How to design and typeset books

If book binding is like a group of buildings, then the book cover is undoubtedly the appearance of these buildings. Whether it is a Gothic church in the west or a classical palace temple in China, the architectural appearance can reflect the architectural spirit. The cover is also the same, which will reflect the theme spirit of the book and is a key point of book binding design.

The formal elements of the cover also include words and graphics, and the cover design also needs to highlight the main image. But from conception to expression, what we pay attention to is a kind of freehand brushwork beauty. The same is true in the design with characters and graphics as the mainstay.

1. Text

The concise words on the cover mainly include the title of the book (including the title of the series and the subtitle), the name of the author and the name of the publishing house. These words left on the cover play an important role in the design.

In the design process, in order to enrich the picture, you can repeat the title, add pinyin or foreign language titles, or directories and appropriate advertising languages. Sometimes, in order to meet the needs of the picture, the author's name and publisher's name can not be arranged on the cover, so that they appear on the spine and title page, leaving only the essential title on the cover. Descriptive articles (publishing intention, catalogue of series, introduction of author), name of binding designer, ISBN pricing, etc. , according to the design needs, set on the back cover, back cover and inner page. Vibrant fonts are not determined by the genre, style and characteristics of books. The arrangement of fonts is also as described in the composition of advertising design. They are designed as points, lines and planes, organically integrated into the picture structure, and participate in various arrangements, combinations and divisions, resulting in interesting and novel forms that make people memorable.

2. Cartography

The graphics on the cover, including photography, illustrations and patterns, are realistic, abstract and freehand. Specific realistic techniques are widely used in the cover design of children's knowledge books, popular science books and some literary and scientific books. Because it is easier for children and readers with low education to understand specific images. The use of specific pictures on the covers of science and technology books and some books on architecture and daily necessities has scientific, accurate and touching explanatory power.

Cover design of some books in science, technology, politics and education. Sometimes it is difficult to refine the expression with concrete images, but it can be expressed in abstract form, so that readers can understand the meaning and get spiritual feelings.

The technique of "freehand brushwork" is widely used in literary cover, which is not just freehand brushwork that refines the original content like a concrete and abstract form. But in the form of iconicity rather than iconicity. Chinese painting has freehand brushwork techniques, focusing on grasping the expression of form and spirit, and gaining emotional appeal and touching association with concise methods. Some people call the change method of natural patterns "freehand brushwork change", and on the basis of simple natural forms, they exert their imagination and pursue the expression of formal beauty. Exaggeration, variation, combination. Using freehand brushwork as the image of the cover will make the performance of the cover more symbolic and artistic. For example, the close-up of the word "Shao" on the cover of Youth Literature and Art, like a fluttering red scarf, gives people an association, which embodies the personality of youth literature and art from conception to form. The deformed cover of children's books can arouse children's interest and find their bosom friends in fairy tales, myths and fables. Those Chinese and foreign ancient and modern patterns with freehand brushwork have also played a great role in embodying national style and characteristics of the times.

3. Overall coverage

In fact, the cover is not just the front. It is true that people are mainly concerned about the front. However, due to the high aesthetic requirements, the reverse side can not be ignored, and the spine of the book also plays an advertising and aesthetic role on the bookshelf. Therefore, the front and back of the cover and the spine should be included in the scope of cover design. The whole cover is a small whole in the whole book binding, and the relationship between the front and back and the spine has a unified conception and performance. The success or failure of this relationship also affects the overall effect of book binding design.

We can sum up several types:

A. the front and back designs are exactly the same. Or the general design is the same, but the text has changed, the title appears in front, followed by pinyin, foreign languages, or the names of very small editors and designers. The color and juice on both sides have changed.

B. Divide a complete design picture into a front cover, a back cover and a spine, and decorate the text respectively.

C. The back cover echoes the cover with pictures or small signs and patterns that reduce the cover.

D spine should be the embodiment of cover design, especially in thick books, and should not be satisfied with arranging titles, authors and publishers. Through the same font as the previous topic, the relationship between size and density is arranged in a long and narrow area, and some of them are divided by geometric points, lines, surfaces and figures, which echo back and forth and form rhythm changes with them.

E. The spine can be designed separately on one side, and the cross-plane design can be pressed. In hardcover books, there is often a protective cover, which can not only play a protective role, but also be an important means of publicity and small advertisements. Cover design paper, beautifully printed and rich in expressions. The cover with protective sleeve can achieve the effect of change simply, and at the same time, because the cover uses binding materials such as linen, lacquer cloth and leather and the constraints of printing process, it adopts a simple expression method. The closure of the cover should also be carefully designed to make it an integral part of the cover, which can be used to publish abstracts, authors' introductions, publishing information, series catalogues and so on. Protective covers are divided into full protective covers and semi-protective covers. The height of the semi-protective sleeve only accounts for half of the cover and wraps around the waist of the cover, so it is called a belt, which is used to publish book advertisements and some book-related supplements and also plays a decorative role.