book design

Cover and typography

Book design is the art and practice of arranging a book's visual and physical elements—typography, layout, margins, paper, binding, and cover—into a coherent whole.

A book designer makes decisions about typeface, spacing, chapter openings, and how text sits on the page.

Good book design serves readability while establishing the book's character: The book design evoked 1920s modernism.

Opposites
content vs. presentation

book designwriting

Recorded language on surface

authorship · manuscript · prose · storytelling · copywriting

creation vs. consumption

book designbook reading

Oral presentation of text

readership

order vs. chaos in presentation

book designraw text

Unprocessed string data

plain text · wall of text · template design

Family

book, design

Familiarity
Top 200,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Rated G