Monday, October 25, 2010

A Large Print Version of New Zealand Books


http://www.readhowyouwant.co.nz/
Press Release:

Read How You Want is proud to announce the launch of its customised Large Print publishing in New Zealand.
Working with foundation NZ publishers Allen & Unwin, Exisle Publishing, Hachette NZ and HarperCollins NZ, we are helping to make NZ content available in Large Print for the first time. ReadHowYouWant converts and
republishes titles in Large Print on a ‘print on demand’ basis using the innovative Wellington-based digital printer Astra Group, so freight and greenhouse emissions are kept to a minimum as are set-up costs for publishers. Demand from Public Libraries in particular has been extremely robust, with over 200 titles ordered in our first week of operation in NZ!

Large Print is not a Single Format
Standard Large Print books are set in 16 point size type. There are however a large number of people for whom 16 point is simply not large or dense enough to enable enjoyable reading. Our customised system allows us to print every book in font sizes from 16 point right up to 24 point enabling many more visually impaired people to rediscover the joy of reading.

ReadHowYouWant was founded by digital innovators Chris Stephen & Greg Duncan. When Chris's sister, who suffers from MS, developed difficulty reading, they began experimenting to determine whether people with
reading difficulties could benefit from changing the text format. After more than four years of testing, ReadHowYouWant has successfully developed award-winning conversion technology that reformats existing books into high quality, alternative formats quickly, easily, and at price points comparable to standard format books. ReadHowYouWant’s books have been optimized to improve both word recognition and ease of eye tracking by adjusting word and line spacing. Line spacing has been increased to stop the eye moving to
adjacent lines, but is still close enough for the line above and below to be used as an eye tracking guide.End of line hyphenation has been minimized.

The books are perfect-bound (the same as most paperbacks) in a standard 254mm(h) x 197mm(w) paperback edition, generally reproducing the original artwork within the cover template. Back cover material is reproduced
internally in the required font size as well. Production and printing usually takes place within 7 days always ensuring that a freshly-printed book arrives to the reader.

International Publishing Partners
ReadHowYouWant is an Australian company, working with Australian, US and New Zealand publishers, meaning that in many cases content is made available in Large Print for the first time across a very broad range of
categories (not just bestselling romance!). With over 100 other publishing partners worldwide (with more joining all the time) we offer an extensive range of over 4,000 New Zealand, Australian, US, and classic ‘out of
copyright’ titles.

Enquiries
All sales and publisher enquiries should be directed to General Manager, Chris Burgess at cburgess@readhowyouwant.com
or ph: +61 405 033 566.

The following publishing partners are available for comment:
Allen & Unwin NZ – New Zeland Director - Melanie Laville-Moore ph: +64 9369 5290
HarperCollins NZ – Managing Director - Tony Fisk ph: +64 9 443 9400

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