The following are basic instructions. They should only be used to help your creative process. This tutorial is only to assist you build the book cover. Your book cover will be personalised. Use your imagination! Have fun!
You will be creating a book cover and the contents of the book. The cover is the first assignment and should be treated separately.
Come up with an idea for a book. Do you wish to create a fictional text? Or would you rather choose an existing book? If you choose an existing book, pick a text written during the first half of the 20th century.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make a dust jacket for a book. Designing book jacket covers can be intimidating. Today, I’ll show you how to set up a dust jacket template that you can reuse repeatedly. Using the Page Tool, we will set up every section of the jacket as its page. This will make the jacket design template easy to alter.
I’ve also included a handy diagram to show you the dimensions and the structure of the book jacket design. Use this as a guide for your future custom book covers and book jackets!
We will start by setting up the InDesign book template with one page for this tutorial. Later, on the Layers panel, we will set up the rest of the structure of the book jacket template, as shown in the diagram below.
Each part of the book cover template will be set up as its own page. Users will then be able to resize the book jacket cover as they need.
In InDesign, go to File > New. Name the document Book Jacket Template and set the file to the following dimensions:
Click Create.
On the Pages panel (Windows > Layers), uncheck Allow Document Pages to Shuffle from the main menu. This option will allow us to move pages on the InDesign book template easily.
On the Pages panel, add four pages to the book jacket template through the Create New Page button. Also on the Pages panel, drag the pages into a five-page spread.
Select the Page Tool (Shift-P) from the Tools panel. Select the first page on the left and head over to the Control panel. Set the Width to 3.5 in.
Select the last page on the right with the Page Tool (Shift-P) and set the Width to 3.5 in. Use the Page Tool (Shift-P) to move the pages next to each other if necessary.
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On the Layers panel, select the spine section of the book jacket cover and head over to Layout > Margins and Columns. Set the Margins on all sides to 0.25 in. Click OK.
Select the Page Tool (Shift-P) from the toolbar. Select the spine page and set the Width to 1 in.
Before we start the design of the InDesign book template, we need to alter the margin settings on the front cover and back cover. We need to subtract 0.375 in order to have the design aligned in the center.
On the Layers panel, select page 2 of the InDesign book template. Head over to Layout > Margins and Columns and set the Left margin to 0.875 in. This is to account for the 0.375-inch back wrap and the 0.5-inch margin on all sides.
Repeat the same procedure on the front page of the book jacket cover. On the Layers panel, select page 4. Head over to Layout > Margins and Columns and set the Right margin to 0.875 in.
Open the Layers panel by going to Window > Layers. We’ll organize our book cover template into three layers so that users can edit the content.
Bring up the Layers panel by going to Window > Layers. Double-click on Layer 1 and rename it Background.
In the Layers panel main menu, select New Layer. Name it Text. Click OK. Also create a new layer named Images.
Head over to Window > Color > Swatches to expand the Swatches panel. Choose New Color Swatch button from the main menu. Set the Swatch Name and values to the following:
You will create swatches for your book cover when you have completed it’s general design.
Click Add and OK after you input each of the color values.
You will create your own styles when you have established a paragraph appearance.
Head over to Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles to open the Paragraph Styles panel. In the main menu, select Load Paragraph Styles.
Navigate to the Book Jacket Paragraph Styles InDesign document and click Open.
In the Load Styles window, click on Check All and click OK. You’ll have a list of styles on the Paragraph Styles panel ready to be used on your custom book cover template.
Bring up the Rules on your custom book cover by pressing Command-R. Using the top ruler, create two guides horizontally. Sit both on the Y axis at 1 in and 2.75 in.
In the Layers panel, select the Background layer.
Head over to the toolbar and select the Rectangle Tool (M). Draw a rectangle to cover all of the book jacket template, making sure it is touching the bleeds.
In the Layers panel, lock the Background layer and select the Images layer.
Press Command-D to Place an object. Navigate to the Portrait of a young woman file and click Open. In the Control panel, set the Scale Percentage to 12%.
Drag the bottom center point of the frame towards the top to create a square frame. Place it under the top guide we created.
In the Layers panel, select the Text layer.
Select the **Text Tool (T) and create a text frame that fits the width of the back flap. Place this text frame under the second guide.
Using the Paragraph Styles panel, style the text with the Flap – Quote, Copy, and the Flap – Signature style.
