Crius Group is more than just Core
Learn how automation can also work for your publishing house. For more than 30 years, Crius Group has provided typesetting for various types of publishers. We always try to push the boundaries of automation. The target? Organize your production process as optimally as possible.
Dries Hermans
Internal Project Manager at Crius Group
By optimizing you can not only produce books cheaper, but you can also use your content in a more flexible way. Then you are, as a publisher, also ready for what the future holds.
Perhaps it is good to first explain what exactly we mean by "automation" or "automatic layout" within this framework. This is actually very simple. You provide your manuscript with the right styles. By applying this consistently, they can be automatically converted to the correct design (recorded in templates) within a book. In this way, manual work is reduced and you work faster and cheaper.
Yet there are also limits to the automatic layout of books. With the launch of Core, we saw that such a process for novels and thrillers, suits perfectly. Do you have books with more variety? Then there are still options, but you have to take various things into account.
What are the options then?
To clarify how far you can go in this, we distinguish three different categories. The category to which a book belongs depends on its structure and the various elements contained in the manuscript.
Category 1: fully automatic
Do you have books that consist only of text? Just think of novels and thrillers. In that case you can go very far. We developed Core specifically for these types of books, with which you can format your books almost completely automatically, without the intervention of Crius Group.
You start by structuring the manuscript. This allows you to automate approximately 95% via CORE. We do the other 5% manually. Our intervention is to get rid of smaller details, such as widows and other graphic deformities.
Category 2: semi-automatic
Some books have a little more variety, such as:
- footnotes
- endnotes
- images
- frameworks
- tables
Given your manuscript is not packed with these kinds of things, you can also keep manual DTP work to a minimum here. If sufficient structure has been applied in the manuscript, this can be reduced to only 20 to 30%.
Category 3: no automation, but templates
There are of course also books that contain more graphic elements with a lot of variation of images, formulas, tables, boxes or footnotes and endnotes. Automation is possible here, but the cost savings do not outweigh the support or manual work you need afterwards. The rule we use is: if you can automate less than 70%, the books will not go through Core. The use of graphic templates could still offer advantages here. In that case, a separate conversion of your manuscript to InDesign will follow.
You can also support your editorial staff
We understand better than anyone that structuring your manuscript involves work. Fortunately, we can help with this too! Not only do we provide useful applications to do this smarter, we can also do this work for you.
Whatever books you make, it can sometimes be too busy to do everything yourself. We increasingly see that publishers make use of external editors permanently or during peak periods to get books to the printer on time.
Of course you choose how far you go in this:
- Structuring or preparing your manuscripts for press
Crius Group has experienced employees who have all the knowledge to structure your manuscripts in the right way. - Make corrections, with or without InCopy
If you work with Core, you use InCopy* to make your corrections. We have a lot of experience in this and we are happy to assist you during this process. - Full service
We do not limit ourselves to executive tasks such as structuring and making corrections (whether or not via InCopy). We can also completely unburden you by taking over the entire process, up to and including the delivery of the print-ready PDF.
* InCopy is an editorial tool from Adobe®, with which you can make corrections directly in the open map file.
So… Crius Group is more than just Core
Crius Group has developed Core to format purely text-driven books (mostly novels and thrillers) as efficiently as possible. Thanks to the success of this method, we are fortunate to see that 'the stretch' is being sought more and more. For each book, it is important to consider whether the effort at the beginning of the process pays off enough in the layout of the book.
What many people forget is that, in addition to Core, Crius Group has 35 desktop publishers and editors who process an enormous amount of books every day. So even if a book does not lend itself to an automatic process, you may still be able to benefit by working with us.
Whatever type of books you publish and whether you want to do that fully or semi-automatically with Core or do not want to / cannot automate at all, you are in control. We assist you where you find it necessary. With our layout services and editorial support, you are in any case ready for what the future will bring and you can count on an experienced partner!
Get to know our typesetting services or see how we can help you with our editorial support