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 Post subject: Now in print[-on-demand]: Charles Matthews & Seong-June Kim,
Post #1 Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 10:27 pm 
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https://www.amazon.com/Shape-Up-Mr-Char ... s+shape+up



I'm happy to say that I was able to convince Mr. Charles Matthews to allow me to print his book "Shape Up!"using amazon's print on demand. The cost of the book is as low as it can go. I have made sure that no money is made because the PDF was free on-line and I thought it should stay as low as it can go. I have not received a copy of the book yet, but I hope it turns out good. I will let you all know once I revived a copy. It's a large format book 8.5" by 11", which I prefer myself.

I hope you take a look at it when you can.

I'm very grateful to Mr. Charles Matthews for allow me to do this project and I hope you all thank him as well. It's a nice gesture and an amazing gift.

Thanks everyone,

Kent


Last edited by Blank Paint on Fri Oct 05, 2018 6:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #2 Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 9:47 am 
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Looking forward to your update once you've received a hard copy. Please also post some pictures.

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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #3 Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 7:39 pm 
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I will do that for you. Any other concerns you have let me know. Do you have John Fairbairn's book "Final Summit"? I will take a picture next to that one for sizing.

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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #4 Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 8:44 pm 
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Thanks, ordered immediately … I have wished for a very long time to be able to read this in the bathtub :D

A book, a real book, how I love them.

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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #5 Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2018 9:09 pm 
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Here you go. I hope the photos help. If they don't work, it's just because I'm new to this system.

Cheers,

Kent


Attachments:
File comment: As you can see, the lines are not great in pictures. This I believe was from the editing done throughout the time on the internet.
IMG_0711.jpg
IMG_0711.jpg [ 1.57 MiB | Viewed 14387 times ]
File comment: As you can see, the lines are not great in pictures. This I believe was from the editing done throughout the time on the internet.
IMG_0712.jpg
IMG_0712.jpg [ 1.88 MiB | Viewed 14387 times ]
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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #6 Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2018 9:39 pm 
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Forgot to give you cover shot for size.


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File comment: This is a comparison for size.
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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #7 Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2018 11:35 pm 
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Oh, it is huge! Good printing quality. It is a shame that Yutopian did not print it many years ago.

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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #8 Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 7:52 pm 
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Received my copy today. Print quality is pretty poor/inconsistent, with many diagrams being somewhat faded and others (on the same page) being much clearer. It's definitely still readable nonetheless, so given the price, I can't complain much!

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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #9 Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 8:17 pm 
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Yeah, I agree. There are some words with letters not spaced correctly, but overall I do agree. For the price, I think it's worth it. I love the big pages, I find it easy to read.

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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #10 Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 7:39 am 
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Monadology wrote:
Received my copy today. Print quality is pretty poor/inconsistent, with many diagrams being somewhat faded and others (on the same page) being much clearer. It's definitely still readable nonetheless, so given the price, I can't complain much!


Sadly, this is par for the course for Amazon's print-on-demand service. Given the cost, however, it's probably still a good deal.

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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #11 Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 1:24 pm 
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Might be a good idea to change the subject of the opening post to something more speaking? Like …

Now in print[-on-demand]: Charles Matthews & Seong-June Kim, “Shape Up!”

?

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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #12 Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 4:29 pm 
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Yes! Great idea! How can that be done?

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 Post subject: Re: NEW GO BOOK 2018
Post #13 Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 4:56 pm 
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If you edit your first post, you should be able to change the title. By the way, try to avoid "all caps", it's unnecessarily "clickbait"


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 Post subject: Re: Now in print[-on-demand]: Charles Matthews & Seong-June
Post #14 Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 6:21 pm 
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Thank-you for the suggestions and help. I'm sorry I used caps, when not needed. I won't do that again.


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 Post subject: Re: Now in print[-on-demand]: Charles Matthews & Seong-June
Post #15 Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 11:50 am 
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Got mine today :)

First impression:

Book format: (W*H) 216 mm * 280 mm / ~8.5" * ~11"
Type size for running text: ~13 pt

The diagrams, accordingly, are also quite large.
(You can see the relations if you look at the source document, the free PDF at http://cdn.online-go.com/shape_up.pdf)

—> I for one think I could have lived perfectly well with half the size: (W*H) 6.6" * ~8.6" / ~167 mm * 216 mm (better also for holding the book in one hand, which is almost impossible with the printed format)

Binding: glued, looks quite stable.

The problem re: thin lines in some diagrams has already been mentioned, it does make reading the diagrams harder, but for the little money I’m not going to complain—especially since it’s in the original PDF already.

What really irks me is the kerning of the sans-serif text passages.
(But again, not a complaint towards Blank Paint, given the price, see also below.)

Maybe there’s something wrong with the PDF already (sans-serif text in boxes is badly kerned there), maybe a not correctly or completely embedded font or something?
But while the bold sans-serif titles and headlines look well in the PDF (maybe they look good only on my computer b/c I have lots of fonts?), they are badly kerned in the printed book (a problem added by the Print-On-Demand System?)

(Sadly I don’t currently have the time, but I think … maybe it could/should be exported anew with correct font embedding or something, using Adobe Acrobat?)

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 Post subject: Re: Now in print[-on-demand]: Charles Matthews & Seong-June
Post #16 Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2018 2:55 pm 
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I had a friend with Amazon Prime order my copy, so I received it quickly for less than $7. At that price point, I'm thrilled.

That being said, as mentioned by others, there are strange kerning and line thickness issues that are not present in the source PDF.

I've created two comparison shots. On the left is the source PDf found here. On the right is the same page scanned from my book.

In the first comparison, the image quality of the right image is a function of my scanner, not the book. The point of that comparison is to show the kerning issues in the textbox that are not in the source PDF.

In the second comparison you can see the kerning in the chapter title, and the strange variation in line thickness.

HOWEVER, I'm delighted to own this book and my immense thanks to the original authors and the person who took the trouble to make it printable via Amazon!!! :bow:


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 Post subject: Re: Now in print[-on-demand]: Charles Matthews & Seong-June
Post #17 Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2018 9:50 pm 
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For the book price, one cannot expect better printing quality. E.g., if a good printer had been chosen, there would have been transport costs from that printer to Amazon and necessarily the price must be higher. It is good to know, however, that Amazon's own printing on demand has quality problems. Provided I understand correctly that that is what is being used.


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 Post subject: Re: Now in print[-on-demand]: Charles Matthews & Seong-June
Post #18 Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 3:01 pm 
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I'm going to return mine. It appears to be of lower quality than the other copies people have posted.

Typical page:

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 Post subject: Re: Now in print[-on-demand]: Charles Matthews & Seong-June
Post #19 Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 3:24 pm 
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Yeah, pretty bad quality.

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 Post subject: Re: Now in print[-on-demand]: Charles Matthews & Seong-June
Post #20 Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 4:06 pm 
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What's really strange is that the printing quality seems very inconsistant between diagrams inside the same page, but the diagrams themself are consistant.

It feels like the problem was the conversion between the original pdf and the printing format that is internally used by Amazon.

For exemple, diagrams 2, 3, 5 and 6 seems to be converted one way, and 1 and 4 another way.

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