Pressroom

FRESH MEADOWS, NY-SEPTEMBER 27, 2000--E-publishing will likely do to the printing press what Gutenberg did to the quill, says Mark Gross, president of Data Conversion Laboratory (DCL), an industry leader in converting and repurposing data.

"Just as copying manuscripts by hand became obsolete with the invention of movable type, we expect today's printed text and reference books will be made obsolete by electronic publishing and distribution. Any publisher or typesetter who doesn't adapt over the next few years is in danger of becoming extinct in the marketplace," Gross says.

“Publishers are making the leap. DCL has already been approached by several major publishers looking to convert as many as a thousand books each to e-book formats,” Gross adds.

The company, a 20-year veteran of performing complex electronic conversions, is developing a proprietary electronic markup system to convert large amounts of text—and non-textual material—for viewing in e-formats. It is also retooling its conversion process  to accept and deliver text and data via the Internet, cutting down on production time and increasing cost efficiencies

As e-capabilities are added to books, markups will become more sophisticated. Gross predicts that future e-texts will have audio- and video capabilities and will interactively link students to authors, instructors, databases, websites, and other students. They will also have the ability to enlarge type, view text in different languages and let students write margin notes that can be saved.

“E-texts will literally make the reader’s imagination come alive. This is just the beginning,” Gross concludes.