BookBaby Print Services
The BookBaby Design Studio will ensure your book makes a professional first impression.

Professional Book Layout
and Design by BookBaby

A great book cover design is your best sales tool, instantly conveying the key thoughts and messages that sum up your book. Our knowledgeable team has years of experience in print design in a wide variety of genres. We specialize in everything from interior text formatting to designing your complete book.

BookBaby Design Studio makes it easy and affordable for you to realize the dream of holding your own printed book!

COVER DESIGN
Cover Design services come in two flavors, Basic and Deluxe. Every cover design also includes the layout of the spine text and design of the back cover.

Basic Cover Design focuses on one central image, grabbing the reader’s attention with a single photo or bold graphic.

Deluxe Cover Design offers more complex imagery by combining graphic elements, textures, and blending multiple photos to create a scene specific to your book’s content.

INTERIOR BOOK DESIGN
Professionally formatted text is an important part of book design. A clear hierarchy and readable typeface help create a layout that is inviting to your reader. We offer Black Text or Color Text Design.

Black Text Design includes layout of your text in a format that suits the style of your book, meets industry standards and provides a great reading experience.

Color Text Design includes full color design your book’s interior. We will combine text, graphics and color photos for the greatest visual impact.

Black Text Design is best suited for books that require professional layout of text pages, such as: novels and other general fiction, business, biography and poetry books. Layout includes: a title page, page numbers, chapter/section headings and running headers where appropriate. Generally speaking, these books do not include photos, however, we do allow up to 20 supplied B&W inline images. You will receive a PDF proof of the complete layout.

Design Studio samples

Color Text Design is best suited for books that have color images, multiple columns, and require an extensive design unique to your book’s content. Non-fiction, art & photography, cookbooks, and travel books are all great candidates for Color Text Design. Layout includes: a title page, page numbers, chapter/section headings, running headers, table of contents, and colophon. Plus, you may choose from the following special sections: foreword, dedication, acknowledgment, image captions and appendix. You will receive a preview proof of a section of your book. After your approval of the preview, we’ll complete your book design and send you a PDF of the complete layout. Color Text Design includes up to 50 supplied images or up to 10 BookBaby stock images. If your book requires additional images, we will review and provide you with a custom design quote.

Design Studio samples

After you’ve selected the design options that are right for you and saved your quote, you will be asked to complete a short design questionnaire. It will give you the opportunity to share your ideas about the mood of your book cover or the style of the inside pages. You can request that our designers find images for you, or you can upload images of your own for us to work with. BookBaby designers will combine your input with their expertise to create a custom designed book that you’ll be proud to show off.

HOW TO SUPPLY YOUR FILES
It is important that you follow these guidelines when formatting your manuscript and preparing your image files for BookBaby.

TEXT FILE CHECK LIST

  • Provide your manuscript in one complete MSWord file (.doc) or save as Rich Text (.rtf) file.
  • Include basic formatting: bold and italics, underlines and chapter headers.
  • Do NOT include stylistic formatting: tabs, columns, or hard returns (a return created using the Enter key rather than allowing the text to flow to the next line). Only use a hard return to start a new paragraph.
  • Do NOT include page numbers, symbol bullets or dingbat characters.
  • Be sure your text has been carefully proof-read and reviewed for correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. We do not check this when we format or design your book.

    • The guidelines for supplying interior images differs for Black Text Design and Color Text Design. Please be sure to follow the appropriate information to avoid delays and extra charges.

    The following requirements apply only to Black Text Design.

    IMAGE CHECKLIST FOR BLACK TEXT INTERIOR

  • Supply high resolution images only. Recommend image resolution is 300 DPI at final print size.
  • Do not supply images that were taken from the web. They are usually 72 DPI.
  • Save B&W images in Grayscale color mode.
  • Accepted image formats: TIFF, PSD, EPS or JPEG
  • Images need to be supplied inline (within the body of the manuscript).
  • Supply images as you want them cropped and sized in the final print. Our design team cannot alter supplied inline images.
  • Image captions need to be supplied inline, directly after the corresponding image.

    • The following requirements apply only to Color Text Design.

    COLOR TEXT IMAGE CHECK LIST

  • Color images should NOT be supplied inline. (You will upload images on the upload page of the order process)
  • Do not set image captions as part of your manuscript. Simply provide a list of all your caption text, numbering the caption and the corresponding photo with the same number.
  • Save color images in CMYK color mode, B&W images in Grayscale color mode. Recommend Resolution 300 DPI.
  • Accepted image formats: TIFF, PSD, EPS, JPEG, AI
  • Our designers will crop or resize your supplied images. If you have specific requests for placement of images you should list those on the upload page.