Typesetting a book is a series of small decisions that add up to comfort. None of them is difficult on its own, and you can follow conventions that have served readers for five centuries.
Choose a text face built for reading
For continuous reading in print, serif typefaces remain the norm. Look for a family that has a true italic (for emphasis, titles and foreign words), a bold for headings, and ideally small caps and old-style figures. Classic choices include Garamond, Caslon, Baskerville and Minion; excellent free options include EB Garamond, Crimson Pro, Libre Baskerville and Source Serif 4. Browse our list of the best free fonts for book interiors, each with a book-page preview.
Make sure the font licence allows embedding in PDFs and ebooks. Open-source fonts (SIL Open Font License) do; some system fonts do not.
Size and leading
Most book body text is set between 10.5 and 12 pt. Typefaces differ in apparent size — a Garamond at 11.5 pt can look smaller than a Georgia at 10.5 pt — so print a test page at actual size. Leading (line spacing) of about 120–145% of the type size is typical: 11 pt type on 14 or 14.5 pt leading, written "11/14.5".
Children's chapter books use 14–16 pt; large-print editions 16–18 pt.
Line length
A comfortable line holds roughly 55–75 characters including spaces. Longer lines make it hard to find the start of the next line; shorter lines break rhythm and cause awkward hyphenation. Your trim size and margins set the line length — if lines are too long, increase the type size or the margins rather than shrinking the page.
Margins
Perfect-bound books lose part of the inside margin to the curve of the binding, so the gutter must grow with page count. Platform minimums are a floor, not a target: a 300-page 6 x 9 in book might use 0.75 in inside, 0.6 in outside, 0.75 in top and 0.85 in bottom. The margin calculator gives both the minimums and comfortable recommendations.
Justification and hyphenation
Books are almost always justified. Turn hyphenation on but limit it: no more than two consecutive hyphenated lines, no hyphenating capitalised words, and at least three letters before and after the break. Loose lines and rivers of white space usually mean the line length is too short or hyphenation is off.
Paragraphs
Use a first-line indent of about 1–1.5 em and no extra space between paragraphs. The first paragraph after a heading or scene break is set flush left. Mark scene breaks with a blank line plus an ornament or a centred dinkus, so the break survives when it falls at the bottom of a page.
Chapter openings
Start chapters lower on the page (a "sink" of a quarter to a third of the page), with the chapter number and title in your display style. A drop cap or small-caps lead-in on the first line gives a finished look. Decide whether chapters start on any page or always on a recto — recto starts look premium but add blank pages.
Running heads and folios
A common pattern is the author's name on versos and the book title on rectos, set small, often in small caps or italics. Omit running heads on chapter openers and blank pages. Page numbers (folios) can sit at the top outside corner with the running head or centred at the foot.
Widows, orphans and the last pass
Fix single lines stranded at the top or bottom of pages by adjusting tracking slightly on a paragraph, editing a word, or letting a spread run one line long — consistently on both pages. Finish with a printed proof: errors and awkward breaks that hide on screen jump out on paper.