Book Island is an indie publishing house for picture books in translation. It specialises in beautifully illustrated, high-quality picture books to be enjoyed and treasured by both parents and children. The company was founded in 2012 in New Zealand by Belgian-born translator and linguist Greet Pauwelijn. Greet and Book Island moved to Bristol, UK in 2016.
‘Mum’s Jumper’ is the first title which Book Island has produced from scratch. Bristol-based illustrator Jayde Perkin was commissioned to develop the ideas of grief and bereavement previously explored in self-published comics. It was also the first title where this publisher used a crowdfunding campaign to bring the project to life.
The imagery in the book is reproduced from Jayde’s hand-painted artwork. The challenge was similar to another project of mine, where I collaborated with US based illustrator RS Whipple. Both books needed to retain strong, bright colour from painted originals. They were both printed using litho process, with CMYK inks, on uncoated paper stock. If the digitised versions of the paintings are not handled correctly it is easy for the printed results to be quite muted or dark and generally disappointing. It requires experience of colour management and print in order to avoid this.
To get the best results it’s crucial for the specialists in content, design and print to work together so the technical preparations are carried out correctly. I advised Book Island on the best way to prepare the image files and to create the PDF files to be handed over to the printer for proofing and final printing. Using the correct colour profiles and file specifications ensured the results were as expected and well-received.
See my blog post on preparing colour image files for print, which also includes a free downloadable guide.
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