The Changing Book Formats

The Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed in movable type in the West, was not welcomed by scholars when it appeared in 1457. Though a technological tour de force, it lacked page numbers, consistent grammar and punctuation, and a title page. Its typeface was difficult to read.

In short, the new technology was not “user friendly,” and in the early years of Gutenberg books there were “all sorts of wacky ideas and experiments about how to do books,” says Paul Saffo of Menlo Park’s Institute for the Future, who specializes in tracking the long-term impact of technology.

We are in a similar period today, he says.

“We have this new computer communication technology but we aren’t sure what to do with it,” he said in a telephone interview. “All the excitement of the last decade is just the warm-up: Now all sorts of things are happening. People are doing hyper-media, trying to figure out how to blend the best of books, of computers, of video, into something utterly new.”

Publishers are discovering that their role is changing, he said. “Instead of thinking in terms of a finished product, like a book, they may be thinking of delivering raw information into a process being conducted by the reader.”

Publishing industry representatives agree that they have new challenges. “Our members see themselves as purveyors of information, and not just the book,” said Carol Risher, director of new technology for the Assn. of American Publishers, which Risher said represents about 75% of the books sold in the United States.

Already in Use

Risher noted that traditional book publishers already are publishing in formats such as on-line data bases, computer software and CD-ROMs (an optical--not auditory--compact disk loaded with information that is read by a laser and fed to a computer). The new electronic formats are especially useful for professional books, reference books and journals, Risher said by phone from Washington. “CD-ROM is a natural for any informational service, like law, tax or health care, that has to be continually updated.”

Another thing that is happening throughout the publishing industry, she added, “is that old-fashioned (paper) manuscripts now have become floppy disks because most authors now work on computers.”

As far as the hand-held electronic book of the future, prototypes have been examined and talked about in the industry, she said, “but publishers are not doing that yet. The hand-held screen is not as good as a book.”

Saffo agrees that the electronic book is still a rough prototype. “Alvin Toffler is absolutely right when he says new systems are 30 to 50 years away,” he said. “Right now, reading a book on a screen is about as inviting as reading the newspaper through a pair of binoculars.”

Between Revolutions

But “we are poised at a moment between two revolutions,” he said, “One of print is four centuries old and not quite shot yet, and another that is computers and communications and electronics that is not quite under way.”

And what does this mean for the future of books as we have known them for 500 years? No one seems ready to predict the death of the printed page.

“Book publishers are not afraid the book will disappear,” Risher said. “People would rather hold a book, feel its texture, write marginal notes, underline in yellow.” Saffo, too, sees a future with books. “The question is what percentage of our time will be spent with books, and what percentage with the new media that we can only guess at right now.

“Maybe books will eventually be like horses,” he concluded. “At one time everybody used them for transportation. Now they are used only by hobbyists.”