Design and typography
Design includes format, choice of typeface, page layout,
illustrations, and the design of the book jacket. One designer may
be responsible for all parts of a book, but more frequently the
cover will be designed separately (at a notably higher rate). The
designer, whether freelance or in-house, is briefed by the editor
chiefly responsible for the book. To a certain extent design
decisions may be based on a house 'look'. Marketing considerations
are also relevant here. Any discussion of the design aspects of
publications is difficult to separate from considerations of
typography relating to printing and production (see Chapter 2). Many
amateurs and enthusiasts have taken an interest in this side of
publication, and anyone who has ever dabbled in self-or desktop
publishing appears to swiftly form firm opinions on typographical
topics, particularly regarding legibility. Printers and designers
notable for their influence in New Zealand include R. Coupland
Harding; Denis Glover—whose correspondence with Oxford
printer John Johnson is reproduced by D.F. McKenzie
(1987)—Bob Lowry and others at the Caxton Press; and the
historian J.C. Beaglehole. Many books are designed in-house and
little study has been devoted to any development of a specifically
New Zealand style. Dennis McEldowney attempted a survey of New
Zealand trends in 'The typographical obsession' (1980). The recently
instituted GP Print Book Design Awards (replacing the New Zealand
Book Awards Production category—introduced to focus on
design, but too broad in its criteria to accomplish this very
successfully) offer its judge an opportunity to air opinions on
design in book production. The thoughts of the first judge of the
awards (Lindsay Missen) were published in 1997.
In the days of hot
lead, typesetting was an integral part of the printer's
establishment (and a printer's house style was often as influential
as a publisher's). With the shift to photosetting after World War
II, a number of independent firms were established, and to get the
best prices publishers often contracted typesetting and printing
separately. The general availability of cheap professional-standard
'desktop' typesetting systems since the late 1980s, and the
provision of manuscripts on computer disk, has seen much typesetting
work carried out in-house.
Proofing is
usually a joint responsibility of author and publisher, defined in
the author's contract. The careful reader may suspect that in many
mass-market titles these days both parties have abdicated their
responsibility and dispensed with this step altogether—or
left it to the computer spell-check. The publisher's production
editor will be responsible for checking the technical details of
proofs—the grid, margins, folios, widows, orphans and the
other arcana of page design. Instructions on proofreading are
included in the style manuals cited earlier, and a rare and
interesting historical glimpse into one house's practices is to be
found in W.A. Glue's History of the Government
Printing Office (1966).
The relationship
between publisher and printer is crucial to the quality of the
finished product. A number of New Zealand publishers have also been
printers (for example Caxton, Whitcombe & Tombs, and the
Government Printer). Since the 1970s much printing of New Zealand
titles has taken place overseas, particularly in Southeast Asia, for
reasons of economics (especially in colour printing), quality
assurance and the capacity to produce large casebound books or
perform complex printing jobs. The arm's length nature of the
relationship with an overseas printer obviously restricts
communication and control and usually the delivery of Ozalids or
dyelines provides the last opportunity for the publisher to rectify
errors. The Industries Development Commission reported in 1978 on an
appeal by the New Zealand Printing Industry Federation which wished
to manufacture a greater proportion of New Zealand-published books (
Book Production Inquiry , 1978), finding
that restrictive tariffs on overseas printing would be unlikely to
help, and would also contravene the Unesco Florence Agreement on the
importation of educational, scientific and cultural materials (1952)
to which New Zealand was a signatory. The Commission suggested that
printers and publishers should cooperate to develop a small group of
specialist manufacturers. Publishers' submissions to the Commission
suggested they were not unhappy with the status quo. Recently local
printers have been able to offer more competitive terms and the
advantage of proximity is clearly appreciated by many publishers,
whether or not the quality of the printed product has any bearing on
a book's sales.
