InDesign CC: Book Production, Putting the book together

Producing books as we discuss why and how things are done

Created byDavid Bergsland

Last updated 8/2017

English

What you'll learn

Design and produce an excellent print version of a book
Create a full-color downloadable PDF version
Make a Kindle Print Replica, Kid's book, or Comic version
Convert the downloadable PDF into an ePUB FXL [fixed layout]
Convert the downloadable PDF into an ePUB Reflowable version
Convert the ePUB Reflow into a Kindle book
Upload the book versions to the various distributors and aggregators
Develop an online platform for marketing the author and the books

Course content

8 sections • 59 lectures • 8h 42m total length

A welcome plus making a place to store everything3:49
Producing your first real book
A public domain book: learning the workspace5:09
Tailor the InDesign workspace for a public domain book by organizing panels, mastering paragraph and character styles, and leveraging master pages to speed production.
Book One: Examining the template5:11
For this first assignment, I want to give you a large head start to help you see the process more easily.
Examining downloaded folder content8:22
This is not a creative assignment, but a production project.
How to quickly rough format a document5:03
Formatting the locally formatted copy9:32
Strip local formatting and character styles to discover changes, then adjust typography and layout by hand to reproduce the intended nonfiction book format while navigating pages and line breaks.
Cleaning up widows, orphans, and runts9:21
Finishing your first book5:26
Working fully formatted7:20
The design power available is an incredible joy, as you learn to work on the book as a whole.

Setting up InDesign to work for you15:26
InDesign enables you to make the software work the way which makes you comfortable with the process.
Setting up a new book file7:51
Bringing in a word processing file14:47
Identify and fix common word processing issues to prepare a manuscript for InDesign book production, including hidden characters, double returns, double spaces, improper line breaks, and inconsistent spacing.

A quick and grungy look at some graphics3:54
Vector and bitmap graphics how they're used7:08
Playing with a vector lizard6:24
Why we draw in InDesign6:16
Dealing with Office graphics & InDesign's tools6:31
Getting Started with the pen tool6:50
Use the pen tool in InDesign to create and edit curves with anchor points and handles, convert points with the option key, and refine paths with the direct selection tool.
Drawing a two-point circle
FrameTools and the Pencil8:47
Combining paths: Grouping, Compound, and Pathfinder6:00
A combining paths demo showing some of the difficulties8:58
Managing your JPEGs & their artifacts11:42
Graphic formats used for print and ebooks7:52
The Links and Swatches panels are very powerful17:43
Copy/Paste from Illustrator & our first look at anchored objects4:50
Learn how to copy and paste from Illustrator into InDesign, preserve transparency, and manage anchored objects that move with frames while expanding appearances and using gradients and brushwork.
Learning the Anchored Object dialog box9:22
Dealing with anchored objects: frames and content6:25

A look at the styles you use: Body Copy12:00
Master body copy styles in book production by selecting readable fonts, setting 10–12 word lines, applying left justified alignment with indents.
Paragraph styles you use: lists, heads, subheads, pull quotes and sidebars6:33
Formatting front to back2:05
The letterpress book
Checking out the resources of your new book6:18
Some possible solutions as you format your assignment11:41
Explore practical formatting solutions in InDesign for book production, including font choices, color swatches, paragraph rules, alignment, and preparing layouts for print.
Designing tables8:44
Explore how tables in InDesign CC function as grids of text frames with selectable rows, columns, and cells, and why they are challenging for e-book reflow.

Discussing front and back matter for a book16:36
Discuss front matter and back matter in book production with InDesign CC, outlining required items like title and copyright pages, table of contents, dedication, foreword, and epilogue.
Adding the front matter section to the Letterpress book9:04
Producing a Table of Contents8:47
Producing an Index8:42
Adding footnotes2:34
learn how to insert and format footnotes in InDesign CC for book production, including placing, editing in text frames, and managing multi-column footnotes and common copy-paste issues.
Formatting concepts, tips, and norms7:57

Some cover design issues and concepts8:49
Design covers for online visibility with clean typography, strong color contrast, and eight-word-max text readable at small sizes like 100 by 150 and 60 by 90.
Setting up for a quick cover tutorial5:06
Set up the front cover in InDesign CC by creating a book-sized document with bleed, centering and fading a cover image on a separate layer, then build the background.
Building your cover image using Effects and Modes5:30
Finishing off a couple of covers9:37

The different requirements for the various formats18:44
Public Domain project: exporting the PDFs11:42
Designing ePUBs and using hyperlinks10:18
Beginning to design your ePUBs8:43
Design issues with graphics and fonts6:55
Other ePUB design issues you need to check12:28
Discover epub design challenges in InDesign CC, optimize readable typography, manage paragraph styles and chapter breaks, and test exports across devices to ensure consistent, accessible book layouts.
Demoing an ePUB FXL: Part 111:50
Part 2 of the FXL demo17:15
Converting the book for Reflow11:41
Exporting your new ePUB Reflow9:28
Export the book to a reflowable epub by configuring export options, cover image, and metadata description. Set table of contents, remove page numbers, and embed fonts before exporting.
Producing and exporting a book which will work for Kindle19:36
Using Adobe's Publish Online7:03

Requirements

The InDesign CC: Book Production, Starting With Basic Typography course
"Book Publishing With InDesign CC" is the textbook [a copy is included in the first course]
A thorough understanding of typography, paragraph & character styles
Introductory knowledge of InDesign CC and a licensed copy to work with

Description

This is a very practical course. There is a lot to learn, but none of it is very difficult. It is very complex though. It is the goal of the course to make the complexity easy to understand and relatively simple to execute. If you have any questions, just send me a message or email me directly

Who this course is for:

The graphic designer or author who needs to handle the complexity more easily
The author looking to improve the writing experience, as well as making the book release simple

InDesign CC: Book Production, Putting the book together

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Assembling the pieces of the book9 lectures • 59min

Adding the content3 lectures • 38min

Dealing with the graphics15 lectures • 1hr 59min

Formatting the book6 lectures • 47min

Adding front & back matter6 lectures • 54min

Designing a cover4 lectures • 29min

Versioning: producing the various distributed versions12 lectures • 2hr 26min

Marketing & Distribution choices4 lectures • 28min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: