Book layout tips are an important part of your document printing. Here at Dazzle Printing, we are committed to helping our clients have better access to digital printing services and stunning print media. While we are confident of creating high-quality prints, creating a beautiful book starts with the files we receive for printing. However, we understand that creating a layout suitable for book printing can be an overwhelming task. This is why we have created a handy guide with book layout tips.
Dimensions of Your Finished Product
Before you start, it is important for you to consider what type of project you are currently working on. Whether you are making a photo book, novel, catalog, or cooking guide can significantly affect the dimensions for your book. For example, while a novel will still be legible and functional in a smaller size, a photo book with many photographs that are highly detailed may require a larger size. Depending on your preferences, a custom size may be recommended that could potentially affect which printing service provider you should work with.
Book Layout Tips — Types of Binding
The next consideration to take into account is what kind of binding would be best for your content. Some bindings will allow you to lay the book completely flat, others may be more durable, and some types of soft-cover binding have restrictions based on the number of pages they can accommodate. To learn more about binding options that are offered, it is best to contact your preferred printing service provider beforehand and discuss what would work best, and if possible, request a printing samples package.
Outline of Your Project
Even before you begin, you probably have a rough outline of what you expect your project to look like. One of the best practices to thumbnail out your project to get an overview of what it will look like. This can involve how you plan to arrange the written content, the style of the captions, any table of contents, blank pages, or even page numbers. Having a format in mind can affect the way you choose to present the content, and it is important to establish this at the start.
Margins
The most important thing to note is that minimizing the size of your margins is not recommended, important book layout tips. While this may lead to you having a few more pages, having ample space between your text and the borders of your paper can create a better user experience. Furthermore, for certain binding options, the book may not be able to completely lie flat. Having a margin that is too small could lead to certain parts of your text or graphics being obscured or distorted. For a rough gauge, we would recommend having half an inch of margin on your outer edges and a 0.8-inch margin for the binding edge.
Book Layout Tips — Navigation
Having a solid outline for your project and a clear idea of the overall composition will already help with this, but depending on the type of content you are putting out, it might be helpful to put in options to navigate the content. These elements include having a table of contents, page numbers, and section or chapter titles at the top of every page, all important book layout tips.
