The text for 5 Acres & A Dream The Sequel has at last reached final draft status! The next text check will be when I review a printed proof copy. This is important because it’s amazing how things you miss on a computer screen. Yet, they pop out at you from a printed page.
Before I can do that, however, I need to prepare the entire interior book file for print. This includes selecting and optimizing the images for print, designing the book interior page by page, then designing and preparing the cover.
I do all of my image prep with Gimp Photo Editor. After I open the photo in Gimp, I follow these steps:
- Image > Mode > Grayscale
- Image > Scale Image > 300 pixels/inch
- Colors > Brightness-Contrast > Brightness 30, Contrast 20
- Filters > Enhance > Unsharp Mask > Radius 1.5, Amount 1.0, Threshold 0
- Image > Scale Image > width 1350 pixels (4.5 inches) or whatever final print size is desired
- File > Export As > (.jpeg), Quality 100, Advanced Options > uncheck everything. This decreases the image size (kilobytes) as much as possible.
At this point, the images don’t look good on the computer monitor because optimizing them for print is very different than optimizing them for a screen. Anything that looks questionable can be run off on a printer at its desired print size. That gives me a fair idea of how it will look in a paperback and whether or not to replace it.
I organize the images in their own folders by chapter, and number them in the approximate order they will appear in the book. This is important, because when the photos pile up, it becomes confusing as to which one is next.
When I get my first print proof, I will be able to see how the photos turned out. I then make both image and text adjustments in a revised interior file, upload that, and order a new print proof. I repeat this until I’m satisfied with the proof copy. Then the book is ready to publish.
My record for proofs was 5 Acres & A Dream The Book. I ordered seven proofs, mostly because I had trouble getting the cover right. Hopefully, The Sequel will go faster than that!