Bourchier were initially commissioned to manage the pre-production of Renaissance Fun, including assessment of the book’s 196 figures. A number of the images originally supplied failed to reach the optimum 300dpi resolution, which meant that they were not sharp enough to reproduce well in print. This potential problem was overcome by a happy combination of redrawing (by the typesetter) and resupply of images (by the author). Another pre-production task was to establish the size and of format of each image on the page. Accordingly, we created an author figure guide, indicating the choices available to the author for this book’s particular specifications. Establishing these choices early on in the production process meant that page layout rolled out effortlessly.
The Institute of Ismaili Studies called in Bourchier’s help to typeset a dual Arabic and English book. An abundance of samples of various fonts, formats and styles were reviewed before producing the proofs. Given the many differences between English and Arabic script traditions, questions arose throughout the process, for example, as to whether subheadings in both languages should match in placement or obey the rules of their respective language. Bourchier played a vital role as the ‘middleman’ negotiating between typesetters and the client to ensure full understanding and compliance with the client’s brief.
This lavishly illustrated colour volume, encompassing the disciplines of art history, material culture, social and economic history, urban and regional history, material sciences, painting conservation and pigment analysis, spanned over 400 pages, arranged in three parts across 24 chapters by different authors. Bourchier oversaw all the production processes and stages, including design – the book won an award from the Historians of British Art Book Prize Committee for its ‘stunningly beautiful format’.
We typeset in non-Latin scripts such as Arabic, Bahasa, Chinese, Korean, Russian and Urdu as well as Western. Our typesetters flow the copy-edited text into the client’s chosen book design template – or create a new set of specifications, as required – add in figures, tables and other images, take in proof corrections and, finally, create a print-ready file.