiration: Awesome Book-Related Website Designs
“If you’re a book lover, you may have noticed that the vast majority of book-related websites out there leave a bit to be desired when it comes to design and information architecture. In fact, some author and publisher websites make me feel like my eyes might bleed! But there are some gems out there, and we’ve collected some of the best.”
And for Something Completely Different . . .
FontSquirrel
“Font Squirrel is your best resource for FREE, hand-picked, high-quality, commercial-use fonts. Even if that means we send you elsewhere to get them.”
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, Joel. Sometimes, it’s like, is there anybody really out there? Then at other times, people show up to comment away! And please do thank your son for FontSquirrel. I’ll be watching out for your food posts too — glad you liked my little thing on quinoa!
Wow, that is so nice of you Betty. As a blogger, I’m sure you know what it’s like when you’re writing away, full of fire and having a great time but not really knowing what’s happening “on the other side of the screen.” So thanks.
I actually have had several people comment about the pizza piece. I have a deep interest in food, cooking and baking and have been writing about it for some time, so you may see more. Really enjoyed your quinoa post.
My son was the source for Font Squirrel by the way, and I’ve been using it regularly myself.
Joel,
You are doing an INCREDIBLE job with this blog! Even when I don’t comment, please know that I’m still reading everything! Just wanted to thank you today for the FontSquirrel site. Really lovely stuff there. And to think that it’s free. So nice.
Thanks for the passion you put into this website. Enjoyed the earlier pizza shots too. :-)
~Betty.