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Creative Commons License
Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals by Graphic Communications Open Textbook Collective, British Columbia Institute of Technology is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals

Description: This textbook -- written by a group of select experts with a focus on different aspects of the design process, from creation to production -- addresses the many steps of creating and then producing physical, printed, or other imaged products that people interact with on a daily basis. It covers the concept that, while most modern graphic design is created on computers using design software, the ideas and concepts don’t stay on the computer. The ideas need to be completed in the computer software, then progress to an imaging (traditionally referred to as printing) process. Keywords are highlighted throughout and summarized in a Glossary at the end of the book, and each chapter includes exercises and suggested readings.

November 12, 2015 | Updated: December 12, 2022
Author: Graphic Communications Open Textbook Collective, British Columbia Institute of Technology

Subject Areas
Art and Design, Design

Original source
opentextbc.ca

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Reviews (1) Avg: 4.9 / 5

Jason Edwards

Institution:North Island CollegeTitle/Position: Sessional Instructor, Digital Design and DevelopmentCreative Commons License

Q: The text covers all areas and ideas of the subject appropriately and provides an effective index and/or glossary

The overall coverage of subject matter in Chapters 1-3 is excellent for introductory design education. It includes brief historical roots of graphic design in society from the industrial revolution to post-modern contexts. The design process is outlined in detail, and the various compositional elements used in graphic design activities are broken down to be easily understood. There is a small section on typography in the "3.2 Visual Elements" chapter, however, I think this could be revised to be its own section in Chapter 3, given the importance of type design in the profession, and the particular history that it holds.
Colour management, Pre-Press, and Imaging are all covered in scientific precision, which may overwhelm the student who is studying graphic design, and not printing technology. This is of course important information for the print technician.

Comprehensiveness Rating: 5 out of 5

Q: Content is accurate, error-free and unbiased

The content appears to be unbiased and error free, and I would agree with the material presented as being accurate (and necessary to point out to students) except for a few of the more technical items in the pre-press and imaging sections, with which I don't have as much experience to comment on. There could be more diagrams used in the text throughout, to aid understanding of processes in printing, and to point out a few more examples in the sections on Design History. Since graphic design is a visual language, I think that using example imagery is quite important.

Content Accuracy Rating: 5 out of 5

Q: Content is up-to-date, but not in a way that will quickly make the text obsolete within a short period of time. The text is written and/or arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement

Most of the content is not at risk of being outdated, due to the fundamental nature of the content (established printing technologies and design history for example). There may be a few sections that will require regular checking, such as Chapter 4.5 Working with a Spectrophotometer, since this kind of technology can improve over the years, or new models of devices released. However, the way that it is used will likely stay the same. Operating softwares will also change more rapidly, but the way it is used is not likely to shift as quickly. Updates would be easily managed due to the section breakdowns in the chapters of the text.

Relevance Rating: 5 out of 5

Q: The text is written in lucid, accessible prose, and provides adequate context for any jargon/technical terminology used

The clarity of the text is excellent, very accessible I would say, and provides some good analogies to understand some of the more complex printing processes.

Clarity Rating: 5 out of 5

Q: The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework

There are consistent overlaps of terminology between authors, which is perhaps not surprising since the printing industry requires standard terms to be used between various professionals. Chapter introductions and summaries are described with similar structure throughout the text.

Consistency Rating: 5 out of 5

Q: The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course (i.e., enormous blocks of text without subheadings should be avoided). The text should not be overly self-referential, and should be easily reorganized and realigned with various subunits of a course without presenting much disruption to the reader.

This textbook is certainly able to be divisible into smaller sections due to the chapter sections, and most sections are not overly lengthy. There is also a building of concepts from basic to more complex in some areas.

Modularity Rating: 5 out of 5

Q: The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion

The overall text feels as though it could be two separate books. Chapters 1-3 are dealing with graphic design history and the design process, while Chapters 4-7 are concerned with printing processes and technology. Within those two areas of this textbook, the topics are presented in a logical way. Perhaps there could be more of a pre-amble to the printing technologies chapters by introducing a brief section on print technology history.

Organization Rating: 4 out of 5

Q: The text is free of significant interface issues, including navigation problems, distortion of images/charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader

Everything in the text appears to be ok, in the web-based version of the textbook the text size looks good, and the column width is appropriate for legibility. The print version of the text book could benefit from some layout design fixes, but this may be due to the print-on-demand nature of the production of the book, and the parameters of that production. It is most likely that this textbook is to be used online for maximum benefit.
A few of the links provided may need to be checked occasionally, since they link to outside sources and not always to opentextbc.ca internal server content.

Interface Rating: 5 out of 5

Q: The text contains no grammatical errors

There are no grammar or spelling errors that I have noticed, other than one period/space and new sentence capitalization mistake, which is negligble.

Grammar Rating: 5 out of 5

Q: The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. It should make use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds

No insensitive content was found, and the content is probably not at risk of diversity or inclusion issues (it's mostly a technical text book).

Cultural Relevance Rating: 5 out of 5

Q: Are there any other comments you would like to make about this book, for example, its appropriateness in a Canadian context or specific updates you think need to be made?

I would recommend this textbook, but to me it feels like two separate books in one. The first three chapters on design history and process are excellent on their own, and of course could be used in any design curriculum. The rest of the textbook is a very technically detailed account of modern printing process and technology.

As a textbook on graphic design and process, knowledge of printing processes is essential, but perhaps not quite to this level.

On the other hand, the printer should also have some knowledge of graphic design history, so I would imagine that this is an added benefit of using this particular textbook in a Print Production curriculum, and indeed this may have been its intended purpose when produced.

Overall a great resource that can be used in either Graphic Design or Print Production courses.