Interesting Trivia

‘BluePencil’

Why BluePencil? Many people ask us curiously.

Traditionally, a blue pencil used to be an editor’s tool. During the time when ‘galleys’ were used for a manual pasteup, making changes was not as simple as it is now. So when editors made corrections on galleys, they used a special blue pencil that would not photocopy or print, and was thus safe to mark with.

‘blue-pencil’ means to edit, revise, or correct. The word is also used as a transitive verb — blue-pen·cilled or blue-pen·cil·ling. When we started in 1993, this was the only name we thought of, and it seemed apt because, well, bluepencilling is what we do!

bluepencil-logo-old

When we first started, our logo represented a sheet of paper, with ‘bluepencil’ written at the bottom.

But as we went along, we changed it to the present one, which was inspired by a set of four books we did for an organisation called Agriculture, Man, Ecology (AME), Banglore, India. These books, titled “Why are my groundnut plants dying?” were done in four languages – English, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil. They looked good when placed together like a fan… giving us the idea for the present logo.

First client

Mrs Asha Dua, a writer, came to Sadhana about a month after BluePencil was started in 1993, for the editing of her book titled, ‘The generous miser’, a biography of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of Hyderabad.

We also did this book of quotations for her. Thank you, Mrs Dua, for giving us our first manuscript to edit.

Our first cover design

New rice for Africa, for the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA), then at Ivory Coast, West Africa. We did an origami rice plant, pasted real rice grain, and then scanned the cover. This gave it a nice 3D effect. We then used rough, textured Strathmore paper, which also added to the aesthetics of this cover.

Hand-crafted cover design

This cover design was finger-painted (sitting on the floor) by Sadhana and daughter Ragini. It was an attempt to improve upon the Photoshop design Vijay was trying to develop.

The idea was to give an interesting texture to the image of the earth’s layers depicted.

When scanned, this ‘rough’ artwork looked really good, and when the lettering was done, it was just the thing the publishers wanted!

Our Philosophy

200%

Deadlines

We always meet them.

Words of Praise

“It’s been great to have worked with you. I’ve always admired the efficiency and tedious care for quality. You are one of the best service providers I’ve worked with. Being able to rely on you on in managing our publications cannot be measured. Your patience in welcoming all our tight deadlines and delivering it on time. your meticulous recording to follow orders. Your ideas on layout and voluntary editing. It is such an ease that just by email layout and printing for FARA is assured. Quality and timeliness that is your greatest asset.”

Myra Wopereis-Pura

Director, Access to Knowledge and Technology, Forum for Agricultural Research
in Africa (FARA), Accra, Ghana (when she left FARA in December 2012).

“If this book is being published without unreasonable delay the merit should be primarily granted to our supporting editors Sadhana and Vijay Ramchander from Hyderabad, India. In my long career, I have never worked with editors such as Sadhana and Vijay, who can associate professionalism and competence in editing with such a high degree of commitment and abnegation, who have the perspicacity, the interest in the subject, and the sound judgment to help not only in aspects of form and book organization, but also on matters of subject content and substance. For some parts of this book, they even deserve to be considered co-authors…”

Professor Francesco di Castri, in his preface to Tourism, Biodiversity and Information, Backhuys Publishers, The Netherlands.

“It looks so good, I want to EAT it!”

Artist / teacher / dancer Vanita Bhattacharya, after seeing the fresh-from-the-press copy of Under the imli tree: 50 years of Vidyaranya

“I wish to thank you and your team as well as my team here in South Africa for all the hard work in getting the reference report ready. I know you have all gone beyond your call of duty and I do not take this for granted.”

Daniel Kamanga, Communications Director, Africa Harvest, Johannesburg, South Africa

“It was a great pleasure working with you. Indeed, the quality of your work has impressed my colleagues here. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours and hope to interact again.”

Mwamburi Mcharo, Programme Manager, High Value Nonstaple Crops, ASARECA, Entebbe, Uganda

“It has been great working with you. The understanding you showed and the patience you exercised towards the back-and-forth manner in which we had to revise the brochure have been very outstanding.”

Kofi Adin, Community Manager, UniBRAIN, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, Accra, Ghana

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