Interior Design & Production Process

Desktop Miracles provides Interior Design and Typesetting in virtually any format or style imaginable, covering virtually every subject matter and genre. We've designed everything from four-color photographic coffee table books to one-color poetry books, from two-color 3rd grade math workbooks to multi-column heavily-referenced and footnoted Bibles.

There are two distinct phases to creating any book interior:

Design
Typesetting

Design

The DESIGN phase is where the look of the book is determined. We select typefaces, positioning of elements such as running heads, folios (page numbers), margins, leading (line spacing), line width, photo and illustration treatments etc.

The challenge of book design vs other types of design is incorporating all of these decisions in a visually pleasing solution that also enhances and communicates the structure and hierarchy of the content.

The hidden challenge of book design is to make sure that the design works well in all situations, ie a nice chapter title design that works if the title of chapter one has 3 words, but also works when the title of chapter twelve has 11 words!

The end result of the design phase should be a production template that accounts for all the elements in the book, but also takes into account the best and worst cases scenarios for each element. It's typical to have to make minor adjustments to the production template during the actual typesetting phase, and frequently create alternate style sheets to adjust blank space above and below for page balancing situations.

Typesetting

The TYPESETTING phase involves taking the production template and actually laying out all the pages in the book, incorporating photographs, illustrations, charts, tables etc.

The first task in this phase is correctly and consistently applying the style sheets to the text so that the logical structure of the book is maintained throughout. Subheads are always treated the same, and important call-outs are handled consistently. This helps the reader follow the content the author is presenting, as well as communicating the relative importance of elements both consciously and subconsciously.

This phase also includes making all the adjustments to the text to balance paragraphs and pages, minimizing hyphenation, eliminating bad line breaks, and overriding the default settings to improve readability and text flow.

This attention to detail is what sets us apart, and defines true typesetting.

OVERVIEW

There are many distinct steps to designing and producing a book interior:

Review of overall project
Review of manuscript and source materials
Quote and Deposit
Manuscript and source material preparation
Interior Designs
Creation of Production Template
Typesetting and Layout
First Pages
First Pages Review and Markup
Second Pages
Second Pages Review and Markup
Final Pages
Creation of index
Incorporation of index
Final Pages Review and Markup
File Preparation for the Printer

DETAILS

Review of overall project

The first step in our book design and production process is reviewing the specifications of the project as you foresee them. This can be done by phone or via email, or by filling out and returning the forms in our request a quote section.

This includes:

Desired trim size
- 6 x 9, 5.5 x 8.5, 6.125 x 9.25, 7 x 9, 7 x 10 , 8.5 x 11, etc.
Desired binding style
- Softcover Adhesive perfect bound
- Softcover Adhesive notch bind
- Softcover Otabound/Layflat
- Softcover Mechanical spiral/coil
- Hardcover Adhesive case bound
- Hardcover Adhesive notch case bind
- Hardcover Smythe sewn
- Hardcover Mechanical
Target page count desired
- in signatures, or groups, of 16 pages
Printing inks to be used
- 1 color black
- 2 color black plus spot (specify)
- 2 color both spot colors
- 3 color black plus two spots
- 4 color CMYK process
Desired design complexity
Simple and straightforward
Moderate
Intricate design with lots of flourishes
Complexity of the text
- Straight text
- Moderate complexity
- Highly complex
- Technical
Text Elements in manuscript:
- Bulleted lists
- Numbered lists
- Tables
- Footnotes
Graphic Elements in manuscript:
- Photos
- Illustrations
- Line drawings
- Business graphics (charts, diagrams, etc)
Page Density preference
- Conservative to minimize page count
- Moderate
- Open with lots of white space to maximize page count

Complete details on exactly what information we need, and which materials we need to review in order to quote your job is provided in the request a quote section.

Review of manuscript and source materials

The second step in our book design and production process is reviewing the manuscript and original source materials of the project as you supply them. A complete description of the materials we need to review in order to quote your job is provided in the request a quote section.

