Scroll Top
Tech Manual Book Design: Cover design, typesetting, page layout and design
0
By Erika Schanzenbach Portfolio

Book Cover design + Typesetting

Project: Cover design, typesetting and page design for interior of a collaborative technical manual with multiple authors.

This book design project started with the cover design first to set the tone for the entire book. Then I pulled the design from the cover design into the interior for a cohesive project.

Project Output: Print + Kindle: Print-on-demand publishing via Amazon KDP + Mobi/Kindle

Tools/Skills Utilized: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, stock photography selection/acquisition, full file preflight and file export for printer, MOBI export for digital version.

Cover design for print book.

Completed full front and back cover design for the print-on-demand version, as well as cover images for the Kindle version.

Typesetting / Interior spreads

Interior page spread for book layout, beginning of chapter.

The first page of each chapter reflects the smoke from the cover design. Different typefaces are utilized for the chapter titles, code snippets, and body copy to give the reader visual indicators of what information they are looking at. I included dropcaps for first paragraphs for each chapter and set the first page of each chapter on a right-hand page for consistency.

Interior typesetting and page layout with images inserted.

This technical manual contained many screenshots to illustrate the content. I prepped the images for print production and inserted with attention to keeping facing pages typeset cleanly and evenly.

Book Design Details

  • Cover Design
    • Front cover,  back cover,  spine
  • Typesetting
    • selection of typefaces
    • selection of point size and linespacing for readability
    • crafted paragraph styles for body copy, headings, code blocks
  • Page Design
    • Whitespace: margins and gutter
    • Page numbering
    • Book/Chapter titles on interior pages
  • Front Matter
    • Table of Contents
    • Copyright page
    • Preface
    • Foreword
  • File Output
    • PDF file to Amazon KDP specs for interior pages
    • Cover art file including back cover and spine for print edition
    • Cover art file for Kindle version
    • MOBI file to Amazon KDP specs for Kindle version
    • PDF ebook version
Front cover and spine of print book design.
Erika Schanzenbach / About Author
Erika is owner of GoBizGo.pro and lives and works in hills of southwest Virginia. She leaves her mark on the world by helping the instigators and the doers, the creators and builders and makers of things, do their work better. An intentional optimist, a personal perfectionist (Lord help her), and shamelessly particular when it comes to coffee and craft brews.
More posts by Erika Schanzenbach