Editor Indexer Trainer Publishing consultant Researcher
[Self-promotional non sequitur: Check out After the Feast, my little cookbook for Thanksgiving (and other turkey dinner) leftovers! The PDF is free to download, and print copies raise money for the Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre’s food security and food sovereignty initiatives in Nunavut, which is experiencing a hunger crisis.]
![Two-frame cartoon. Frame 1: Bespectacled editor sits with curly-haired editor at a table in a café. She says, "It can be so frustrating to work with [industry-standard software] sometimes!" A man in glasses sips coffee at the next table. Frame 2: The man turns around and says, "I couldn’t help overhearing. Why don’t you just use [open-source alternative that lacks the functionality you need for your work, offers no support, and is fundamentally incompatible with your clients’ workflow]? I switched five years ago and haven’t looked back."](https://i0.wp.com/ivacheung.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025-08-Open_source.png?ssl=1 "\"Libre\" means free, as in free mattress!")
I despise Microsoft and Adobe as much as the next person, but the next time a non-editor tells me to switch to LibreOffice, I’m sending them to this feature comparison and asking them to search for “track changes.”
Click through to enlarge!
See the original Time traveller cartoon from a decade ago.
An Editorial Cartoon, a collection of the first ten years of this webcomic, is available from your favourite online book retailer. One dollar from each copy sold goes to the Indigenous Editors Association.
(An Editorial Cartoon—a print book of the first ten years of these comics about editing and publishing—is available from online book retailers everywhere. One dollar from each copy sold goes to the Indigenous Editors Association. Massive thanks to everyone who’s bought a copy so far!)
I’ve been firmly planted on the editorial side of publishing since my early days as a volunteer writer and proofreader at my student newspaper in undergrad, but my first paid gig in publishing was in production and design: after I moved cities for my MSc, I got a job laying out the student newspaper once a week at my new school.
I absolutely loved it. Continue reading “Bye, design”
