Mammoth print job behind Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

The team at the Oxford University Press assembled to witness the first 60 volumes of the <I>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography</I> come off the binding line at Butler & Tanner.

The 60 volumes are each 1,000pp in size, and involve 10,000 illustrations. Putting the publication together was a long process with editorial work beginning as far back as 1992. Data capture was begun in 1997 with text keyed and coded by Alliance Phototypesetters.

In 2001 Alliance Graphics started scanning the first halftone, and the complete data went for pagination in March last year. Interactive Sciences completed PDF page proofs in May 2003.