By Dave Bailey, PPS Editor Break out the quill pens! It’s time to discuss cursive penmanship. Why does it exist? Why do we learn it? In today’s high-tech world, what good is cursive writing? The origin story: From Rome to D’Nealian When did cursive writing start? According to Jennie Cohen on history.com, the first known cursive script was developed by…
By Rachel Guise, PPS Editor January 1st brings with it a new year and an opportunity to start fresh. Why not extend our new year’s resolutions to our business practices? Tidying Up with Marie Kondo sparked a movement to “clear out the clutter—and spark joy.” An end-of-year clean-out is great way to spark joy for the new year. A Clean…
By Jennifer Hastings, PPS Project Manager You’ve just completed your book. The hard part is done, right? Well, maybe not. Have you given any thought to how your work will be distributed to your readers? Traditionally, books are printed in set quantities. Selling enough books will cover printing costs and hopefully make a profit. To achieve this, a writer must…
Article by David Bailey Alt text, short for “alternative text,” started because of a requirement in the Section 508 Amendment to the United States Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that requires all federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Alt text is used to describe images in a document for users with a…
By Rachel Guise, PPS Editor What is a keyboard shortcut? Keyboard shortcuts are combinations of keys that initiate a command in the program that you’re using. The following lists are key combinations that can be used in Microsoft programs as well as most search engines. TurboFuture provides lists of the most used keyboard shortcuts as well as some that are…
By Dave Bailey, PPS Production Editor Publishing has moved beyond printing a book and calling that the finish line. Publishing is now a multiservice industry. Suppose your company wants to publish a How-To Guide for App development using Python. Not only do you need to write the guide, you need to create, find, and organize images for the guide; edit…
By Rachel Guise, PPS Editor What is gender neutrality? Gender neutrality is the belief that language and other social foundations should avoid categorization according to a person’s gender or sex. This includes suggesting that certain societal roles belong to either a male or female. Before gender neutrality was defined, writers and editors made attempts to be inclusive with the use…
By Marsha Hall, PPS Project Manager At Progressive Publishing Services, our project managers nurture your project from concept to completion. Whether you’re interested in full-service publishing, book publishing services, publishing project management, or e-book publishing, our professional staff focus on your project, working one-on-one with you, your authors, editors, art departments, publishers, indexers, composition groups, and printers. It’s our task…
By Marsha Hall, PPS Project Manager In metal typesetting, a font was a size, weight and style of a typeface. In modern usage, digital typography is often synonymous with “typeface.” In the beginning, also known as 1931, The Times of London, a British newspaper, hired Stanley Morison, artistic director at Monotype, to create a text font. Morison led the project,…
By Dave Bailey, PPS Editor Whew, you finally got that big project done! During the weeks or months of a project’s life span, a lot of work gets done and a lot of decisions get made that not only affect that project, but may have implications for how similar projects are handled in the future. These project decisions could have…