Since the instructions for this are scattered a bit, I've documented the process all in one post, while doing the cover for vol 24. This is the process for creating a PDF of the book cover:

Units are inches.

First, get the spine width. This USED TO BE based on an algorithm provided by RJ at the bookstore (below), but now you get it directly from the Print Shop with the quote, based on the number of pages.

OLD CALCULATION (not used now): # of pages x 0.0019 + 0.0327

So for example, in vol 24, there are 244 pages, so:

(244×0.0019) + 0.0327 = 0.4963 inches.

Assuming the print shop gives you a width of 0.4963 inches:

When editing the cover PDF, you will need to make sure the document is (6" * 2) + spine wide; so in this case, it will be 12.4963 inches wide.

Next, extract the Table of Contents pages from the PDF into separate PDFs, one for each page. Usually, the TOC runs to two pages; in this case it's 5 and 6, so, using GhostScript on Linux:

gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAVER -dFirstPage=5 -dLastPage=5 -sOutputFile=master_vol_24_toc_1.pdf master_vol_24.pdf 

gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAVER -dFirstPage=6 -dLastPage=6 -sOutputFile=master_vol_24_toc_2.pdf master_vol_24.pdf 

These two pages will be combined into a single PDF.

Next, copy some files to the machine that's running a copy of Illustrator (currently Jonagold):

• The cover from the last volume, as .ai and .pdf.
• The two TOC pages

With Illustrator, combine the two TOC pages into a single page. This often involves removing all the entries for individual reviews, and replacing them with a single entry, "Reviews", pointing to the first page of the first review. See previous covers for an example of how to do this. If the number of items is small, though, it might be possible to fit all the contents in.

Next, in Illustrator, copy the previous volume's cover .ai file to a new name for the new volume, and open it in Illustrator. Rework the document as follows:

1. Change the spine width, by moving the printers marks for the right-hand boundary of the spine.
2. Change the overall document width by pulling in the right side of the front cover.
3. Move the spine text such that its centre is exactly the centre of the spine (six inches plus half of the spine width).
4. Edit the years and volume numbers wherever they appear. Be aware that the text of the years at the bottom of each blue panel actually appears twice, once in white (a "knockout", below) and once in black (on top); to edit both, you may need to ungroup them, and send one temporarily to the back.
5. Edit any other information that needs to be worked on (guest editor, etc.).
6. Make sure the map graphic reaches the edges of the cover.
7. Save a PDF including all printers marks, print it, review the results and test-fold it.
8. If you've been working on a different machine, move the .ai and .pdf versions back to the working machine.
9. Screenshot the PDF at large size, and crop out the cover. Save as scancan_vol_xx_icon.png.
10. Create two smaller versions, one 180 x 400 (scancan_vol_xx_latest.jpg) and one 90 x 140 (scancan_vol_24_thumbnail.jpg). The first of these will be copied over the latest_volume.jpg image in svnrepo/site/images, to serve as the image for the latest volume on the website. The second will be sent to the UVic bookstore for their use as an icon for the book purchase.