Design Basics

Scribble Press Gallery Books design department offers a few basic rules for composition to achieve a clean, professional look on your project.

Less is More
Maintain a simple, focused and uncluttered composition. Keeping it simple will highlight the important elements and make your pages more pleasing to the eye. If any particular element or text distracts from your intended message, best to leave it out.

Limit The Fonts
Pick one or two typefaces (titles/headlines and body) that best reflect the mood of your work and use them throughout the book. The key here is consistency.

Dummies are Smart
Printing a sample prior to submitting your files is a helpful way to test the overall flow of the book, alignment of objects, type size, page placement and will give you a chance to check for typos or other mistakes!

Color Management
You must calibrate with an external device to ensure correct color; our settings are available in our Preparing Your Files packet. Any adjustments we preform will be billed at our normal design rate ($75/hour).

Programs & Templates
We recommend using Adobe InDesign® CS2/3/4 for book layout in conjunction with Adobe PhotoShop® CS2/3/4 for image editing. These are the most effective, efficient tools to design your book. It is possible to meet our submission guidelines with other programs, but we only offer help with the Adobe Creative Suite. Go to Preparing Your Files for our instructions, templates and submission guidelines.