Step 3: Interior textbook design

Friday, July 31, 2009 by Beth Trowbridge

In my last post, I talked about the cover design process that school textbook publishers, like Kendall Hunt Publishing, use on products. Additionally, whether it is books for gifted students, high school science textbooks, or textbooks for elementary school, the interior of the book must be designed. We submit to a designer a portion of the manuscript that contains the majority of the elements we want to incorporate: unit/chapter opener, different levels of headings, art/photos, tables, listings, and so on. We give the designer some instruction on the grade level and type of theme we want to achieve. The or subject is important as the cover of a high school physics textbook would obviously differ in many ways from a high school biology textbook. If the cover is in advanced stages, we may also submit that as a reference. Again, we begin with a few different choices and narrow it down. It's important to create a design that enhances the pedagogy and readability. Additionally, in the case of, high school science textbooks, we want to draw the student in, but don't want to overwhelm or confuse them. The designer usually submits about eight two-page spreads. In addition, they submit a general color palette for the project. We sometimes go through several proofs, making additional suggestions to get to the point that we are satisfied with the design.

Again, the design phase happens at the same time as the copy-editing and art package preparation phases. Hopefully, they all come together around the same time so that we can proceed with composition, which I write about the next time...

 


Comments for Step 3: Interior textbook design

Monday, October 12, 2009 by Susanna Carter:
Hi I am a teacher and lecturer at a university. My question is: 'How much effort is put into the practice of making the design pedagogically sound? How does the designer judge this? Is the designer using any guidelines and where are they from?' I am interested from the point of view of making texts more pedagogically sound and how to understand the process by which publishers take this on board and do it. I would really appreciate a reply. Kind regards Susanna
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 by Beth Trowbridge:
Susanna, Good question. Actually, the pedagogy is a VERY important aspect when designing the interior of a textbook. The design needs to keep the reader interested and the flow moving properly. The placement of the art and other elements are key points to making sure the student doesn't get "lost" while reading the text. There are several typographical rules that need to be followed to be sure the pedagogy is optimal. For example, the size and type of the font vs. the leading (space between lines) and the line length all contribute to the ease of readability. A "serif" font (with the curves and hooks) is best for general text; it contributes to the reading speed and is less fatiguing to the eye. Generally, you need at least 2 points of space between lines and the line length of general text of general size (11/13) should not exceed 34 picas width (around 5 3/4"). For narrower columns, it is better to use a ragged right text rather than justified to avoid large gaps of space between words and keep hyphenation down.... And these are just a few examples of the thought processes that go into proper text design. These types of guidelines are taught in design schools as well as seminars. Thank you for the questions, I hope I answered to your satisfaction.

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