I frequently have clients that provide images for their books, and many times they are not high enough resolution for printing. “But it looks fine when I print it at home,” they say, “why won’t it look good in my paperback?” The reason is that printing presses do not use inkjet printers.

If you look at a picture in a book with a magnifying glass, you will see that it is created out of little dots, and printers require there to be 300 of those little dots per square inch of picture, or 300 DPI. A monitor or device screen typically displays pictures at 72 PPI, Pixels Per Inch, and sometimes as high as 150 PPI.

DPI, Dots Per Inch, and PPI, Pixels Per Inch, are essentially the same thing. A picture that is downloaded from the internet is typically 72 PPI. This works well for internet use because it keeps the file size small. It will also work well for your ebook, but it won’t be useable for your printed book. If your images are less than 300 DPI, the software will have to make up the rest of the dots, so it will look blurry, and your printing company will not accept the file.

The other important aspect of resolution is that the pictures must be 300 DPI at the size they will be placed on the page. If I have a photo that is one square inch, it has 300 pixels. Since that is a little bitty picture on an 6x9 inch book, I would want to enlarge it. If I make it into a two inch by two inch picture on the page, it will still only have 300 pixels, which will make it look blurry. If I have a larger picture at 300 PPI, I can reduce it any amount, because there will be plenty of pixels to render the picture. Likewise, if you supply me with a very large picture that is 72 PPI, I can raise the resolution by reducing the overall size of the picture but only to the point where it is no less than 300 DPI. To be flexible in design, it is best to supply your designer with the largest picture at the highest resolution possible.

When you call a designer for a consultation, it is important to have all of the relevant information on hand. One of the obvious questions the designer will ask you is how long is the book and what type of book is it? Is it a non-fiction book with tables and charts, or a novel with text only? Will there be illustrations or photos? If it is a textbook, what is the organizational structure? When is your launch date? The more information you can give, the more accurate your estimate will be.

You probably know right away how many pages your manuscript is, but there are other things you must consider. Most books have what we call frontmatter and backmatter. The frontmatter includes title page, table of contents, preface, introduction, etc. The backmatter has notes, appendices, and index. Textbooks and study guides often contain additional frontmatter including information on how to use the book and a glossary in the backmatter. Many textbooks have specially designed pages for unit or chapter openers as well. These can be specified to always begin on a right-hand page or may begin on either right or left. If they begin on the right-hand page, there may be an additional blank page at the end of the previous chapter.

In addition to page count, non-fiction books usually have several elements as a part of their organizational structure. Are there multiple levels of headings and subheads? Perhaps there are indented sections for quotes, sidebars or pull-out boxes. These require planning and consistent design to make the book easier to follow. The number and types of tables and charts must also be evaluated. You may have created them in your word processor or spreadsheet program, but they will need to be incorporated into the page layout program. It is also important to know whether these elements must be appear right where they were mentioned in the text, or just in the general vicinity, giving the designer more flexibility.

Photos and illustrations will also need to be considered. The number as well as the types and sources are important. You may supply them to the designer, or you may have the designer research the appropriate photos or contract an illustrator. If you supply the images, if your book is to be in print, you must be sure that they are high-resolution, or at least 300 dpi. They must be copyright free, or you'll need to provide credit information. Will the images be arranged within the text or placed in a separate section? It is also important for the designer to know if the images are decorative or informative. Decorative images can be used more flexibly in size and position whereas an informative image must be large and clear enough to be useful.

These are just a few of the considerations to be made in obtaining an estimate. Others are your deadline, your budget and whether it will be digital, print or both. The important thing is to provide as much information as available to try avoiding unexpected costs. The more information you have when you contact your designer, the better able she will be to calculate the amount of time and cost involved. When you are on a budget you want the most accurate estimate possible.

Your book is written, your editing is complete, now you just send the word doc to the printer, right? Well, you could, but if you want your book to be taken seriously you will need to learn the ins and outs of book design, typography, and prepress. Spending a little extra time and money to work with a professional designer could save you a lot of extra time and money as well as produce a more professional-looking and better-selling book in the end.

Word processing programs are meant for processing words. Design programs are meant for designing pages. Word processors are perfect for typing your manuscript in a user-friendly way that allows you to focus on writing. There are also desktop publishing programs that are meant for the amateur designer for personal use or for simple business materials. No matter how beautiful your document looks in your word processing or desktop publishing document, it cannot be used directly by your printer to produce your book. Professional designers and compositors use professional applications like Adobe InDesign and QuarkXpress to prepare books for publication.

Some authors buy these programs and and teach themselves how to prepare their books for print. However, a few months of study cannot replace years of experience and mistakes can be very costly. Pages need to be set up properly in order to get predictable results. If the wrong types of fonts are used, for example, it can result in unpredictable line endings and page breaks and possibly even alter the appearance of the letters. If your type is not properly set on a page grid with appropriate margins it will look amateur and self-published and undermine your professional writing. Photos also must be in the right format with the right resolution and the right colorspace. A good printer may be able to work with what you provide, however, they will have to spend a considerable amount of time preparing the document before it can go to press, resulting in additional costs. A professional designer will be familiar with the printing and prepress process. He or she knows the terminology to clearly communicate with the printer which streamlines the procedure, saving you time and money.

A professional book designer brings not only technical expertise, but invaluable design experience as well. He or she will take into consideration the purpose and desired psychological and emotional effect of your book and create a design accordingly. The choice of visual elements such as font, color, and images will have a major impact on your reader. Your design can appear energetic, artistic, child-friendly, business-like, or comforting and supportive. It also must be visually well organized to serve its intended purpose in the best possible way, particularly with a non-fiction book. A good designer will work closely with you to create the right look and feel of your book considering the subject matter, your target audience and your budget. 

Quality design and prepress is a very important part of the publishing process, and its value cannot be underestimated. If you enlist the help of a professional before going to press, you can avoid costly file preparation time, printing complications and have an attractive, well designed and better selling book.