Create an excellent book layout

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Create an excellent book layout design

by:Thomson Chemmanoor

Creating an excellent book layout is the next most important thing involved in writing of a book. Once the writing is complete, it is of no use thinking that that the job of writing a book has been completed. The layout of the book has to be designed, such that it pleases all those who come across the book!

Nowadays, the process of creating attractive page layouts of your books has been made simple with the word processors. All impressions made by reports, letters or essays are always enhanced with good design, so use the word processor to improve the layout of your pages. Most word-processor’s have the ability of creating a margin of one inch at all edges of the page. You could try increasing the margins on the sides of the paper to one and a half inches, and the deep bottom margin of up to two inches. This is because doing these changes will help in improving the layout of your work on an A4 page.

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It is always better to use fonts with serifs like Times Roman or Schoolbook in the main text of whatever is written in the text of the book. By doing this, it helps in making the text easier to read when printed on paper. It is better to avoid using sans-serif fonts like Arial or Helvetica as these fonts don’t encourage continuous reading. A book needs regular bouts of continuous reading so this is not encouraged, instead, it could be used in headings. Display fonts like Poster or ShowTime should be only used for advertising or novelty effects. The size of all fonts should be between eleven and twelve points. Smaller or larger fonts make reading inappropriate when printed on A4 paper.

Creating the cover of the book is not actually that difficult. Gather ideas from the local bookstore to compare different graphics and layouts. The main thing that is common amongst them is that they have a title and an author’s name on the cover. The main focus of a book lies on the book’s title, as this is what captures the reader’s attention, to make them want to pull the book out of the shelf! Think up a title for the book that gives a basic idea of what the book is all about. To get the right title, it is better to brainstorm the content of the book and create a word or phrase that sums the contents of the book for the reader. Remember, that the tittle gives the first impression of the book, so design it well!

While deciding the layout of the book, it is better to have your text laid out in one-and-a-half line spacing. This makes the book more attractive and less crowded on the page. However, some parts of the book may have to be double-spaced like play scripts or prose fiction. Use a double space between the paragraphs of the text of the book. This enhances the book layout and makes it more pleasing to read to the reader!

Choosing the right justification for the book layout comes next on the list. You can use either full or left justification. In full justification, the text is arranged in a straight line on both the right and left margins, whereas in left justification, the text is aligned only on the left and leaves the text with a ragged look on the right. Though left justification produces more regular word-spacing, full justification gives a better overall visual effect on the book layout. It is not at all advisable to use the space bar for indentation as it only creates an uneven layout when printed. You should always use the TAB stop, and the INDENT key; the TAB just for the first line of the paragraph, and the INDENT for indenting the whole of the paragraph. This gives a positive effect on your book layout!

When deciding on the book layout, you could consider using italics for the titles of books and journals, and bold for headings and sub-headings. Presenting the headings and sub-headings in a slightly larger font than the body of the text too is not a bad idea. However, the book layout will get spoilt if continuous capital letters is used in the titles or headings as it looks unsightly and also makes the heading difficult to read. There is actually no point in underlining the heading or titles as it only makes the text harder to read. So it is better not to practice this in the book layout!

Never create book layouts with text that is densely packed as it only looks unattractive and off-puts the effect of the book. Try to leave lots of white space around your work, to make the book layout ‘speak’ to the reader. Book layouts need some thought and creativity. Use these tips to help you in the process of creating an excellent book layout!