Using the Text Tool (T), create three text frames on the back cover. These frames will house a quote, copy, and some information in small text.
Set the text to the Back Cover – Quote and Copy styles using the Paragraph Styles panel.
For the bottom text, set the frame to the Back Cover – Quote. Head over to the Control panel and set the Type Size to 8 pt. In the Swatches panel, set the color to the [Paper] color.
Select the Rectangle Tool (M) from the Toolbar. Create a rectangle to include the barcode if necessary. Place this item on the Images layer.
Using the Text Tool (T), create a text frame outside of the spine. Add the book title and format it using the Spine style from the Paragraph Styles.
Select the second word and head over to the Control panel. Set the Font to Kaydens Script, and set the Size to 38 pt and the Baseline Shift to -5 pt.
In the Swatches panel, set the color to Yellow. Using the Rotate Tool (R), rotate the text frame -90° and place it along the spine.
Press Command-D to Place an image on the front cover.
Navigate to an image of your choice (select a photo that applies to your concept. Click file and click Open. Using the Selection Tool (V), move the frame to crop closely around any one of the portraits.
Resize the image to fit the front cover of the book cover template. Press Shift-Command to resize the image proportionally and drag from any of the corners. Place the image on the bottom margin.
Create two text frames for the word “the” and “Secret”. Set both frames to the Front Cover – Title Line 1 style on the Paragraph Styles panel.
Select “the” and head over to the Control panel. Set the Font Size to 55 pt. Place both frames next to each other, creating good harmony between the two words.
Create a text frame under the first line for the rest of the title. Set the style on the Paragraph Styles panel to Front Cover – Title Line 2.
Add a final text frame under the title to include the author’s name. Use the Paragraph Styles to format the frame to the Front Cover – Author style.
Select the title and press Command-G to Group the frames. Duplicate them by pressing Option and dragging them to the front flap.
Head over to the Control panel and set the Scale Percentage to 45%.
Using the Text Tool (T), create a text frame under the title on the inside flap. Using the Paragraph Styles panel, set the text to the Copy style.
Before exporting the book jacket template for printing, it’s useful to take a look around all the edges. This is to make sure all the images and vectors bleeding out are touching the bleeds. I advise you to consult your printer for any specific settings.
To export the file, go to File > Export. Name the file Book Jacket Template and choose Adobe PDF (Print) from the Format dropdown menu. Click Save.
In the Export Adobe PDF window, set the Adobe PDF Preset to Press Quality. Under Pages, set the Export As option to Spreads.
On the left side of the panel, select Marks and Bleeds. Check All Printer’s Marks and Use Document Bleed Settings. Click Export. You will have a ready-to-print PDF file.
In this tutorial, you learned how to make a book jacket. We covered key tools that will help anyone edit a book jacket design template quickly and easily. Today, you learned to:
The following are basic instructions. They should only be used to help your creative process. This tutorial is only to assist you build the book cover. Your book cover will be personalised. Use your imagination! Have fun!
In this article, you’ll learn how to make a book in InDesign. Creating your InDesign book doesn’t need to be daunting or difficult once you know a few basics. In this tutorial, you’ll find all the steps and everything you need to create a book in InDesign.
There are ten essential steps for creating your InDesign book templates from scratch, including how to create a book cover and how to make a book layout. You’ll also pick up some handy tips from the pros.
For many first-time book designers, it might also be the first time you come into contact with Adobe InDesign, so brush up on the basics before you begin designing so you can confidently approach creating your book.
For book traditionalists and enthusiasts, print books still hold a huge amount of appeal. The most common and cheapest print format is the paperback (or softcover), which is the best-value choice for self-publishers. Several print-on-demand sites, like Blurb and CreateSpace, have sprung up in response to demand from self-publishers and independent publishing houses who want to create and sell paperbacks online.
The ‘shelf appeal’ of hardbacks helped publishers to sell large-format titles in record quantities last year, which makes this more old-school print format one to watch.
Hardbacks are more expensive to print but sell at a higher price point too. Check out this tutorial on how to create a hardback cover tailored to a young adult audience:
If you’re planning on selling your book online or distributing it to bookstores, it’s in your interest to design your book to an industry-accepted size.
Paper stock is the type of paper the pages of your book will be printed on. The ‘stock’ combines paper finish (such as coated or uncoated) and weight (measured in ‘Grams per Square Meter’, GSM).
