Tag Archives: Adobe InDesign

Writers designing their own books in InDesign? Of course!

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I posted last week about the dangers of allowing your ebook to degenerate into a Website. After all, “An ebook is just encapsulated HTML & CSS.” It was basically a plea to design your ebooks in InDesign. I missed making my core point. I wasn’t saying that code geeks cannot design ebooks. I was saying that most coders are not designers, but technicians. One of my commenters (Tom) suggested that writers are just as bad as coding … Continue reading →

Your book better not look like a poorly designed Website!

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I had a little go’round with a coding geek on the #eprdctn Twitter feed about the use of fonts in ebooks. He was muttering about those #$*&^!%^#$ designers, and I ended up biting off the tips of my fingers to avoid cutting him a new one to drain all his pent up hostility. It was hardly a fruitful conversation. But it got me thinking. The real problem with the new publishing is the layout quality The quality … Continue reading →

Keeping your file size under control for graphic ePUBs

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I was working on my best-selling book this morning, Practical Font Design, Third Edition. It’s an ePUB with 266 graphics in it—almost entirely screen captures—showing what I am doing in FontLab as I design a font. I design my ePUBs in InDesign CS6 & use the export unchanged I realize that’s anathema to many of you code geeks, but the ePUBs out of InDesign are now more than good enough—if you design within its limitations. Now that … Continue reading →

Starting at the beginning: Document Setup…

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This is the dialog box which opens when you choose New from the file menu or type Command+N. Many of the choices found in this dialog box are based on your experience. I’ll use my current choices, just so we can talk about the issues involved. The first choice is that I always start with print chosen as my intent. There are many reasons for this. But I can state it simply as I start out. Print … Continue reading →

Setting up your book to be read: page layout

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Page layout basics One of the more daunting aspects of book design for the inexperienced is page layout. Most people have Word experience and as I have said countless times already—Word cannot do professional page layout. In fact, it is worse than that because Word’s feeble attempts give you bad habits and poor expectations—which must be corrected. Many settings have to be covered for every document. Many of these are set up as you go through the … Continue reading →

What skills are needed to self-publish?

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What skills do you need? The idea is that InDesign can be learned and you can become comfortable enough with the software so that it becomes an extension of your creativity. For example, as I started this chapter in the Writing In InDesign book, I hit the shortcut to set my headline. This started the chapter on the next odd page (which is the norm). When I wrote the headline and hit the Return key, InDesign changed to … Continue reading →

An InDesign default paragraph-character styles set

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Setting up an InDesign default paragraph-character styles set as you begin using InDesign THIS IS A PRACTICAL STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURE FOR WHAT IS DESCRIBED IN ALL MY INDESIGN PRODUCTION BOOKS SINCE 1996. IT’S CURRENTLY CHAPTER 22 IN: Book Publishing With InDesign CC We are going to set up the styles shown in the book. This will give you actual experience in setting up styles. Plus you will begin developing your own personal set of styles—which will become the … Continue reading →

Benefits of the new self-publishing paradigm

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There are many benefits of the new self-publishing options. I’ll cover the financial at the end. It is very fast! One of the real changes in the new paradigm is the speed with which you can release books, booklets, posters, and so on. If you have proofed copy that is ready to format, you can get it published and released in a day or so. The limitation is only your formatting speed. With the techniques and workflow … Continue reading →

New Review: Writing In InDesign: A Philosophy for Writers In Service to Readers

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Today we have a guest post from a man who is a reader of my work who has become a friend. A while back he told me he was going to write a review. I had no idea he would put so much effort into the attempt. I asked if I could share this and he said to do it. Pastor Dean Williams has been a pastor for over 30 years serving in “a multitude of denominational … Continue reading →

Kindle Export Plug-in for InDesign CS6 Released!

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I probably shouldn’t have put an exclamation mark on the title for I haven’t had a chance to try it yet. I’m still wading through the documentation. But I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. The CS6 plug-in Here’s a quote from their Web page from which you can download the plug-in. Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign® (Beta) is officially supported by Amazon to convert files to the Kindle format. We recommend you use Kindle … Continue reading →