Interior Graphics Guide
Interior Graphics Guide
Note: If you decide to hire your own professional designer, please share these guidelines and make sure they have your final trim size.
There are many kinds of graphics, and the right mix depends on your book. Here are the categories you're most likely to need:
Graphs & Charts
When you have a lot of data or information for your reader to visualize, graphs and charts share it in the least amount of space.
Illustrations
Illustrations support your text, showcase your branding, and can even carry emotion (humor in a comic strip, for example).
Photos
Whether you're writing a memoir or an educational book, photos bring your material to life and transport readers right into your story.
QR Codes
Want to connect readers to your website or an online resource? QR codes are a quick way to do it. We recommend using them sparingly.
Custom graphics come in many styles. There are several styles we've outlined below.
Level of Detail
A few simple lines and shapes can be enough to convey an idea. More detail brings an element to life and gives a more accurate representation.
Level of Precision
More flourish shows personality and a warmer side. More precision gives you clean lines and clear shapes, which is perfect for charts and graphs.
Level of Hardness
A softer look conveys calm and lightness. A harder look conveys authority and seriousness.
When we add graphics to a book, we may have to reformat them a bit to fit the page and stay legible.
During assessment, we review every graphic for print readiness. The most common issue we find is text that's too small within the graphic. Take the sentence below as an example:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
All on one line, it may become illegible when scaled down for print. Breaking the text into multiple lines, like the example on the right, solves it. The same goes for charts. The chart itself may work for print while the text inside needs to be scaled up.
Some graphics hold so much information that they need a creative solution. If there's too much text to scale while staying legible, we may move some of it into the manuscript.
Other times we can flip the graphic on its side, like the example on the right. A book page is taller than it is wide, and we can use that to our advantage. We always weigh these choices against the reading experience.
Your book may have a variety of graphics, and if we can recreate them in the same style, it greatly increases the professionalism of your book. Here are some examples of how we recreated graphics submitted by an author.
Even though each graphic shares different information, recreating them in the same style makes them feel like a cohesive book.
Not every visual element needs a custom graphic. Many formatting options can live right in your manuscript, and we'll lay them out beautifully. Here are a few examples:
Basic Table
A simple table (no complex merged cells or heavy formatting) can go straight into your Word or Google Doc and will be laid out cleanly.
| Book Title | Trim Size | Page Count | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Courage to Lead | 5.5" × 8.5" | 248 | Business |
| Unlocking Your Potential | 6" × 9" | 312 | Self-Help |
| The Science of Habits | 5" × 8" | 196 | Psychology |
Callout Box
Callout boxes highlight key quotes, stats, or takeaways, set off from the body text with a border or shaded background.
“Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge.”
Simon Sinek
Numbered List (laid out as body text)
Ordered lists walk readers through steps or priorities in a clean, scannable format.
Note / Aside