Book Design

Book design is different. Done well, it is a combination of traditional design, typography and mechanical production choices.

It is the one area of design where courses and software are only the beginning. In book design the devil is truly in the details. Spine widths need to be attended to. No widows or orphans in setting your paragraphs! Kerning of necessity becomes an artform. And of course then there is spelling, grammar and style. Good book design benefits greatly from the work of a good editor, and hopefully before it gets to your designer.

Paper selection becomes both an element of design as well as variable for cost. Then there are covers: hard, soft or both. Bindings: Smyth-sewn, case wrap, perfect bound, pur bound, saddle stitch… and the options go on from there. Covers can be hard or soft, cloth or laminate, and the options for coatings are endless and we haven't even got to embossments and foils. And then of course, there is the printer. Quality books require quality printers. Self-published books will leave you wondering why your book doesn't seem as good as the ones on the shelves in the book store,

It all this sounds complex, well, it is. Good book design is not done in Microsoft Word. Done well, it takes more time than you probably think it should. Be prepared to work closely with your designer