Using styles enables global control of your book’s typography
Today I’m mentioning the basic structure of typography. There is one concept which enables typography as we know it in modern book publishing. This is the concept of styles. These styles are contained...
View ArticleMargins are more important than many think: Make the margins bigger
Make the margins bigger | I love typography, the typography and fonts blog. The I Love Typography blog is often over the top. Even as a typographer who has focused his career on type—both font design...
View ArticleColumn width: the key to comfortable reading
Be very careful with your column choices—especially in books. (It’s the main reason blogs and ebooks are so hard to read.) Your focus must be easy, comfortable readability. Generally, the asymmetrical...
View ArticleNo, No! to double-space and double-returns
What follows is an excerpt from my new release, Writing In InDesign Second Edition. ******************************** Typography determines reader reactions It goes far beyond your font...
View ArticleWriting in InDesign is a true reader service
Writing within InDesign Here I am again recommending a road less traveled by—not unusual in my life and work. Before the choruses rise up in defense of other workflows, let me tell you my reasonings. I...
View ArticleFirst-line indents and a second interior alignment
First-line indents I have briefly touched on first-line indents for body copy paragraphs in talks about styles. This is the preferred method of telling the reader that a new topic sentence is being...
View ArticleDrop caps
Drop caps One of the typographic devices used to indicate the beginning of a story or chapter is the drop cap. In this use, the first letter or letters of the first paragraph is (are) made large enough...
View ArticleSetting up your book to be read: page layout
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...
View ArticleTypography does not start with font design
This is the first major confusion in typography. Many believe that typography is font choices. They spend a huge amount of time on which fonts to choose, how fonts developed historically, and the...
View ArticleDoes quality matter in the new publishing paradigm?
As I have been experiencing, learning, teaching, and writing about on-demand self publishing over the past decade or two [I actually started self publishing ebooks in 1993 or 4], one area of book...
View ArticleBook Production Charges are often ridiculous!
I received this post today from GoodReads purporting to give reasonable figures for editing and page layout for books. The table is from the original blog posting. While these may be common charges for...
View ArticleNew Release: Writing In InDesign CC 2014 Producing Books, more than an update
CC 2014 virtually redid ePUB export—adding fixed layout & radically improving reflowable ePUBs Indesign has always been the best software for publishing: print & ebook. I have already posted...
View ArticleWhat desktop publishing did to graphic designers, self-publishing is doing to...
Image courtesy of sportsclipart.com OK! I’m a little punch-drunk I’ve been through this before. In fact, I’ve been through it five times now. it’s been pretty much non-stop since 1991. My life and...
View ArticleKindle books still require InDesign CS6 and the Amazon plug-in
I sent my new book (see the cover to the left) to Kindle KDP. I exported it as ePUB2 with embedded fonts and so on. I converted it with Kindle Previewer.My first reader complained that all the graphics...
View ArticleMake more with five book sets than 5 single books
I was talking to my author friend, Guy Stanton III, today and he shared this with me. Many of you already know this, but it’s worth a mention anyway. You know what’s really ironic, David, about...
View ArticleAre you an author, for real?
I just read an excellent article in CreativePro called Are you a creative professional or a hobbyist? The article is talking about graphic designers, but it equally speaks to authors and writers. The...
View ArticleReadability is the prime virtue of book design
I decided I needed to beat an old drum. Readability is the focus of book design typography. This was the core of curriculum in my digital publishing degree. It’s the center of my graphic design and...
View ArticleWhy you need an extended keyboard
writing in English class, silviac I’ve talked many times over the years about needing an extended keyboard. Creative Pro has a good article about the two Enter keys and their different functions in...
View ArticleIs it time to bail on Kindle?
Aaron Shephard is close to giving up in Kindle. [You may need to search as I could not find a post-specific link.] He’s found evidence that Amazon might, and probably will, destroy your formatting well...
View ArticleMore on Kindle Problems…
A continuation of the Kindle formatting issues On one of the Facebook groups I participate in, there’s been some general poo-pahing over my most recent posting on the problems with Kindle formatting. I...
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