Tag Archives: page layout

Self-publishers trade publishing dreams need excellence

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Self-publishers trade publishing dreams need excellence to provide better hopes. There are realistic, if remote, possibilities of being picked up by a “real” publisher. But only if you can demonstrate excellent sales, a sizable following, or ongoing usage (like coursework, regularly scheduled seminars, and the like). I thought the image of Victorian woodtype might help drive home the concept of tradepub being a step back to a time which really doesn’t exist any more. Traditional publishing as we … Continue reading →

InDesign CC 2017 whimpers in esoterically, under the radar

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Yes, I said that InDesign CC 2017 whimpers in under the radar. Version 12.0 has very little for me. Your usage may vary. But, this is all a normal part of the process as software matures. And, have no doubt, InDesign is matured—the best in the field. To restate things, InDesign can now do almost anything you need. It’s been that way for me since CC 2014. The result is that the engineering team adds features which apply to smaller … Continue reading →

Converting Books to Ebooks with InDesign CC

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Book designers often dread converting books to ebooks — the process of changing a greyscale printed book to various full-color ebooks: downloadable PDFs, ePUB FXL and Reflow, & Kindle books of various flavors from e-ink to large Fire tablet. It often seems a bit like wizard work requiring incantations, lots of smoke, and mirrors. Sad to say, on the Kindle end of things, that’s fairly accurate. Yet things are not as they seem, as InDesign CC has … Continue reading →

Keeping your mind open to creative typographic solutions

Skilled Workman Posted on by

One of the main troubles we have in setting books for readability is the set of largely subconscious rules we’ve learned over the years. In an entertaining and useful article today by Jonathan Hoefler named: How to Use Clashing Fonts He gives us several examples showing why it is necessary to break common “rules” in the interest of both style and readability. In the example he gives above, he shows the use of two virtually identical Dutch Old … Continue reading →

A free sample of “Book Publishing With InDesign CC” is available

Skilled Workman Posted on by

I’ve published a sample of the new book on the Adobe servers. It’s about 75 pages of the various sections of the book. If you are interested in a review copy I recommend the PDF is reader’s spreads with the full color graphics. Let me know if you are interested. Here’s a link to the page with more information and purchase links. If word processor book production is taking up too much time and the results are … Continue reading →

Page Layout Part 5: Graphic needs of the formats

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Graphic needs for Print, PDF, ePUB, & Kindle KFX For book publishing, what you need to understand about graphics is how usage varies in the different formats. You’ll need to hand-adjust to produce the graphics for the various formats. Automation causes many problems. I’m just going to list the four options and their requirements, best formats, and so on. Greyscale print with color cover Lulu & Createspace, plus professional on-demand like Lightning source: You need to be careful. … Continue reading →

Basic page layout part four: Getting them to read it

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Before I get started with this, I need remind you about the goal: a beautiful book which is comfortable to read.  You need a customized set of styles to enable you to keep your book consistent and give you global control over the entire book as you format. Excellent typography is only possible if you understand how to design paragraphs. Styles make paragraph design possible. We will deal with them conceptually, but you should know this is … Continue reading →

Basic Page Layout: Part 2, Margins & Columns

Skilled Workman Posted on by

This is part two of the new series on page layout from my new book, Self-Publishing With InDesign CC. We continue with two of the most important controls for readability. To the left is an example of bad design. The body text is Berthold Baskerville Book 8/12, while the caption is Adobe Garamond Pro 6/7. So, no one can read it—too small. The columns are so narrow that there are only 7-9 words per line with the average closer … Continue reading →

Basic page layout: Part One, Book size

Skilled Workman Posted on by

As I get ready to release my new book, Self-Publishing With InDesign CC, I want to share some of the basic ideas in the book. Self-publishers rarely know page layout standards So, this little series will help with some of those basic decisions you need to make. Setting up your book to be read: 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 … Continue reading →

Enhanced typesetting and new inaccessible Kindle format?

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Back to scratching mud Aaron Shepherd is convinced that this is true. The .kfx (which Aaron believes stands for .kf10) is a post-uploading process done to your books over the first month or two after uploading. What it means as far as he is concerned is this: In practical terms, this means there is no longer any effective way to proof your book before or after publication. You can get it looking absolutely perfect in a KDP proof, and … Continue reading →