[FM Discuss] Subject: Re: more feedback please :)

[Daniel James]

Hi John,

> - The ability to create a front/spine/back cover for a printed book
> inside Booki. - I think it is great to be able to have all the tools for
> publishing a book in one place, instead of requiring extra applications
> such as inkscape for creating covers.

That could be achieved using a generic cover design for a particular
group, where only the:

front cover title/subtitle/author
spine title/author
back cover text, photo and barcode number

vary. These values could be entered in a Booki text form, such as 'get
cover', which would generate the barcode SVG too. That way, you could
create a uniform look for printed books from the same group, or share
good cover designs among communities.

Sometimes you deliberately want to change cover colour between versions,
e.g. the 'red book' versus the 'orange book' in technical standards for
CD production. That might be achieved using a CSS value.

I have seen publishers use generic covers in advance of the final design
being available (e.g. for uncorrected proof copies). And of course most
computer book publishers use generic covers with public domain artwork,
because they don't care much about design (or think that their audience
doesn't care).

> It doesn't mean that you can't use
> application of course, especially if you were to make a complex cover.

Right, in the book trade the cover designer is usually a different
person from the editor, so using two different tools is not an issue, as
long as those tools are compatible.

The cover designer might appreciate having the barcode SVG available
along with the text and photo, so they might need a login for Booki too.
This would allow the designer to download the latest revision of these
resources. After the design was finalised, they could then upload their
custom cover PDF to replace the short-term generic autogenerated cover.

Cheers!

Daniel