How to Typeset a Book: Part 9

In this last installment of How to Typeset a Book, we’ll get into professional typesetting territory. These are the things that separate amateur-looking typesetting from top-notch graphic design.

Spacing after punctuation: When you typeset a book, be sure to insert only a single space after all punctuation. (It’s OK to disobey your high school typing teacher, I promise). A double space after a period used to be necessary when we prepared text on a typewriter, because the “width” of each letter, whether it was a “w” or an “I” was exactly the same. But that issue was resolved long ago with digital fonts.

Proper dashes: There are three kinds of dashes in every type font. Most people are familiar with the first two, hyphens and em dashes. Hyphens are used to hyphenate words and separate phone numbers. Em dashes are a form of punctuation, used to offset clauses in a sentence. The third kind of dash is an En dash, typically half the length of an Em dash, which used to denote duration, as in 8:00–5:00, or August 12–14. In most software packages, you can access the En dash by typing Option-hyphen.
Proper quotation marks: Use true (curly) quotation marks and apostrophes. Using tick marks directly from the keyboard sends the message “I don’t care how this stuff looks.” This is a preference that can be defined in InDesign.

Use of small caps: Set all uppercase text slightly smaller than the surrounding text. Otherwise, your capitals will SCREAM at the reader. The size of small caps can be customized in InDesign.

Letter spacing of capitalized text: Add letter spacing to capitalized text and small caps. Capitalized text or small caps appearing within normal text can appear too tight and crowded; they need to be loosened up a bit. Avoid letter spacing in lowercase book text. Looser spacing always decreases readability.

Old style numbers: Use old style figures when available and appropriate. Old style figures are also known as non-lining numerals, because they don’t line up on the baseline. They can be thought of as lower case numbers, and look better in text passages than the usual lining numerals. Use a slightly smaller point size for numbers when old style numerals are not available. They blend in better and don’t jump out at the reader.

Use of boldface and italics: Use boldface text sparingly. Bold text is like a magnet to our eyes, and will ruin the continuity of your text. Italics and bold text, when overused, can appear condescending to the reader…as if you are saying, “I don’t think you’ll understand my words unless I emphasize what’s important.” There are exceptions to this rule, of course. In a textbook, bold face is often used to denote important terms that appear in the glossary. Judgment is the key.
Avoid underlined text: Even more distracting than boldface text is underlined text, which is a typographic abomination that should be avoided.

Special characters: The © (copyright), ® (registered trademark), and ™ (trademark) characters almost always need to be reduced, sometimes by as much as 50%, depending on the font.

Proper formatting of ellipses: According to the current Chicago Manual of Style, ellipses should be set with a word space on either side and a word space between each dot. Format these with a non-breaking space before the ellipsis and between each dot, but a normal word space after the ellipsis,  so that the ellipsis won’t break in the middle or begin on a new line.

Size of ballot boxes: Decrease the size of ballot boxes. As a general rule, these characters should be about two points smaller than the surrounding text.

Use of bullets: Consider using other characters besides bullets. They’re rather boring and overused. Just like ballot boxes, whatever you substitute should also be two points smaller than the text. But don’t go overboard. Your text shouldn’t have too many different kinds of bullet characters. That will make your book look homemade and amateurish.

Word stacks: Avoid beginning or ending three consecutive lines with the same word. Override your software for a better look, by adjusting word spacing or tracking manually in that paragraph only, or by rewriting the text.

Congratulations! If you’ve read all nine posts, now you know why it takes a pro so long to typeset a book, and why it costs money. If you’re the type of person who just loves to tackle this level of detail, then by all means try to typeset your book (or call me, I may have a job opening for you). If not, then consider hiring a book designer. Believe it or not, all of these rules are just the basics. We’re just getting started. Now, we have to make your book beautiful!

What do you want to know? What topics should we explore together? How can we help you along your publishing journey? Everyone here at 1106 Design wants to help. Post your comment here or email us at office@1106design.com

Michele DeFilippo, owner, 1106 Design