Editorially speaking … - design and publishing of magazine PSA Journal

PSA Journal, August, 2003 by Nancy Clark

Some of you may be curious how I put each issue of the Journal together. It's an ongoing process. I'm often working on two issues at the same time, in different stages of course, and receiving information for the next issue too! So, in a nutshell ...

Each magazine starts with a Pagemaker[R] template that has the basic format and regular column headings in it. (Pagemaker is an Adobe[R] software program specifically, for layout and design.) Around the 1st of each month, I receive the Department News columns by e-mail from the editors. I also receive the exhibition listing updates from each division's exhibition director, which I add to the previous month's listings. That too comes via e-mail. Typically, the news and the exhibitions are placed first. I send a Portable Document Format (PDF) proof to all of the exhibition directors after I receive all of the listings and they let me know if any changes are necessary before we publish the magazine. I also use PDF proofs for other Journal items that have a lot of important details, such as Who's Who and division competition entry forms.

Next, I insert all of the "department" column information that I have received, such as Society and You, Diffuser, Obituaries, etc. Meanwhile, I'm pulling together a proposed slate of feature articles with varied topics, photos and authors to submit to the Publications VP for approval. After the green light on feature article selections, I start doing the layout of the articles and photos with an effort to optimally utilize the color pages that we have in the feature section. This often involves selecting color photos submitted with an article that I think will reproduce well in black and white. Typically, we only have pages 19, 22, 23, 26, 27, 30, 31 and 34 for color photos.

After I get all of the Journal content placed into the Pagemaker file, I print it out and do my first edit on the hard copy. I then make all the changes, print out another copy and send it to the Publications VP for review. She e-mails her changes to me. After I make those changes, I prepare a printed and a digital copy of the magazine for our graphics people who do the final layout and design of the magazine. They typically scan the photos (that are not received in digital format) and after they complete the scanning and final layout, I proof what they have done and send my edited proof to the Publications VP for another "go" at it. The final changes are made and off it goes to the printer. The printer produces the film necessary for printing from the digital files provided. From that film, they produce a color proof. I check it one last time and then it goes on the press.

Occasionally, there is a problem with the cover photo. The printer usually scans that image because they have a high resolution drum scanner. Therefore, I don't see the cover until I receive the color proof in the last stage of this process. It's difficult to choose an image that will enlarge well enough to still appear sharp on the cover. In the event that the enlarged image is not adequately sharp for the cover, we have to scramble to come up with another one, which can be quite a challenge.

That, believe it or not, is the condensed version of the process! Simple as that!