The Trail Provides:

Typesetting & Electronic Formatting

I’d like to introduce you to a wonderful new book I’ve had the opportunity to work on: The Trail Provides by David Smart. It tracks David’s path to a new life and philosophy while on the Pacific Crest Trail.

With close to eighty images, it required a specialist’s touch to optimise the electronic format, and typeset for print. Unlike what some people think, books need to be properly formatted and typeset. A well-formatted book is an experience to be cherished, and the layout is usually not even noticed — unless it’s really bad.

So what goes into producing a picture book of this nature?

First, there are the images. Since the paperback is not printed in colour, I optimised each image for black and white. Every image is processed with attention to contrast, and each colour channel is individually tweaked for a pleasing monochromatic photograph that prints well.

The images for the electronic version of The Trail Provides were processed for not only optical quality, but also compactness to reduce the final book megabyte size. This ensures that the book loads promptly on e-Book readers, and does not incur delivery charges with certain bookstores.

Next is the visual look of the book.

After discussion with David, I decided to use part of the book’s cover in the interior layout. It helps to create a polished and cohesive package. I generally typeset books with the Liberation Font set. The titles are set in a bold display typeface to match the jacket.

Today is the official launch for The Trail Provides. Grab a copy of David Smart’s new book on Amazon.

Visit BC.B for more info on Book Cover Design and Formatting.

Read one of my books on Publishing.

Read this article on typesetting next.

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