FAQs
Answers to frequently asked questions
- Are there associated costs?
- Is my project a good candidat?
- Do I need to know how to code?
- Can you recommend freelancers to assist with my project?
- Will the Getty host my project?
- What are the options for printing and distributing my publication?
- What is the difference between v0 and v1?
- What are the technology requirements?
- Where can I learn more about the wonderful world of digital publishing?
Are there associated costs?
Quire is open-source and, therefore, free to install and use. There is no proprietary software or longterm maintenance fees associated with using the tool. However, depending on your needs there may be some additional costs.
- You may want to hire a Digital Coordinator or Developer/Designer to assist with the publication. See below for more details on the kinds of services they provide.
- While hosting websites like Netlify or GitHub pages start off as free, you may want to invest in an enterprise account especially if you plan on publishing multiple books.
Is my project a good candidat?
Quire is optimized for book-like projects, especially those that rely on visual illustrations and/or scholarly apparatus like citations, bibliographies, and footnotes. Quire is also ideal for projects you want to last a long-time. While most websites have a lifespan of website is 2-5 years, the very first Quire publication, Ancient Terracottas, was released in 2016 and is still going strong.
Project types well-suited for Quire:
- Collection catalogues
- Conference proceedings/essay volumes
- Journals
Project types not ideal for Quire:
- Non-textual, image-intensive presentations, like a fully illustrated children’s book or graphic novel.
- Educational resources that require interactivity like annotations, collaboration, or open discussion.
We are always happy to recommend other tools that might be a better fit for your project like Pressbooks, Manifold, Issuu, or WordPress to name a few. Feel free to email us at quire@getty.edu for guidance.
Do I need to know how to code?
While there is a learning curve to using Quire, the tool was designed to be used by technical and non-technical individuals alike. You will need to learn human-readable mark-up languages like Markdown and YAML but they are significantly less complicated than HTML and our documentation offers copious guidance. While Quire is heavily customizable and flexible for those with advanced coding skills, we offer an out-of-the-box option with pre-templated layouts that is accessible for all.
We recommend taking our hands-on workshop to get a sense of whether Quire is the right fit for you!
Can you recommend freelancers to assist with my project?
Yes! We have a stable of individuals experienced with Quire who can assist you with your project. There are two options for freelance support:
Digital Coordinator: This individual works to get your project set-up in Quire and adheres to Quire’s default design.
Developer/Designer: This individual is tasked more with using code to change the look, feel, and functioning of Quire beyond its default design/capabilities
| Digital Coordinator | Developer/Designer |
|---|---|
| Convert docs to .md files using Pandoc | Make extensive customization with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript |
| Complete publication.yaml file | Customize style sheets |
| Build publication outline | Create new templates |
| Add page YAML and Markdown content | Develop new functionality |
| Format the images | |
| Add images into repo | |
| Create YAML files for images and/or pop-up citations | |
| Add in the shortcodes to place the images and/or pop-up citations | |
| Light customization with the variables.scss and custom.css files |
If you would like to be put in touch with one of our freelancers, please email quire@getty.edu and put FREELANCE HELP in the subject line.
Will the Getty host my project?
While we are always happy to show off our community’s work on our Community Showcase, we do not host Quire projects. Quire projects are designed to be hosted on virtually any web server, either one your institution already runs or a new server from the hosting service of your choice. Here are some of our recommendations:
Reclaim Hosting
Netlify
GitHub Pages
Learn more about deploying your project on our Deploy Your Project page.
What are the options for printing and distributing my publication?
At Getty Publications we do short-run digital printing for Quire books and publish in small quantities, between 100-400 units. This model has a higher price per unit but requires less upfront investment. The company we use for short-run digital printing is Integrated Books International (IBI), which supplies our distributor directly.
Other bundled print + distribution options
Amazon KDP
Barnes & Noble Press
BookBaby
Bookmobile
Draft2Digital
Sheridan
Printing only
Open Access Publication Dissemination
Toth (metadata management, distribution, archiving, and DOI registration for open-access publications.)
What is the difference between v0 and v1?
The first release of Quire (v0) used the static-site generator Hugo. However, when we decided to open-source the tool in 2022 we switched to Eleventy as our static-site generator since it was based on JavaScript and that is a more common code language in the cultural heritage sector. Publications built with v0 will continue to work and are not deprecated, however, they may be more difficult to update over time. For new users, we recommend using v1 as it is the most stable, reliable, and fully featured version of the tool.
For more information on what changed between the two versions, please see our Key Changes in Version 1 page.
What are the technology requirements?
See our Implementation Considerations page for more information on the technology stack and operating system compatibility for Quire.
Where can I learn more about the wonderful world of digital publishing?
Here are some great resources to guide you on your digital publishing journey:
Adventures in Digital Publishing Museum Publishing Digital Interest Group (MuPuDIG)