This includes:

Review of word processing files or hardcopy originals
Review of supplied graphic files, if any
Review of original source materials (photos, slides, transparencies, artwork)
Review of technical elements, and how they will be reproduced
Review of graphic elements, and how they will be reproduced

The review of these materials is the most essential step in our quoting the job for you. This is why it is so important that you supply everything in advance for review. Some of the issues we resolve are:

Are ALL the pieces of the project completely finished and supplied?
What clean-up is needed on your word processing files?
Are your graphics files high enough quality for reproduction?
Are all supplied files of sufficient quality, or will any need to be redone?
Will all the original source materials reproduce properly?

We will then do a rough caste-off at actual trim size to make sure that your supplied manuscript and elements will produce a page count in the vicinity of your desired target. If not, this needs to be caught as early as possible.

We use all this information to provide you with an accurate quote of what the expected costs will be to produce it.

If your job specs don't change, then your final invoice will match your quote, with no surprises.

Quote and Deposit

The third step in our book design and production process is producing the quote and deposit invoice for you.

The quote details the following:

The specifications of the book as we understand them
The steps included in the design and production of your book
The numbered of included elements (usually rounded up)
ie: if your book has 16 images, we include up to 20 to cover minor variations
Our quote is provided in a price per page format, starting at $8.00 per typeset page.
Our fee includes the following general items:
Design development of at least three sample interior designs
Creation of a production template from the selected design
Pagination and production steps through completion
Moderate changes and corrections through completion
Normal production and misc. expenses

The quote is designed to cover everything from manuscript through delivery to the printer. It's designed to be all-inclusive, and usually is. If the page count goes up or down by your decisions, it's easy to calculate the financial implications. And if additional services are required, or if the specs change, the rates for these services are predetermined and detailed so everyone understands the financial implications.

We require a $1000 deposit in hand before we will begin actual design and production work

Please review our Sample INTERIOR TYPESETTING QUOTE for complete details on what is included.

Manuscript and source material preparation

The fourth step in our book design and production process is preparing the manuscript files and supporting materials files for production. This includes:

Cleaning up all the word processing files
Eliminating formatting and stylist inconsistencies between files
Adding appropriate typesetting tags and codes as needed.
Reformatting footnote and endnote material as needed
Producing high resolution scans of hardcopy source materials
Color correction, digital editing if necessary, clean-up, and contrast balancing of scans.
File format preparation of scanned files (resolution, final file size, formats, etc)

Interior Designs

The DESIGN phase is where the look of the book is determined. It involves reviewing the entire book and its structure, and creating a design that will attractively present the content while maintaining the structure so the reader can follow the information.

Some of the things we consider as we are developing your interior design:

Preliminary ideas and wishes of the client
Distribution gatekeepers (wholesale buyers)
Primary target market & buyers
Secondary target market & buyers
Typical readers (many times this person may be different than the buyer)
Subject matter of the text
Complexity of the layout
Levels of hierarchy within the text
Design similarities with other books
Design constraints (series layout issues)
Publisher's standards and requirements

The design phase includes:

Selecting typeface(s )for the interior layout
- primary body text
- various levels of display text (chapter titles, chapter numbers, etc)
- various levels of structure text (subheads, etc)
- various levels of special treatment text (pull quotes, call outs, captions etc)
- various levels of technical text (charts, tables, figures)
- This step factors in the subject matter of the book as well as the tone and feel of the writing.
Selecting spacing parameters for the interior layout
- positioning of reference elements (running heads, running footers, folios/page numbers, footnotes, etc.)
- head and foot margins, and the resulting number of lines per "standard" page
- gutter and outside margins, and resulting line lengths etc.
- leading/line spacing baseline grid (and varying multiples of this grid)
- spacing around subheads and other elements
- chapter opener sinkage (number of lines on chapter openers)
- This steps factors in the client's density wishes and target page count for the book.

