In book layout Incorrectly spaced margins make a book feel off-balance. Typography basics — The next thing to settle on is typeface. Books are traditionally set in serif fonts like Garamond, Caslon, Baskerville and Goudy, but guidebooks, art books, cookbooks, and other genres use sans-serif for their modern feel and for ease of reading. Whatever font you choose, make sure it’s legible and well-suited for book layouts. Make sure it has italics, semibold, bold and small caps all included. Commercial books like thrillers and mysteries.

A comfortable size for most books is 11pt font. Equally important is the image manipulation service white space between the lines, known as “leading.” Leading makes sure your readers can read your book without getting a headache from all those lines jammed together. Because books with more pages cost more money, there’s an incentive to cheat and get as many lines on a page as possible. You may save a few cents on each book, but your design (and its readability) will suffer. As a general rule, aim for 33-36 lines on each page.


Running heads and feet Running heads are the little lines at the top of the page that give the reader all the pertinent info—author, book name, and page name—as they read. Sometimes the page number will be at the bottom of the page, making it a “foot.” They help the reader chart her progress in the book and find her way back if she loses her place. Usually centered or placed slightly to the left and right of the text margins, running heads and feet also provide a nice visual frame to your text block.

In book layout Incorrectly spaced margins make a book feel off-balance. Typography basics — The next thing to settle on is typeface. Books are traditionally set in serif fonts like Garamond, Caslon, Baskerville and Goudy, but guidebooks, art books, cookbooks, and other genres use sans-serif for their modern feel and for ease of reading. Whatever font you choose, make sure it’s legible and well-suited for book layouts. Make sure it has italics, semibold, bold and small caps all included. Commercial books like thrillers and mysteries.

A comfortable size for most books is 11pt font. Equally important is the image manipulation service white space between the lines, known as “leading.” Leading makes sure your readers can read your book without getting a headache from all those lines jammed together. Because books with more pages cost more money, there’s an incentive to cheat and get as many lines on a page as possible. You may save a few cents on each book, but your design (and its readability) will suffer. As a general rule, aim for 33-36 lines on each page.


Running heads and feet Running heads are the little lines at the top of the page that give the reader all the pertinent info—author, book name, and page name—as they read. Sometimes the page number will be at the bottom of the page, making it a “foot.” They help the reader chart her progress in the book and find her way back if she loses her place. Usually centered or placed slightly to the left and right of the text margins, running heads and feet also provide a nice visual frame to your text block.