How I created my first booklet
Last summer and fall I worked on a booklet. In this post I capture my writing and editing process, as well as the different tools I used to get the booklet to print.
Writing
I wrote for 19 days in a row during our holiday in August last year. At the end of each day, when my kids where put to bed, I would write in a A5 size notebook with a simple ballpoint pen. Jotting down the day, my thoughts and feelings.
Editing and generating the interior pages
In the weeks after the summer holiday I typed in my handwritten text in iA Writer on my free evenings. I would handle just one day at a time and in the process check on spelling and sometimes rephrase a sentence or two.
I was strict enough to myself to not bother about layout yet. I kept saying to myself to focus on the contents first.
After some weeks I had 19 files, named 2024-07-29.txt to 2024-08-16.txt. This was the time I started looking into ways to format my texts and. I learned about Pandoc as a great way to convert Markdown to PDF.
I reread every word once I could generate the PDF. I corrected missed spelling mistakes, reworked a bunch of paragraphs and when it felt I had seen it all, I wrote the preface. Now the book interior was finished.
Creating the book exterior
I believe the way to go is to use InDesign. But since I ended my Adobe subscriptions a while ago, that felt like giving in. I looked for alternatives and found an Open Source DTP application named Scribus.
At this point I was also checking out different printing services, curious to find out about how to deliver my files and hoping to find some templates, since I’m far from a DTP expert. I got lucky.
Printing
While all printing services list the delivery specifications, Drukwerkdeal was the first I found that delivered InDesign templates. Depending on the number of pages, paper kind and weight, the width of the spine of the book is determined. Drukwerkdeal lists a clear table to find the spine width together with corresponding InDesign templates files. That gave me the confidence to work on my book cover in Scribus.
Result
I’m quite happy with the booklet in printed form, especially considering I didn’t want to spend too much time formatting the interior or designing the exterior. It feels lighter than I expected, but hey, it’s just a 47 pages booklet. My first booklet!