Askilled designer can manipulate the page count of your book by +/-10% through creative adjustment of these variables, most without impacting the readability of the book or becoming obvious to the reader.

The challenge of book design vs. other types of design is incorporating all of these decisions in a visually pleasing solution that also enhances and communicates the structure and hierarchy of the content.

The hidden challenge of book design is to make sure that the design works well in all situations throughout the book. A nice chapter title design that works when the title of chapter one has 3 words, and the title of chapter twelve has 11!

Desktop Miracles supplies three interior design samples, each consisting of several sample pages showing how the various elements would be treated in each design.

The most common process is that a client prefers one of the designs, but wants to make minor adjustments or incorporate elements from other designs.

We compile these changes into a final design for approval.

Creation of Production Template

The end result of the design phase should be an approved interior design that demonstrates and accounts for all the elements in the book, but also takes into account the best and worst cases scenarios for each element.

From this final design, we then create a PRODUCTION TEMPLATE, which is a master page layout file with all the parameters and style sheets created to ensure accurate and consistent formatting of the manuscript files per the interior design.

This template typically contains several master pages and dozens of style sheets.

The design is the look and feel of the book.

The production template is how we make sure the entire book consistently looks that way.

It is common to have to make minor adjustments to the production template during the actual typesetting phase as needed tweaking becomes apparent.

Typesetting

The Typesetting phase involves taking the production template and actually laying out all the pages in the book, incorporating photographs, illustrations, charts, tables etc. This phase also includes making all the adjustments to the text to avoid bad breaks, widows, orphans, and all those other text related nasties that separate a professionally typeset book from a word processed document.

First Pages

This phase simply involves outputting one or more full sets of laser prints to supply to the client.

First Pages Review and Markup

The client reviews the laser prints and notes any layout related changes or corrections. A correction is an incorrect application of the approved design, ie a mistake by the typesetter. A change is a decision by the client to change the previously approved designed, and is billable.

The client also reviews the text content and makes any desired changes or corrections.

A correction would be something that was somehow changed by the typesetter. This is extremely unlikely since we do not intentionally edit or re-key the text unless something unusual happens.

A CHANGE, traditionally called an EA change (Editors Alteration) or an AA (Authors Alteration) is a request by the client to change the text. This is billable, and can add up quickly. The reason is that during the typesetting phases, a significant amount of time and effort goes into the actual typesetting of the text so that line endings, paragraph breaks, page breaks and page balancing are all as visually pleasing as possible, and don't impact readability.

A minor wording change might later a line ending/paragraph, or page break,

thus render many minutes worth of work useless, and causing up to an hour of reworking a chapter to maintain text flow.

This is especially important if the project contains text or graphic elements that are tied to specific sections of text, so that if the text reflows, the images may need to be replace. I have personally worked on a project in which a two word change on one page resulted in two hours of additional typesetting and layout work.

This is the reason that we strenuously advise clients to make sure that all editing is completed before manuscript files are submitted for typesetting.

Second Pages

Desktop Miracles makes any requested changes or corrections and outputs a new set of lasers or a PDF file for proofing purposes. If changes were light, the index may be added here or at Final Pages.

Second Pages Review and Markup

The client proofs this set of lasers or a PDF to ensure that all the requested changes and corrections have been done correctly and as intended.

Final Pages

Desktop Miracles makes any final requested changes or corrections and add the index to the typeset pages if necessary. We then create a PDF file for proofing purposes, and email it.

Final Pages Review and Markup

Final review and confirmation that the pages and content are exactly the way the client wants them, with sign-off to go to print.

File Preparation for the Printer

Desktop Miracles finalizes the interior layout files, prepares a postscript files and PDF file ready for high end output per the printers specifications. We output a final set of composite laser prints per the printers specifications and if necessary, output a set of color separations as well.

We collect all relevant native application files, supporting graphic files, font files, etc and burns them to CD for transmittal to the printer. Depending on the job, we can also transmit files via FTP or email with support laser prints and files following via surface delivery.