Working with vellum todayĬontemporary artist Fiona Strickland at work in her studio (Image courtesy of and copyright Fiona Strickland)Ĭontemporary painter Fiona Strickland is among those taking up the challenge of capturing botanical subjects on vellum, and has spent the past two years creating 18 vellum paintings that will be exhibited at Jonathan Cooper Gallery in London this September, a project that she describes as ‘a labour of love’. From around 1700, however, miniaturists began painting on ivory, with vellum used mainly by botanical artists, such as Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840), a tradition that was revived in the mid-20th century by the remarkable Scottish painter Rory McEwen (1932–1982), whose work has inspired an entire generation of botanical artists. The techniques used by artists in illuminated manuscripts also lent themselves well to portrait miniatures, which first became popular in the court of Elizabeth I, ensuring that vellum played an important role in art history even as paper and the printing press increasingly replaced manuscripts. In the Middle Ages, vellum was used in precious illuminated manuscripts, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels (produced in around 715 to 720 AD), and for important secular records, such as the Doomsday Book of 1086, and the Magna Carta in 1215. Vellum has a long and illustrious history, and was described by the Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th century BC. I think reviewers should be more responsible about what they say, because some people actually believe incorrect information, rather than investigating the facts for themselves, like I did, since I was so intrigued by such a business model.The opening of St Luke’s Gospel in the Lindisfarne Gospels, circa 715 AD (image in the public domain) Hence, to only state that the software is offered for sale on a per book basis is false and misleading. So, you can either view this as a $300 application that creates an unlimited amount eBooks without a per book price or you can view this as a $50 per book application but neither of those interpretations would be correct and complete, because the developer gives you to choice of choosing one or the other, which means both. A quick visit to the developer's home page explains the pricing structure in better detail: While I would tend to agree with the criticisms being laid at the developer regarding its business model, none of the critics are completely honest and accurate in their critiques, hence their comments are misleading. But don't trash Vellum until you've spent a while working with it. Hand-tool your books, and deal with the problems caused by multiple formats and idiosyncratic HTML. If the price isn't worth t to you, fine - don't buy it. But for fast, reliable and WYSIWYG creation of ebooks, there's nothing like it. I'm giving it 4 stars because, sure, I would have loved to have paid $99 instead. It's also rock solid as a piece of software - a professional tool that's FAR easier to use than any of the alternatives. The developers are responsive, and constantly adding improvements. When you do that, Vellum very rapidly pays for itself even at an admittedly high price. When muttering about the cost, factor in your own billable time. There is no other piece of software that comes remotely close to that speed or ease of use. I can produce a perfectly-functioning ebook in multiple formats from a Word file in about twenty minutes using this software, depending on how many import glitches arise from the original doc. ![]() But if you need to semi-regularly produce attractive it-just-works ebooks in a variety of formats, then Vellum is exceptionally good and a massive time-saver. ![]() Yes, you can use other software or hand-code the things yourself if you want - and I've done both of those in the past. There's a lot of bilious ire directed at this software in the comments, which is misplaced.
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