Digital Publishing

[MorrisKrok@xxxxxxxx]

  From Morris,

  Publishing in the Digital World.

  Those who received copies of Herb Tyson's book were amazed that it it is
bound with a four color cover. They also wanted to know how it was printed.

  At my residence in South Africa, Westville (Durban), 10000 miles from my
holiday home in Scotts Valley, California, I have converted an outdoor
apartment into a home printing unit. It contains such essential machines such
as a guillotine, collator, folding machine and what is the heart and
indispensable to running such an operation, two Riso duplicating machines (in
metric size A3 and A4).

  These machines to a home or small-run publisher are as efficient as they
are simple to operate. There is no mess as it does not involves chemicals,
plates, water and using ink in a messy way such as found in offset printing.
The ink comes enclosed in a container. It prints 6000 copies an hour and very
seldom misfeeds or creases a sheet. The A4 machine prints two A5 pages at a
time and when printed on the reverse you have four A5 pages. An A3 machine
completes 8 pages on every sheet.

  In just over a year, using odd hours during the day or night without ever
working a full day, I have reprinted ten books, four of which are my own. All
these books are printed in 16 page sections so they can be sewn together by
company that specializes in binding. They are also given covers printed in
four colors (these are sub-contracted as they cannot be printed on the Riso)
to be pasted on the sewn book.

  When setting pages for A3 I do so on a transparent sheet so once the
first four pages are taped on, the back pages are automatically set for
printing.
   As the Riso is controlled by electronics, it tells you when to load
paper, where there is a misfeed, and the need to empty the tray of discarded
masters. The Riso's operation is based on scanning the copy to be printed and
then automatically making a paper master from which a 10000 copies can be
printed.

  Since 1955, having obtained wonderful benefits from the Nature Cure
System and Philosophy which dovetailed with the ancient science of Hatha
Yoga, I have been involved in conveying the key issues of these sciences by
using the rickety Remington typewriter, wax stencils on those old duplicator
machines, then advancing to electric typewriters, IBM composing machines,
offset lithos, XyWrite, desktop publishing and the Riso digital printer. I
did all this in my spare time without ever being employed by a firm of
printers.

  In this era of fast and extensive cyberspace communication, nothing beats
black on white. As it is more readable than all those long e-mail messages,
if one has something to say of value, even if it is controversial, disrupts
our fondest beliefs and renders the status quo null and void, it still best
put in writing.