This is a new project for session 2009 – 2010.

Just before the Easter holidays most pupils completed their story books, ready to upload to www.blurb.com for printing and binding.  Most used a combination of Inkscape, Gimp and either Scribus or PagePlus to create the graphics and lay them out, ready for export to PDF format.

Many pupils used colour and pastel pencils to create the graphics, which they scanned, then further enhanced.  Some took photos and enhanced / manipulated them, to illustrate their stories.

This is quite a departure from the leaflets that pupils have produced on the Higher Graphics course over the last few years.  All pupils were given the option to create a leaflet instead of a book, but all opted for a story book.  A considerable amount of extra work was needed to realise their books, but almost everyone rose to the challenge, and will have an unusual portfolio piece to take along to university interviews in future.

Those who opted to use open source software (Scribus, Inkscape and Gimp) instead of a commercial alternative (PagePlus), don’t seem to have been disadvantaged: their work looks equally good.  They’ve been exposed to out-and-out raster and vector graphics packages – Gimp and Inkscape -  and should now have an understanding of what each has to offer.  Those pupils using PagePlus may be less clear, as PagePlus is something of a hybrid, which cleverly converts vector graphics to raster graphics as it sees fit.

One advantage pupils using PagePlus have had is the way the programme processes transparent images to then save them in to the PDF format required by Blurb.com.  PagePlus handles this in the background perfectly, whereas Scribus converts any graphics with partial transparency to full opacity.  This has happened when pupils have prepared images with partial transparency in Gimp and exported them as Portable Network Graphics.

Pupils have been tasked with uploading their PDF files to Blurb.com, then purchasing a copy of their book using (a parent’s) credit card.  The books are due to be submitted for grading on the first day back in school after the Easter holidays.

We’re very excited to see the results.

Depending on how the books turn out, and upon pupil demand, we may decide to register the school as a publisher, assign ISBN numbers to books, and try to get them in to local libraries and on sale in book stores.

Here are links to pupil books, both Higher and Advanced Higher, that have already been uploaded to www.blurb.com for printing and binding -

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1259414 – Kaitlin Pietersen

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1232400 – Claire Mathieson

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1261007 – Robert Hackett

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1237007 – Michael Speirs

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1274579 – Matthew Connolly

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1274833 – Sam Wynn

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1259063 – Elliot Sutherland

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1317051 – Rachel O’Donnell

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1277908 – Rebecca French

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1320058 – Ben Muir

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1267778 – Hamish Gentles

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1288704 – Alison MacLellan

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1261506 – Jordan Dear

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1293879 – Blair Cowan

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1304641 – Jessica Whyte