Hi, I'm Nigel Nicholson. As a way of earning a modest income whilst also acting as a house-spouse (let's have some gender inclusive language around here), I developed a small phototypesetting business. I identify myself as either N²productions or by name in the books that I have set, and with a simple N² on any maps that I produce.

I produced my first Camera Ready Copy (CRC) for a book in 1997, using Calamus DTP software on an Atari ST Mega 4 computer, outputing the pages on an Atari laser printer at 300dpi.

Technology has moved on a bit since then. I now do my work on a Windows machine. I used Corel Ventura DTP software for many years, with Corel Draw and Photopaint as supplemetary software, but, with Corel failing to maintain Ventura, I now use Adobe InDesign DTP supplemeted by Illustrator and the ubiquitous Photoshop. The advantage of DTP over Microsoft Word is the greater page control, a feature that is required for good typesetting. Output is now exclusively Adobe Acrobat PDF files which can be uploaded to the publisher or printer via the Internet.

I have set over 100 books of assorted complexity, ranging from simple text with a few endnotes to books that have included such things as musical notation, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and Sanscrit text, multiple pictures and diagrams, or footnotes and endnotes together.

A number of years ago I produced some web pages with some samples of my work on them; to see them, click here.

If you are in need of having some work setting, and would like to contact me to discuss it, please do not hesitate to email me. To any academics out there who have been asked by their publisher to submit print-ready files, I would give the simple advice of "don't try to do it yourself" - unless you have a lot of time to spare. Just because you have a collection of Word files does not mean that you are close to having a book. Like all DIY, it can be fun and even satisfying to do it yourself; but it is a craft that has to be learnt, and is a lot easier and better when done with the right tools.