Seattle Publishing Journal
September 2009

Traditionally fall is the time of reaping what has been sowed earlier in the year. It is a time of kids returning to school and the leaves turning a golden hue, when we start preparing for the year's end and planning for the next.

In this issue, we share with you a new wine trails guide for Idaho and discuss desktop publishing's influence on web design through Cascading Style Sheets.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
The SP Crew

TIPS & TRICKS

Cascading Style Sheets

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to describe the look and feel of a document written in a markup language for websites. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document.

By combining CSS with the functionality of a Content Management System like the Gutenberg Publishing System®, a considerable amount of flexibility can be programmed into content submission forms. This allows a contributor, who may not be familiar with editing CSS or HTML code, to select the layout of the content they are submitting on-the-fly.

For example, a contributor, editor or author of an article can choose the web page content and whether or not the page or article will carry an image. This information is then passed to the Gutenberg Publishing System and the program logic will evaluate the information and apply the selected styling and positioning of the content according to the pre-defined CSS for the selected web page layout.

When working with large-scale, complex websites with many contributors, this advantage weighs heavily on the overall website flexibility and lowers maintenance costs.

FEATURED PROJECT

A Northwest wine trilogy

This Fall, Seattle Publishing will be using the Gutenberg Publishing System® in combination with our production services to produce the third addition of the WineTrails Northwest book series. During the summer author Steve Roberts has been traveling throughout Idaho and writing what he has discovered about the wines and wineries that Idaho has to offer. Judging by the success of his first two guides, WineTrails of Idaho will quickly become a must read for the wine enthusiast wanting to discover their own adventures. The guide will be available in December 2009.

THE ART OF PUBLISHING

Apple Computer and its desktop publishing roots

Macintosh, or Mac, was introduced on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a graphical user interface rather than a command-line interface.

By 1985, the combination of the Mac, Apple's LaserWriter printer, and Mac-specific software like Aldus PageMaker, enabled users to design, preview, and print page layouts complete with text and graphics-a process to become known as desktop publishing. Initially, desktop publishing was unique to the Macintosh, but eventually became available for IBM PC users as well. Later, applications such as Macromedia FreeHand, QuarkXPress, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator strengthened the Mac's position as a graphics computer and helped to expand the emerging desktop publishing market.

DID YOU KNOW...

17th Annual Bicycle Alliance Auction

For the past five years, the Bicycle Paper staff has worked with the Bicycle Alliance of Washington to gather donations for their annual auction on October 24. This year's auction includes items for both the cyclist and non-cyclist alike.

Words to Ponder

"Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it."

Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder.

 

The Gutenberg Publishing System's® namesake, Johannes Gutenberg, defined modern publishing when he blended 1400’s ink, type and mechanical technology to invent the moveable type press. With the same drive towards efficiency, Seattle Publishing’s database-driven system helps organizations manage their information and streamline the production process for print- and web-based publications.

Seattle Publishing, Inc. is a 36-year old company that blends current technology with time-tested publishing techniques. The company is a recognized leader in database-driven publishing and is constantly working to be the standard by which all competitors are compared.

Press Contact

Amber Zapffel
Seattle Publishing
206-903-1333
amber@seattlepub.com