The heavier the paper stock you choose, the heavier your book will be, and the width of the spine will therefore be greater. While an experienced printer can advise you on the best sort of paper stock for your project, you need to know how this will affect the spine width of your cover so that you can accommodate this in your design.
Once you know your book’s paper stock and page count, you can either ask the printer for the spine width or use an online spine width calculator, like this Gutenberg calculator.
Typesetting is the process of arranging text on the inside pages of a book. Some book designers choose to specialize in typesetting, as the process of typesetting can be very skillful and time-consuming.
However, this isn’t to say that you can’t learn how to typeset your books. This tutorial provides a good overview of the basics of typesetting books in InDesign:
Once you know the basics of typesetting, you’ll also need to develop a good eye for spotting fonts that are suitable for typesetting. Most typesetters tend to opt for tried and trusted serif typefaces. Here are a few pointers to help you choose typesetting fonts which will always work beautifully.
Look out for fonts which are:
Walk into any bookstore, and the sheer creativity and diversity of book cover designs will blow you away. Readers do judge books by their covers, so it pays to think creatively and strive to design a book cover that catches the eye and entices a prospective reader to pick up your book.
You can find great inspiration from sources online, such as Pinterest, which is flooded with inspiring book design images, or the amazing Book Cover Archive. Sites like these can give you ideas for the theme, mood, fonts, and color palette you might want to use in your design.
These tutorials will guide you through the basics for creating your book covers, as well as give you a few pointers for designing genre-appropriate covers:
By placing elements such as page numbers and chapter headings on Parents, you can apply these elements consistently and quickly to a large number of pages.
Parent pages can be accessed from the Pages panel (Window > Pages) in InDesign.
In this example, I’ve created three different parent spreads for the inside pages of a book in InDesign: a ‘Title’ parent for the opening pages of the book with no page numbers, a ‘Start of Chapter’ parent with page numbers but no running headers, and a ‘Chapter Body’ parent with page numbers and running headers along the top of each page.
Once you’ve set up and applied parents to your book, you will also need to get familiar with the process of threading text throughout your document. Read up on how to do this with this quick tip tutorial:
InDesign offers you a really useful feature for creating long book documents—these are called Book Files. A Book File is a collection of grouped documents (usually chapters).
There are several advantages to creating a Book File rather than simply creating your book as one large InDesign document:
To create a Book File, go to File > New > Book in InDesign. You’ll be prompted to give the book a name and to save it.
When you’ve created the Book File, choose Add Document from the Book panel’s main menu. From here, you can add InDesign files to the book, which would normally be chapter files (e.g. Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc).
Once you’ve set up a book file, it’s important to set up the page numbering of your book correctly. This can be a bit fiddly, so let’s look at an example.
Here, I want to set up my book so that page 1 begins on the first page of the opening chapter. So I select the opening chapter page (which is currently page 13) and choose Numbering & Section Options from the panel’s main menu.
In the New Section window, I check Start Page Numbering at, and set this to 1. From the Style menu below, I choose ‘1, 2, 3, 4…’, before clicking OK.
I want the first 12 pages of my book to be numbered with Roman numerals. To do this, I select the very first page of the document and again choose Numbering & Section Options.
As before, I check the Start Page Numbering and set this to 1. But this time I choose ‘i, ii, iii, iv…’ from the Style menu, and click OK.
You may also want to add a differently numbered section to the final pages of your book.
As you update the page numbers or add or remove pages in your book, the Book File will update the page numbering throughout all the documents (chapters).
This is the last step in this tutorial for how to create a book in InDesign. Once you’ve completed the cover and inside pages of your book, you’re ready to export it for printing.
The standard print-ready file format most printers will request is a PDF.
Go to File > Export in InDesign, and choose Adobe PDF (Print) from the Format menu. Choose Press Quality from the Preset options to ensure your artwork is exported at a very high quality.
Top tip: Export your cover and inside pages as a single pdf file. Use the “spreads” option when exporting.
Remember page numbering as stated below.
Fussell, G. (2024) How to Make a Book in InDesign: Envato Tuts+, Design & Illustration Envato Tuts+. Envato Tuts. Available at: https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-make-a-book-in-indesign–cms-32534 (Accessed: 19 February 2024).
Keung, L. (2022) How to Create a Book Jacket Template in InDesign: Envato Tuts+, Design & Illustration Envato Tuts+. Envato Tuts. Available at: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-book-jacket-template-in-indesign–cms-32733 (Accessed: 19 February 2024).