How Computers Make Books you own this product

From graphics rendering, search algorithms, and functional programming to indexing and typesetting
John Whitington
  • March 2024
  • ISBN 9781633438675
  • 176 pages
  • printed in black & white

pro $24.99 per month

  • access to all Manning books, MEAPs, liveVideos, liveProjects, and audiobooks!
  • choose one free eBook per month to keep
  • exclusive 50% discount on all purchases

lite $19.99 per month

  • access to all Manning books, including MEAPs!

team

5, 10 or 20 seats+ for your team - learn more


Look inside
Learn about computer science by exploring the fascinating journey it took to make this book!

How Computers Make Books introduces what’s wonderful about computer science by showing how computers have transformed the art of publishing books. Author and publishing software developer John Whitington reveals the elegant computer science solutions invented to solve big publishing challenges.

In How Computers Make Books you’ll discover:

  • How human descriptions are translated into computer programs
  • How a computer can understand document formatting
  • How a program decides where to print ink on a page
  • Why computer science is so interesting to computer scientists, and why it might interest you
  • …and much more!

How do computers represent all the different languages and letters used by humans? How do we compress a book’s worth of complex information so it can be transferred in seconds? And what exactly is a computer program? This book answers all those questions by telling the story of how it was created!

about the technology

Computers are part of every step in creating a book, from capturing the author’s words as a digital document to controlling how the ink gets onto the paper. How Computers Make Books introduces basic computer science concepts like file formatting, transfer, and storage, computer programming, and task automation by guiding you through the modern digital printing process.

about the book

This book takes you on a journey from the plain white page, weaving through typesetting, making gray images from black ink, electronic file formats, and more. It makes computer science come alive as you see how every word, illustration, and page has its own story. You’ll even learn to write your own simple programs and discover hands-on what’s so intoxicating about computer science.

what's inside

  • How human descriptions are translated into computer programs
  • How a digital computer thinks about print documents
  • How a program decides where to print ink on a page
  • How the history of typesetting shows up in modern books

about the reader

For the curious-but-clueless about computer science—and anyone interested in how computers make books!

about the author

John Whitington is the founder of a company that builds software for electronic document processing. He has studied and taught Computer Science at Queens’ College, Cambridge.

Technical editor on this book was Bojan Stojanović.

This should be required for new computer science majors.

Charles Mike Shelton, Systems Engineer (Retired)

Full of tips and examples that can be applied to all design processes.

Jose Alberto Reyes, Quevedo dealer.com

An insightful journey. A must-read for anyone navigating the intersection of technology and publishing.

Ganesh Falak, Nutan College of Engineering and Research at Talegaon

choose your plan

team

monthly
annual
$49.99
$499.99
only $41.67 per month
  • five seats for your team
  • access to all Manning books, MEAPs, liveVideos, liveProjects, and audiobooks!
  • choose another free product every time you renew
  • choose twelve free products per year
  • exclusive 50% discount on all purchases
  • How Computers Make Books ebook for free

choose your plan

team

monthly
annual
$49.99
$499.99
only $41.67 per month
  • five seats for your team
  • access to all Manning books, MEAPs, liveVideos, liveProjects, and audiobooks!
  • choose another free product every time you renew
  • choose twelve free products per year
  • exclusive 50% discount on all purchases
  • How Computers Make Books ebook for free

choose your plan

team

monthly
annual
$49.99
$499.99
only $41.67 per month
  • five seats for your team
  • access to all Manning books, MEAPs, liveVideos, liveProjects, and audiobooks!
  • choose another free product every time you renew
  • choose twelve free products per year
  • exclusive 50% discount on all purchases
  • How Computers Make Books ebook for free