A Tokai Book

[iainblack]

Hi folks, Merry Xmas. I have done 4 mock up pages, one guitar per page. It took about half an hour in all and I have not added any text. it is just to show you how it looks.

The best way for me to share i with you is for you to download the blurb software and I email you the book file. All you need to do then is import the file I send you to view it. In fact we could each do our own pages this way working from a single master file as you cant import separate pages.

I have the file ready to send so let me know when you are ready and I will pm the file to you.

Iain

 

[iainblack]

Just worked out that the file is 200 mb so I am looking at saving a pdf, will get back to you

 

[iainblack]

I have sussed out how to show you sample pages I created. 1 guitar per page as I dont think you can spread photos across 2 pages. There is also a way to do a community book where you would upload your photos to a site and I will then do the layout. The alternative is that we save the book file to disc and send it to each other to work on our own pages then save the new file to another disc and send it back to me to do the printing - that may be a bit impratical

Anyway, let me know what you think of these:

 

[iainblack]

one more that show the page layout below:

 

[marcusnieman]

Nice... all of them.

 

[iainblack]

Thank you but what do people think of the style / layout?

 

[imosdad]

Hi Iain,

Absolutely brilliant. A great start! I love the photos but think we could possibly do with some help on the layout? I am no graphic designer but I wonder if the pages seem a bit 'busy'? I did a search for 'guitar' on the blurb site and thought these looked good...

http://www.blurb.com/books/757370

http://www.blurb.com/books/302703

Anyone else any thoughts? Otherwise I am more than happy to go with what Iain has started.

I'm looking forward to seeing my two blue Goldies in print.

Cheers

Dave[/code]

 

[imosdad]

Hi Iain,

Absolutely brilliant. A great start! I love the photos but think we could possibly do with some help on the layout? I am no graphic designer but I wonder if the pages seem a bit 'busy'? I did a search for 'guitar' on the blurb site and thought these looked good...

http://www.blurb.com/books/757370

http://www.blurb.com/books/302703

Anyone else any thoughts? Otherwise I am more than happy to go with what Iain has started.

I'm looking forward to seeing my two blue Goldies in print.

Cheers

Dave[/code]

 

[japaxes]

good job iain ....you the man :lol:

 

[iainblack]

Thanks chaps, I will try another template as I take your point about crowded but the idea of the software is to do away with designer. It was only 15 minutes of playing about so it will improve with a bit of work. Now that I can share views I can try a few other designs with the same photos and see what we think.

 

[Anonymous]

Seems good so far. What about captions?

Mike

 

[iainblack]

Here is a larger book size with a cleaner approach to the photos in terms of no overlap. We can change the colour of the page background - I think white is good but may try it in black to see,

 

[iainblack]

or with Black

 

[JohnA]

Just a thought - There is some history text on Togps site written by Peter Mac, or the article that featured in the magazine featuring Mikes ST60 that was pretty good, something like this as a preface to all the lovely pics might be a good idea?? Unless someone from the forum is up to writing something??

BTW, it looks great put me down for a copy from the 1st run!

 

[Anonymous]

Just a thought - There is some history text on Togps site written by Peter Mac, or the article that featured in the magazine featuring Mikes ST60 that was pretty good, something like this as a preface to all the lovely pics might be a good idea?? Unless someone from the forum is up to writing something??

BTW, it looks great put me down for a copy from the 1st run!

The Guitar & Bass mag article was very good, but I would imagine that permission will be required from the author (forum member Andrew Munro) & the magazine. If permission is required from the magazine, I will contact them, if you want Iain, since I was the one who helped them out with the gorgeous "models" for their photo shoot.

 

[chrisheyes]

Wow

Excellent idea and start, very impressive

Another piece of info I've just found from togps' website.

http://www.tokaiguitar.de/1.php?pageid=13&tplid=2

It's funny how you recognise internal photo's of your own guitars !!

Chris

 

[iainblack]

good ideas. Mike, you can look into permission however I think we could summarise the main features by rewriting from the facts as they stand. Anyone want to volunteer?

 

[iainblack]

The latest versions:

The cover needs a bit of work but is a wrap round dust jacket:

 

[iainblack]

Folks, I have pm'd all those who have responded just to confirm how many guitars we have pledged so that I can do a running order and tell you how many pages and as a result the cost of the book.

I will need to come up with standard captions for each photo e.g. Owner name & Forum username, Location, model, colour code, pick ups, saddles (tokai, final prospec), tuners (delux kluson, blank cluson)?

I have also had no response on the introduction or foreword - I think it would be nice to have some words about the forum and tokai and the history of the strat models in summary indicating the range of models we have in the books.

Is everyone happy with using the photos I proposed for the dust jacket - I think it show a nice group shot of the guitars on the front and the group shot shows forum members (we have another with more strats on it) although not all contributors, unless you want to send me passport sized photos for inclusion.

I hope this serves as a good distraction from the internal rumblings and threat of forum closure.

 

[iainblack]

Still waiting to receive any photos from those who want to partake. Just need one set of shots so that I can get designing - with the weekend coming up I may have some time to do one.

I also think we need to do a 2 page spread per guitar as this will make the book more substantial and not a 10 page booklet featuring 20 guitars. it will also do the guitars more justice. I am looking at expanding my page shots to include serial number shots and body / neck codes for interest.

Iain