Children's Book
Layout and Design
Services

At Best Children's Books Author Services, P.J. Rooks offers children's book layout and design services.

• Laying out and designing the look and feel of your cover and inside artwork.
• Sizing, framing and working with your images.
• Harmoniously putting together the text and images you provide.
• Ensuring that your book adheres to printing specifications.
• Providing a printer-ready .pdf file that you can send anywhere you like as an e-mail attachment.

Want to get a quote? Fill out the children's book layout and design request at the bottom of the page.

When it comes to children's book layout and design,
here are some things you should know

Desktop publishers handle typesetting and layout but do not provide illustration or photography services. If you need help with artwork or if you've decided to go it alone, have a look below for some DTP (Desk Top Publishing!) tips that may help get you started.

1. Looking for an artist? Try our illustrator pages or even post an ad on Craigslist explaining your project to see if a local artist might be willing to work for a percentage of your future profits.

(You may be surprised to find how many talented folks would love the exposure.)

2. Making a printer-ready .pdf is not so hard. DeskPDF is a fantastic program that you can download and use immediately for $30. Or Google free pdf software.

4. Do you need special characters for your work such as accents? Perhaps you need a degree (°)symbol or a cents (¢) sign? Though you won't find them on your keyboard (and before you go to the extreme trouble of scouring your WingDings), many of these characters can be created by holding down the "alternate" button on your keyboard while typing in a special numerical code. Find the codes at Windows Alt Key Codes.

5. Finally, keep in mind some of the basic rules of desktop publishing layout and design:

1. The old rule of two spaces between sentences has given way to justified type. When aligning your text choose the box that justifies both sides on all lines except the last one of the paragraph (it looks like several long lines of equal length with a shorter bottom line) and only use one space between sentences.
2. Never use more than two fonts on the same page.
3. For your text, use a standard, 12-point font such as Arial or Times New Roman. No fancy stuff. It is okay to use a fancy font on your book's cover, however, but be certain that it is still easily readable.
4. Avoid clip art unless you're using it as a separator and then, keep it very, very small.
5. Keep the look of your pages clean by respecting the "white space." Less is more, so don't junk it up.
6. Avoid the use of underlines, all caps and, in most cases, centered text.
7. The final, overall rule is this: Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. When you're all finished, have a look at every page of your completed product and really ask yourself, "Where can I minimize? Where can I minimize? Where can I minimize?"

Best Children's Books Design and Layout Services

Fill out the form below for a quote on children's book formatting.

Please note: Though we are able to make small changes to images, we do not offer Photoshop services so your images do need to be print-ready. If you do need Photoshop services, let us know and we can forward your request to an expert. We also will not provide text editing as part of the layout package, so be sure that you've proofread your manuscript in advance.

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