How to design an ebook without a designer
Choose the format first, because a PDF keeps your design and an EPUB mostly gives it up to the reading app. Then make a few choices and repeat them everywhere: one text face at a readable size, one heading style, one accent color, even spacing, and a cover that still reads as a thumbnail. Consistency does more than decoration.
Start with the format
Design advice that ignores the file format wastes your time. The EPUB 3.3 standard says it directly: “EPUB publications by default are intended to reflow to fit the available screen space.” So an EPUB’s design is mostly its structure: clean headings, sensible spacing, images that scale. The reader’s app decides the rest.
A PDF is the opposite. Every page looks as you left it, which suits a lead magnet, a workbook or anything that might be printed. That is where page design pays off, and it is why most of this guide is about the PDF.
The numbers worth knowing
| Choice | Aim for | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Body text in print or PDF | 10–12 point | Practical Typography |
| Line length | 45–90 characters, including spaces | Practical Typography |
| Text contrast | At least 4.5:1 against its background | WCAG 2.2 |
| Pictures meant for print | 300 DPI at printed size | KDP’s paperback guidelines |
| KDP ebook cover | 2,560 × 1,600 pixels, JPEG | KDP’s cover guidelines |
WCAG is written for the web, not for books, but the ratio is a useful check for colored text on any screen. Butterick’s tip for line length is also easy to use: “You should be able to fit between two and three alphabets on a line”.
Five habits that do most of the work
Repeat yourself. Every chapter opens the same way, and every section heading looks the same. A reader who has learned the pattern on page 5 doesn’t have to relearn it on page 20. Nothing makes a book look amateur faster than three ways of styling the same thing.
Pick one text face and trust it. Choose a face made for long reading and use it for every paragraph. Save anything with more character for headings, and use it sparingly.
Use one accent color. One color with black text looks deliberate. Four colors look like a template.
Leave space. Wide margins and space above headings cost pages and improve every one of them. On a screen, an extra page costs nothing.
Make tables and callouts earn their place. A table for real comparison, a box for the one thing not to miss. If every page has a callout, none of them stands out.
The cover
A cover has to work at two sizes: full screen and the small image in a store’s results. Design for the small one first. Use few words, large type, and a single image or a strong color, then check it shrunk down. Set the title as real type and not as part of a generated image, so every letter comes out right.
If you use AI for the art, KDP counts that: its guidelines say AI-generated images “include cover and interior images and artwork”, and you must tell KDP about them. The ebook cover checker measures your file against each store’s rules.
Pictures and file size
Pictures can make a book, but they can also cost money. KDP charges $0.15 per MB for delivery in its 70% royalty band, so a large ebook pays more on every sale. Keep the full-size originals for print and export smaller copies for the ebook. The guide to pricing a short ebook has the sums.
Where Chapbook fits
Chapbook starts you from a set of looks you can adjust or describe in your own words, and applies one to the whole book, so the repetition takes care of itself. It sets the PDF with Typst: running heads, a contents page and hyphenation in the book’s language. On the cover, the title is set as type over the artwork, so the words are never garbled. You can still change fonts, colors and page size, and export the same book as an EPUB and a Word document.
The sample on this page is a short brochure in one of those looks. Page through it and watch how little changes from one page to the next.
What to do
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Pick the format first
A PDF if the layout matters or it may be printed, an EPUB for stores and e-readers. Many books need both, so design the PDF and keep the EPUB simple.
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Set the text and leave it alone
One face for body text, 10–12 point on a printed page, with lines of 45–90 characters. Check a full page before you decide. Most of a book is this page.
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Define three heading levels
Chapter, section and small heading, each with one style used every time. Use real heading styles, not bold text made bigger, so the contents can be built from them.
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Choose one accent color
Use it for headings, rules or callouts, and nothing else. Check that any text in color has enough contrast against the page: 4.5:1 is a good yardstick.
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Design the cover for its smallest size
Most people first see it as a thumbnail. Use few words, large type and one clear image. Shrink it until it is an inch tall and check you can read the title.
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Print or preview a whole chapter
Look at facing pages and a phone view. Uneven gaps, stray headings at the bottom of a page and tables that break are easier to see on a full chapter than on one page.
