Michael Joseph groggjan
1999 Octavia, a company that puts rare books on a CD
ROM's, avoiding fast sound and anger
Movies, computer animations and music scores.
Instead, the lush print page is the fancy feature of oaktsavo's elegant, searchable, printable, zoomed-out first version of the rendered drawing, by Milton, Shakespeare, Copernicus and others
With these authors, Octavo CD-
Patrick Ames, ceo of ROM, said ROM does not need any multimedia gewgaws to attract the interest of readers.
This format is also very practical.
"You can play with it, print it out, sprinkle the coffee on it, and print it out . "Ames said.
"With a really rare book, you have to be very careful. It's fragile.
You can't really read it.
"Since it was founded in 1997 by John E. oaktavo
Mr. Warnock, chairman and chief executive of Adobe SystemsAmes (
Former head of Adobe Publishing Department)
The company has set up a catalogue of more than a dozen titles spanning the popular and academic markets.
These range from Jeffrey Chaucer's collection to Robert Hook's "micro-Shadow", a gorgeous illustration on the 17 th
Century Insect Literature.
Prices range from $20 to $75.
An advertising company takes its name from a printed term that refers to the size of a piece of paper or a book
Size of standard printed paper.
With the advent of octaavo books in the medium term, advertising
15 th century, Sir.
"The information is no longer locked in a monastery or church," said Ames.
"You can carry it with you," he added.
Everyone can read it.
This is how the Renaissance came. ''Mr.
Ames admits that so far, Octavia has had very little sales: he estimates that the company has sold less than 2,000 CDsROM last year
However, he said that revenue has doubled every month since February 1998, marking the arrival of the market for Octavia's first product, the first edition of Shakespeare's sonnets.
A rare book in Warnock's personal collection.
And the company (octavo. com)
Last fall, its book was chosen as one of the main giveaways for Salon magazine, giving it to new subscribers, etc, triggering a public relations coup.
The New York Public Library recently granted its entire collection of octovo exclusive digital rights (
Plans to launch the eight-release version of Alice in Wonderland, original painting by Sir John Tennier).
Similar agreements have been signed between the Library of Congress, the Philadelphia Library Corporation, the Southern Methodist University Bridgewell Library and the National Academy of Sciences.
Octovo recruits scholars to provide introductory papers and comments for each title and, in some cases, delegate new translations.
The technical production process of Octavo is very laborious.
Every book is customized.
The cradle was built and then painstakingly ignited to capture all the details of the binding, paper texture, ink smearing and impressions left by the printing equipment.
The books were taken using better light digital cameras, which NASA also used for technical analysis, and Metropolitan Police also used for criminal forensics.
The resulting image resolution is 8,000 by 10,000 pixels, using about 750 MB of memory per page.
The standard TV screen is 640x480 pixels.
Compress the image to about 10 megabytes per frame, then process it and format it to P. D. F. 's (
File)
A bank of Apple's G3 computers runs around the clock.
At this point, the whole book may be set to live text so it can search completely.
Most Octavo versions have about 1,000 bookmarks to help readers navigate through them.
Browse books using Adobe Reader software (
Included on each disk)
, Users can enlarge any part of any page up to 800% without affecting image clarity.
Executive edit of Octavo. M.
This particular processing is necessary, Jiang said.
"You get as much information from types, paper, and layout methods as you get from the text itself," she said . ".
She then gave a detailed description of the trail of a bookworm, which was hollowed out in octaavo's Copernicus version, which made her turn to be more enthusiastic about foxing
Traces of fungi or moisture, named after their similar color to animal fur)
Experiment and observation of electricity by Benjamin Franklin.
The only topic that Octavia officials are not good at expressing is marketing.
No one in the company really knows who will buy these books. Mr.
The disks can be found on www, Ames said. amazon .
Com, barnesandnoble.
Some independent bookstores are sold directly to "bibli homes, librarians, academics and students, professionals and digerati" from the site of Octavo ".
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But it remains to be seen whether this will translate into profit.
"No one knows what the demand in this market is because there is no market . "Ginger said.
"This is a very difficult position for a company.
It's not a book, it's not software, it's totally something else, that's the problem.
"It's anyone's guess whether anyone bought this, or if it becomes a feeling, or if we're going to go into black. We don't know.
"One reason they don't know is that the company doesn't have a complete one.
Time marketers.
At present, octaavo mainly conducts marketing research through the Internet.
An English graduate student at Stanford University, who works part-time at octaavo, spent a few days searching for Bishop groups that may buy the company's first --
Publish the general prayer book in bulk, or issue it for Mormons who might snap up Joseph Smith's original Mormon book.
"Given the origins of Octavia, none of these should be too surprising.
Although the company wants to make a profit, it is made by Mr.
Warnock, a man who collects old manuscripts, is more or less a labor of love.
Of course, when a person is in charge of a large software company, it will be easier to let Labor be ruled by love if it is a bit in trouble.
Oaktavo's second financial cycle begins early this year.
Ames said he and Mr. Ames
Warnock is attracting a variety of venture capitalists, he hopes that an investor can provide
Cash injection.
Octavo is also considering working with traditional publishers.
Ames said he did not take a serious stance on the fledgling e-book market.
"If our core Charter is accessible and affordable, it's not wise for us to put a lot of effort into it," he said . " Quote the high price of the ebook and what he calls "poor" screen resolution.
At this point, the company's strategy is clearly decentralized, driven mainly by the enthusiasm of the employees themselves.
"What I choose, I think is fascinating," Ms. Ginger said.
Not long ago, Octavo advertised at a marketing conference.
Seven employees of Ames and oaktavo gathered in the company conference room to hear Ms. oaktavo's speech.
Ginger's sales pitch for the new Octavo version: The 1524 Conservative Party's book of hours.
The illustrated prayer book, one of the many prayer books printed from the end of the 13 th to the beginning of the 16 th century, is considered a symbol of the ultimate status of Christianity, and aristocratic families sometimes become poor in order to get them.
Seven times in half an hour.
Ginger describes the book of hours with the word "incredible" (
Made by Jeffrey Torley, France's first royal printer)
This is what she just saw in the Library of Congress.
She showed a carefully decorated copy of the book and said loudly, "Bugs! The twigs!
The sheer beauty of this work overwhelmed me!
One employee mentioned the possibility of sales: "Can we make posters with these pictures ? "? Screen savers? Mouse pads?
But most of the time, the conversation is limited to the discussion of the book itself.
When asked how the first readers of the book used the text, Ms.
Ginger said, "It's a specific day, so you'll go and read and see what prayers you should say.
An employee asked, "like, 'How can I get through a marketing meeting? '' ''Mr.
Ames looked into his eyes and missed any beat.
"That's right," he said.
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A version of this article appears in print in January 7, 1999, on page G00006 of the national edition, with the title: rare and exquisite books you can read to your fullest.