It's time for your text to become a book!
Book layout is an essential stage in the production of a book, along with creating the cover. Well-done formatting must be consistent with the subject of the book, helping to convey to the reader, in graphic language, the universe in which the text is inserted.
Here at SGuerra Design, you will find the ideal design for your book, which invites the public to read and provides a great literary experience for your reader. You can see some projects visiting our portfolio, right here.
What is book layout
Book layout (also known as book formatting) is a design standardization process that transforms the content and images of a text produced in Word into an attractive layout for readers.
A well-designed book with a consistent graphic design is fundamental to the success of a publisher or even an independent author.
There is no point in having a great text if it is not well designed graphically to create the best experience for the reader, and this is only possible through professional book formatting work.
Professional book layout avoids technical problems with printers, who need book files to be sent in compliance with a series of criteria that are very specific to the graphic production process, such as cut and bleed marks, color standardization in CMYK system or grayscale, use of images and graphics with appropriate resolution for printing (dots per inch), format according to the use of the paper to be used for printing and a series of other issues that must be followed exactly so that the book is readable, as well printed, with professional finish.
Book layout program
Many writers come to us believing that they have already designed their books in the Word text editor, but unfortunately this is not true. Every book needs to be redesigned in professional publishing programs.
Word is a program for writing, not for laying out the pages of a book. It is a very advanced text editor, without a doubt, but it is not software with features for professional printing. It is designed for the author to produce their content in a calm and very intuitive way, but this stage ends there.
Over time, many professional layout software have been used by the graphics industry, the best known of which is PageMaker, which you may have already heard of.
Today it has been replaced by a much more modern tool: InDesign, which is used by practically 100% of the graphics industry. And it is this tool that SGuerra Design uses for book layout. All of them.
How we will work with your book
Professional layout is a crucial part of the entire book production process. Each part of the project deserves special attention from us: chapters, footers, dedication, summary, titles, subtitles, etc.
All of this is carefully prepared so that it is very clear to the reader what each item represents in the book layout set.
When you send the text to us, it goes to production. From there, the formatting phase of all items that are part of the text begins: hierarchy of each element, positioning of chapters and titles, type of font (letters) to be used, sizes, hyphenations (word breaks), positioning graphic elements (tables, images, illustrations) and image processing, if any.
Depending on the book, the entire process can take from a week to a month, depending on the complexity of the work to be formatted.
After this, a PDF is generated so that the editor or writer can check all the elements and see if they are to their liking. After any adjustments and the layout is finally approved, a final PDF version is produced, with all the correct specifications for the graphics.
Together with the book cover, the material is sent for printing and the book layout stage is completed.
REMEMBER IF: The book layout service does not include editorial services, such as text review, critical reading or evaluation of the quality of the text. This is strictly a graphic design service. You can find out more about our editorial services in the top menu.
Book layout: how many pages will my book have?
Normally, a text with size 11 font in Word will increase approximately 30 to 40% in size in the final format, after layout. Therefore, if your book has 100 pages in the text editor, it will probably have 136 pages already laid out and ready for printing.
IMPORTANT: Factors such as the number of images in the book and the number of chapters cause the final number of pages to increase considerably. There's no guarantee your book will fit this simple formula of mine, but it will help you get an estimate.
To receive a quote, it is important that you send your text to us via WhatsApp, email or via our form. After analysis, we send our proposal.
Book layout: discover our portfolio
Layouting a book consists of the combination of two essential factors: firstly, technical knowledge, such as knowing how to work with widows, gallows, distributing texts harmoniously across the page. And secondly, publishing is an art that involves passion and an artistic eye. Below are some pages I would like to show you:
