On Sun, 2011-06-26 at 04:11 -0400, Marc Paré wrote:
> Well, as you say, there are different needs. The documentation's first
> need should be that of print quality. If we are to submit our work to
> LuLu's for print, the buyers should definitely get what we consider a
> good representation of LibreOffice in type and screenshots. From an
> aesthetic point of view, not sure if all in gray is too appealing for
> users making use of reading our documentation online. It would be nice
> if we got the same print from one of our greens as with a gray. But if
> not, then gray should be it. BTW ... are the Lulu prints in colour or B/W?
I do interior b/w to keep the cost reasonable. Colour interiors are
possible but vastly more expensive (at least 4x, from memory).
In terms of contrast, some of the greens and blues print fine in b/w,
though it depends a bit on whether text is black or white against the
colour. On personal printers, the colours might even print better in b/w
(especially if laser toner is low), but on colour printers they use up
an awful lot of expensive colour ink or toner to no advantage to users
that I can see.
That's my point: some colours print fine, but what is the value to users
of having them? IMO "appealing" is a poor criterion: what one person
finds appealing, another finds ugly or irritating or even confusing
("Why don't I see the green/blue/other colour?" "This doesn't look like
what I see; why?")
> Would getting an opinion from someone involved at Lulu's be of any
> additional help as far as the print quality? They may be able to give us
> a little more input from the point of view of end product. I think we
> could convince them to offer some opinion on the matter if we had some
> samples for them to look at.
I doubt it's worth the effort; in my experience, they refer all
questions to their online help. Anyway, they are just a front end to
printers such as Lightning Source, with whom I have had an account for
about 10 years. I have been considering working directly with LS, but
they also tend to refer people to their help.
Having published at least 15 (I haven't counted them recently) books
through Lulu and Lightning Source, I've had quite a bit of trial and
error experience. If anyone else here has had actual experience with
them, I would certainly be interested in what they have to say.
BTW, I use Lulu for convenience and because the other convenient
services (CreateSpace & I forget the other names) do not appear to have
a convenient way for a non-US-based publisher to avoid having US income
tax withheld from profits; while it's possible to get withheld taxes
back from the IRS, it involves paperwork that I at least am unwilling to
cope with.
--Jean
> Then, we can all decide (vote). The "vocal people" and others can all
> participate on the design decision being well informed on the options,
> this, as per usual with design proposal and adoption decisions. We are
> looking at:
>
> * a theme that is easily installable by members
> * a theme optimized for LibreOffice documentation screenshot print
> * a theme suitable for web and marketing purposes
>
> The theme does not necessarily need to be of the same configuration for
> the two and may lead to 2 theme configurations.
>
> Is there anything missing?
--
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