Category Archives: Book Design

Writing in InDesign gives you layout power

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I’ve been working on a new expanded version of “Writing In InDesign” for my peers in ministry. (I haven’t figured out how to add the updates into the first edition.) I may write “Drawing In InDesign” first. Then I’ll do a radically expanded 2nd edition of “Writing In InDesign”—but that’s all in flux. I also received this in an email this morning: From Don in Colorado: I was up until 3:am reading Writing in InDesign. I can tell you’ve put … Continue reading →

Writing in InDesign ebooks are up or coming

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Apple is always slow with additions to iBooks, but you can get the ePUB that will be there from Lulu or NookBooks. Amazon just let me know that the Kindle version is up. It will take a while before the print and Kindle versions are linked up. The response to the book has been very good I am really pleased that several people seem to think the basic concept has merit. You can see a discussion of … Continue reading →

Forcing InDesign to write acceptable CSS

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Sometimes I feel so stupid. The solution to the incomplete CSS in exported ePUBs is so much more simple than I thought. Your mind just seems to turn a little corner and the solution pops up in front of you. My beef with InDesign CS5.5’s ePUBs was the need to edit the CSS I’ve posted several times here and published a couple books about fixing the ePUB CSS. What I wrote was accurate. It’s not difficult, as … Continue reading →

1st Proof: Fontographer: Practical Font Design For Graphic Designers

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This is the new book on Fontographer 5.1. It’s has been great fun to go back to my roots, as it were and relearn the program that started me in font design. Fontographer is the app that started graphic design on the computer. It preceded Illustrator by over a year. It was the core that was developed into FreeHand. This is digital drawing that is fun again! As I got back into the application something remarkable happened. … Continue reading →

Writing in InDesign update published…

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Today I published a carefully constructed revision of the original 7×10 book as a 6×9 book on Lulu, Createspace, and Scribd. Due to a find and replace flaw in the original, many of the “we are”s were converted to I are and all the similar permutations that go with that kind of mental clumsiness. In the process, InDesign went through a spasm and damaged several of the images, so I fixed all of that. It does all … Continue reading →

My newest book: Writing in InDesign

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Check out my page on the book This book has been replaced by “Writing In InDesign Revised Edition 2.5” This first edition, first formatting of the new book is no longer available available on Amazon. It includes many of the recent postings on this blog, plus more help for authors writing in InDesign (version 7.5 especially). I’m convinced that InDesign is best place to write. Read and find out why that is true and how it can … Continue reading →

The next step from paperback?

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Challenging Times « Marketing Christian Books. Sometimes I am just ‘slap in the forehead’ dumb. Somehow I missed the parallel between what happened with the pocket book in the 1930s and what is going on with the ebook today. My only problem, as a typographer, is finding an ereader I can tolerate graphically. I have no doubt it will come soon. How do you think it fits in the scheme of things?

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Writing books in InDesign

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Here I am again recommending a road less traveled by—not unusual in my life and work. Before the choruses rise up in defense of others, let me tell you my reasonings. I fully recognize that most people write in Word. What they do not realize [in most cases] is this simple fact starts their book under a great handicap. They are missing out on the best tools for communicating with readers. At this point, I have been … Continue reading →

Writing in InDesign: Part 6, Fixing the ePUB CSS

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ePUB CSS Repair Once you have your ePUB It will usually open in ADE (depending on what you have installed on your computer). Proof it carefully. Redo as necessary. If your computer is like mine, the graphics will be very poor in ADE. Basically ADE is very crude. Then drop a copy of the ePUB file onto iTunes and sync it into iBooks on your iPad to read it in iBooks. The reason you need to use … Continue reading →

I just added CSS editing instructions to the free ePUB design booklet

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There is nothing long and extended here, because I remain convinced that most book designers consider coding anathema. But after finding the script I mentioned earlier today, I have found several interesting things that can be easily fixed in the ePUB. Edit the CSS if you can (or don’t if you can’t) The problem with this has been the difficulty with decompressing the .epub file and then recompressing back into .epub. For that you will need a … Continue reading →