Selecting a book font seems simple enough, but important subtleties and fine points of typography are not obvious to the…
Book cover design tells the story of the story. It must convey the spirit and intentions of the author authentically,…
The following publishing advice is based on my own experiences and those of my clients. I hope you find it…
Writers often ask about the difference between "straight" or "dumb" quotation marks and traditional printers' quotes, commonly referred to as…
Should you give away books for free? The value of book giveaways can't be assessed by formula. The prevailing mythology…
Page layout programs like Adobe Indesign and Quark, allow typographers to exert fine control over justified text to remove gaps…
Hyphens are an important contributor to elegant, easy-to-read typography, especially when text is fully justified as is the convention in…
Book design has changed since publishing became a gigantic industry. Typesetting was once performed by trained craftsmen who apprenticed to…
Are images analogous to words? Is what makes a sentence sound "right" the same thing that makes an image "pop"…
This third installment of Judging a Book by its Cover looks at great book cover designs that won the 2012…
Nothing screams “amateur” like a poorly crafted book cover. The standards for book design aspired to by trade publishers are…
The word processor has placed new burdens on writers to understand how to use italics, big and small capitals, dashes,…
NITIAL CAPITALS have historical roots in the early days of book design; their use predates the printing press and the…
This section on dashes, hyphens and dots goes beyond typographic aesthetics to explore how we can communicate more effectively as…
Use of Small Capitals—uppercase characters designed at lowercase scale—is one aspect of writing and book design that isn’t taught in…
Part 3 of Book Design Basics explores better ways to present numbers on your pages. Numbers (called figures) look simple…
Many readers still love to feel the subtle emboss of letters stamped on paper with metal type. I was rummaging…
Book design is a lost art. Though book design discussions usually focus on covers, consider how much more time a…
Part 2 of Fundamentals of Book Design explores optical margins, paragraph formatting and spaces. Read about margins, layout and leading…
Designers, writers and publishers will benefit from Beatrice Warde’s eloquent perspectives on the craft of typography, the power of type…
Most book designers make the same errors. One sore spot for me and with many of my university design students,…
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