The death of proofreading is pretty much a given, but does anyone even look at anything anymore before, during, or after it's printed? Here's the front cover for The Greatest Stories Never Told, an innocuous little book of historical trivia--I have a weakness for these kinds of compilations.
Two apostrophes missing. Probably the typeface was modified somehow and the apostrophes didn't come along for the ride; I've seen it happen, it's one of those unpredictable digital glitches. But the operative phrase there is I've seen it happen. And then I had it fixed. If anyone involved with this cover did see the errors, it was probably "too late," i.e. "too expensive" to do anything about it.
So that's bad enough but probably only an obsessive like me would notice it (or care). Then, I turn over the book and look at the back cover.
This book is the first in a series. It is obviously a later edition, since it advertises a couple of more books in the series. I would imagine that the designs for the back cover are modular. Unfortunately, at the top of the cover, they've used the wrong module and it looks as if the book is for the Greatest Presidential Stories etc etc. The copy below obviously refers to the book in hand.
Anyone looking? Anyone?
I'm not in the graphics business anymore, so this kind of thing just ruefully amuses me. If I worked with these people I think my reaction might be more along the lines of contempt and disgust. Perhaps Christmas has put me in a grinchy mood.
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