While living in Yakima, Washington (on the east side of the Cascades) I found a niche for myself doing a combination of desktop publishing and Spanish translation work, doing business as “Apple Tree Press.” Among my principle clients were EPIC (the local Headstart program), St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, and St. Nectarios Press in Seattle. At the same time, I worked at the Yakima Herald-Republic as an ad production clerk in the Pre-Press Department. In that position, I performed scanning and Photoshop work, as well as composing commercial ads for the newspaper.

During this time, the technology, especially PDF technology, continued to develop, and I took advantage of that technology at every turn. I have owned the major components of what is now called by Adobe the “Design Suite” since 1996, and have now upgraded to Creative Suite 4. All of the work in the PDF portfolio document linked to the right is in PDF format, preserving the fonts and artwork and layout. Although the benefits of PDF technology are well-known today, and have even diversified, in 1996 they were still a great secret.

My first book project for St. Nectarios Press, A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Holy Land, was done entirely in PageMaker, and a low-cost Photoshop clone. I succeeded in turning in “perfect” files that could be output without corrections, in spite of the fact that I had to provide all of the original artwork and PageMaker files and make sure all links were correct, and that all fonts were correct (among other things). Over the course of working on Katie Visits a Monastery and The Bread of Life, PDF technology developed to the point that I was able to handover (via FTP) Acrobat files instead.

St. Joseph Parish provided me work in Spanish translation and desktop publishing. Each week I assembled the weekly bulletin for the following Sunday in English and in Spanish.  In most cases, I would translate articles from the English bulletin, though in some I composed the articles in Spanish from a short note left by the pastor. Between 1997 and 1999 the weekly bulletin also included reflections of Pope John Paul II, which I translated into Spanish. These are combined in the Portfolio in the document “Celebre 2000.”

After working with St Joseph Parish for two years, I was asked to take on a very different project. One of the clergy, a long-time resident of the parish, had written a short history of the parish, the proceeds from which being earmarked to help fund the renovation of the church building. Portions of this book, Dos Torres, have been included in the Portfolio

EPIC (Enterprise for Progress in the Community) is the Headstart agency for the Yakima Valley. A large segment of the population of Yakima County is Hispanic, mostly migrant workers with children needing Headstart services. The Headstart program seeks to involve families in the program as much as possible. My work for them consisted mostly of the translation of routine documents like minutes of meetings, and various forms, policies, and procedures. In all such cases, matching the formatting of the English original was required to the greatest extent possible. Given the proprietary and otherwise sensitive nature of the majority of these, I am not able to include samples in my portfolio. I believe, however, that my skills are amply, and even better demonstrated in the “general documents” that I have provided.

Accolades from Clients of Apple Tree Press

St. Nectarios Press –

Please accept our sincere thanks for the superb job on A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Holy Land. This is our first experience with electronic pre-press and the output is wonderful - due in no small part to your skill and the care and dedication you gave to the project. We have had many compliments on the book’s appearance already. We look forward to working with you again on these projects. Keep up the good work!
Very truly yours,
Nina S. Seco, Business Manager

St. Joseph Parish –

In working with Mark Harrison of Apple Tree Press over the past year and a half I have found him to be creative, accurate, knowledgeable, adaptable, and very easy to work with. I have been pleased with the consistent quality of his work. It helps to feed him cookies too.

Fr Patrick Carroll, Pastor

EPIC –

"I've worked with Apple Tree Press for several years now, and have always found them to be prompt, professional, and responsive to any questions that might arise.

Deborah Wilson,
Assistant Director, Epic-New Directions

Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Yakima Valley –

Apple Tree Press serves the needs of business. Mark Harrison not only
produces solid products, but works with the staff to understand the
needs of the business and then produce publications to meet that need.
He can be trusted to do the impossible quickly -- and that includes
translation to Spanish.

Geoff Baker

United Way of Yakima County –

Mark’s translation and design are thoughtful and thorough.”

Lance Stephens