the page itself

shaping the page 7

Envision the physical version of the book, even while you’re working digitally.

Even though you’re creating these pages while looking at a screen, they’re not going to stay digital forever! Printing while you work is essential to understanding how the book will actually function. Narrower pages need spines that will properly keep them laying flat, as the lighter weight of the pages will not be inclined to weigh them down.

Make sure you fully understand the content in what you’re typesetting before you decide on page dimensions or any layouts. Is it going to need wider pages to accommodate maps, tables, illustrations?

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Consider how long it will take someone to read through the text.

For text that is going to be read for long periods at a time, set your columns to be taller than they are wide. Wider columns are intended more so for beginning readers, and setting them taller will communicate to the reader that you understand they are at a certain level to be able to comprehend the text as you have decided to set it.

Newspapers and magazines, typically a quicker read than a novel, have very long and narrow columns. This does not serve well for continuous reading, or for reading one thing over and over again.

The textblock does not need to be perfectly proportional to the shape of your page.

Balance can be found in other ways. To keep the reader engaged, the page should be designed so that the textblock differs from the proportions of your page as a whole. In doing this, you should consider the role of the margins just much as the role of the text. Where will the reader’s thumbs go? Will you need to include any additional information within the margins?

Make decisions based on what will best guide the reader through the text.

When you’re adding folios, think about what will stick out as you’re flipping through the pages. They should stand out enough from the main text to be easily found, but not so much that they draw your attention away from it.

26 pocket bringhurst

In the same vein, you shouldn’t be restating the obvious. If it does not benefit the reader, there is no reason to repeat yourself: for example, it is not always necessary to type the word “chapter” to denote the beginning of a new chapter if the page design already communicates that. Running heads are an interesting topic here because while they are repetitive in a way, they can also aid in reader navigation. Therefore, it is best to use them only when they are actually useful.

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