All publishers work with clear rules for the design of books. All of them are common and subject to execution by all authors. In order to arrange your work yourself, you must be aware of a certain set of rules. In this article, we will consider what book design is, what you need to know for it, and also find out how to design a book yourself.
Why make out a book
A book is the same product as any other item. We look at its cover and appearance, and then we determine whether it will be interesting for us to read it, whether it is pleasant to hold in our hands, whether it is convenient. It is believed that guided by the appearance of the book is wrong. You cannot judge by the cover. But we do just that. And in order for our works to interest the potential reader, we will have to try and bring the design of the books to a beautiful and interesting performance. If the cover is not properly designed, printed matter will be a dead weight to stand on shelves in bookstores, completely without attracting buyers. Due to the lack of high-quality cover, many publishers simply will not undertake to print a book. In this case, the author is usually offered the services of designers of the printing industry itself. But you can independently organize the design of books in the way the writer himself imagines.
What is included in the design stages
There are several mandatory points that should be prescribed in the places intended for them. In addition, there are printing standards for the cover and body of the book itself. So, the following elements are included in the mandatory steps: the choice of the format of the printed matter, the selection of fonts for the text, the design of the cover of the book, the appearance of the spread, the location and design of illustrations in the text. This unique layout is created in electronic form, and then live editions are printed from it. At the time of registration, the components are created, the question of how the text strips, columns, footnotes, diagrams and illustrations will be arranged, what will be the style of the headers and footers.
General recommendations
The design of the book cover is one of the most important components of the release of printed materials for sale. Its appearance depends on the author’s ideas and can be completely different. However, particular attention should be paid to this particular, especially noticeable part of the book. Very often, the cover is made of plain thick paper. If stiffer material is used, this cover is called binding. The main element is a cover made of wicker material, to which bookends, captals and gauze valves are glued. A dust jacket with extra flaps can be worn on top. It serves to protect the publication, and may also contain additional advertising. Some particularly expensive items (for example, gift editions) are put in a special cardboard case. This greatly increases the price of binding, so they use the technique rarely and only for some books. All information reflected on the cover elements should help to identify the book and match its content and output.
Book Design: First Page
The first page should indicate to the reader the names of all authors. They must match the names on the cover page. It is advisable to place no more than three names. If a book is officially published by an organization, its title should be indicated here. The rules for the design of the book require that the title of the work be indicated on the first page. If the work belongs to the series, it is necessary to indicate its name and serial number of this part.
Book Spine Design
Information on the spine is indicated if its thickness is more than nine millimeters. The name of the author (or several names), the name of the book and the serial number of the volume are indicated on the spine. For dictionaries and reference books, the following rule is used: the first and last letters of the alphabet, information about which is located in this volume, are indicated on the spine. Information is printed in this order, from top to bottom. If the thickness of the book is more than forty millimeters, this data can be arranged horizontally.
The fourth page of the book
On this page is the barcode of the publication. In addition, authors, series of books can again be listed here, a table of contents and a search system for the contents of the book and the entire series can be presented. The fourth page may also contain information about the publisher that issued this printed product.
Element Numbering Rules
In order to understand how it is necessary to number elements, it is first necessary to analyze what types of numbering exist.
- Through numbering. With this technique, all elements are assigned a serial number according to its location. It is suitable if the elements are not very large. For example, Figure 1, Figure 2, and so on.
- Pagination With this method, the elements are assigned a double number consisting of the serial number of the page, and through the dot, the number of the element. It is used if a large number of formulas and tables are contained. For example: 36.1, 36.2, 43.1.
- Structural numbering is assigned according to the sections. For example, table 1.1, table 3.1.
Note that it makes sense to number objects in the following circumstances:
- A reliable search method is needed when links to the same element can appear several times in the text.
- A method of additional information retrieval over a large amount of text is required.
- It is necessary to compare the structural elements in the text, spaced in different sections in the book.
Interior content design
The signature is a technical element of the publication. It is designed to help with folding, printing, block formation, and final inspection. It should be located on the left. The beginning of the chapter should be separated by a large white indentation and the use of an initial letter. Small pictures should be placed in the text so that the indents from the upper and lower edges are equal to one to two or three to five. Tall and long illustrations should be placed in the middle of the strip. Samples of the design of books should have a signature on each printed sheet , which contains the serial number of the sheet and the keyword. This word is most often the name of the author. The design of the title page should correspond in all respects to the overall style and content of the book. The space between the title and the name of the publisher should not seem too empty. In this place you can place the stamp or coat of arms of the publisher. The page on which the output is located should be located at the end of the book. Headings in the title are typed without dots.
DIY book design
In order to arrange the book properly, you have to spend a lot of time. The design of the pages of the book and its appearance can be entrusted to designers of printing organizations. But for this pleasure you will have to pay a fairly tangible amount, especially for beginning writers. Having studied the rules of design, all these operations can be done independently. It is enough to know the principles of operation of graphic editors and formatting rules. For future implementation, such a factor as book design is important. Photos about how this process is carried out are presented in this article. In order to understand the rules of text formatting, you can familiarize yourself with the work of Jan Chichold. In his book, he gathered a lot of tips on how to make the contents of the book not only instructive, but also pleasing to the reader. He was a true master of book decoration. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and made a significant contribution to book printing and literature design.