Bits & Bytes has fifteen year's experience preparing text for electronic publication. During this time, we have helped prepare well over 100 books, both technical and non-technical, for electronic publication.

We are knowledgeable in taking books in electronic and print formats and producing properly tagged and formatted electronic texts that meet the publication requirements of our customers. We are well versed in HTML-like tagging schemes, as well as in converting texts from a wide variety of electronic formats—including RTF, Word, Quark, Wang (and other ancient formats)—to the tagging schemes needed by our clients.

If your text exists only in print form, we can convert it to an electronic format by scanning it or by having it keyed. Over the years we have developed professional relationships with reliable keyboarding and scanning services that employ off-shore companies to produce the highest quality results at extremely affordable prices. We carefully inspect their work to make sure it meets your requirements and our standards.

Scanning. Scanning is a viable option for non-technical texts. For our purposes, a "technical text" is a text that uses a non-roman font, such as Greek and Hebrew. Thus a "non-technical text" is a text that does not use Greek or Hebrew, for example. Although it is possible to scan technical texts with a good degree of success, the amount of time that can be required to proof and correct the results often outweighs the cost difference between scanning and keying. The initial results of scanning any text are only as good as the physical and optical conditions of the text being scanned and of the scanning software and its algorithms.

Keying. Although it may sound outdated, double keying is still the most accurate and cost-effective way to produce electronic versions of technical books. For example, the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae project at the University of California at Irvine has had more than 91,000,000 words of Greek from over 12,000 Greek works written by approximately 3,700 Greek authors keyed (see Thesaurus Linguae Graecae). Recently, Bits & Bytes contracted to have almost two dozen classical commentaries on the Greek New Testament double keyed for a client. Each of these books—by Westcott. Lightfoot, Hort, and others—was keyed by two typists and a program used to compare the results. All differences were looked up and resolved on-site or via email with Bits & Bytes.

Although scanning software can convert basic font attributes—e.g., italic— to tags that can be used for electronic publishing, keyboarding offers far more possibilities. For example, in the classical commentary example mentioned above, Bits & Bytes developed a comprehensive set of tagging specifications for the keyboarders that greatly reduced the amount of post-processing of the electronic text that otherwise would have been needed. For example, all Greek came back tagged as Greek and keyed using the prevailing Beta Code standard, and the complicated formatting of these commentaries was carefully preserved by having the keyboarders apply tags Bits & Bytes had created.

Proofing. No scanning program and no keyboarder is perfect. All converted texts need some degree of proofing, whether it is a simple spell checking or a more extensive checking of original language texts. Bits & Bytes can provide any level of proofing required.

Two recent, related projects involved proofing the electronic versions of over two dozen commentaries and dictionaries that made extensive use of Hebrew and Greek. Bits & Bytes has created routines that automate proofing lexical forms of Hebrew and Greek words. Proofing inflected forms and phrases is tricker. To proof these, we contracted with a major evangelical seminary, and they provided two teams of Ph.D. students—one team for Hebrew words and one for Greek. These highly capable students of Hebrew and Greek, using their advanced linguistic skills and everyday familiarity with these ancient languages, did a marvelous job in finding and correcting mistakes made by the keyboarders, as well as locating mistakes in the original printed texts!

Bits & Bites is experienced in handling all facets of e-text publishing from text conversion to ready-to-publish electronic product.

For examples of our work, click one of the following links.

Bits & Bytes is interested in partnering with institutions, businesses, and individuals in joint e-text publishing ventures. To discuss your project, or for additional information, call us at 1.800.361.7280 or email us by clicking here: Info@bitsbytescomputer.com