Eighteen papers on book design, formatting, printing, and publishing — no sign-up, no strings. Most are aimed at authors doing their own formatting, but working designers will find them useful too. They are the same resources I use and refer clients to.
Click any title to open the PDF in your browser.
Step-by-step instructions on how to use Claude as an assistant within Affinity.
How bleeds and margins work in print-on-demand, what the numbers mean, and how to set them correctly for KDP and Ingram Spark.
A thorough guide to color in print-on-demand: how POD platforms handle color, what to expect from KDP and Ingram Spark, and how to prepare files that print predictably.
What copyright protects, what it doesn't, and how it applies to self-published books — drawn directly from the U.S. Copyright Act, the Copyright Office Compendium, and related official publications.
A practical guide to using AI tools in the editorial process — what they do well, where they fall short, and how to build a workflow that serves the book rather than the tool.
Why text prints gray or faded in POD books, how to diagnose the cause, and how to fix it before upload.
How grayscale works in print, the difference between grayscale and black-and-white, and how POD platforms handle grayscale images and interiors.
A compiled reference of KDP help documentation with working links — useful because KDP's own help system makes it difficult to navigate to the same page twice.
KDP's original print publishing guide, no longer available through KDP. Still useful as a baseline reference for file specifications and platform behavior.
How live elements — text, images, and other content — interact with margins and safe zones in POD interiors, and what happens when they don't.
Standard proofreading notation — the marks used to communicate corrections on physical page proofs.
Being revised.What resolution means in print, why the number alone doesn't tell you whether an image will print well, and how to evaluate images before they become a problem on press.
A year of testing comparing sRGB and CMYK for KDP interiors — shadow detail, highlight detail, and color fidelity, measured against print scans rather than assumed. Makes the case for sRGB as the safer default.
What outlining text means, when and why to do it, and how it resolves font-related upload failures and certain print anomalies on KDP.
To be updated.A reference guide to typographic conventions — the rules governing quotation marks, apostrophes, dashes, and other marks that word processors routinely get wrong.
A comprehensive guide to typography for book designers and authors — typefaces, type setting, spacing, hierarchy, and the decisions that separate readable books from difficult ones.
An introduction to Unicode and a reference list of 300 commonly used characters — useful for authors and designers working with special characters, symbols, and non-Latin text.
What widows and orphans are, why they matter, and how to eliminate them — with practical guidance for both word-processor and professional layout environments.
The site glossary covers the terms most commonly encountered in book design, formatting, and print-on-demand publishing — with brief definitions and, where relevant, links to the resources above.
For the full treatment — 1,200+ terms covering prepress, typography, printing, color, and publishing, with over 500 illustrations — the Prepress Glossary is available as a separate publication.
Browse the Glossary →These are free, and take real time to put together. If they've saved you money, time, or a headache, a donation helps keep them coming — no amount too small.
