Book Page Color in Book Design: An Explanation & Examples

POSTED ON Apr 16, 2018

Joel Friedlander

Written by Joel Friedlander

Home > Blog > Book Design > Book Page Color in Book Design: An Explanation & Examples

When book designers or typographers talk about book page color, they don’t mean the colors printed on the page. In fact, this term often comes up in discussing purely black-and-white typographic layouts.

In this case, “color” means the overall gray tone of tall column of type that constitutes almost all book pages.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this article on book page color and what it means:

What Influences Book Page Color?

Different kinds of book page color can be achieved through a variety of tools at the designer’s disposal:

  • Font selection can be critical, because font designs vary in their relative “darkness” even in regular weights depending on how thick the individual letter forms are.
  • Fonts also vary in their set width, which describes how closely together the letters are spaced in the font’s design. Tighter set widths create darker pages since there’s more black ink on the page when letters are closer together.
  • Line spacing (or “leading”)has a big effect on page color since the more space there is between lines, the lighter the page will appear.
  • Non-text elements like page numbers and running heads can also have a big influence on the overall color of the page.
New call-to-action

Examples of Book Page Color

Let’s look at some samples. These are all set on a 6″ x 9″ book page with standard margins.

Here’s a generic book page with only a page number (this is a “drop folio” meaning the page number is at the bottom of the page). This sample uses the Filosofia font, an elegant oldstyle design.

The type is set 12/16, which means it’s 12-point type with 16 points between lines, as measured from the baseline of one line to the baseline of the next.

book design
Filosofia 12/16

This yields a typical page as far as the color of the type column. Watch what happens when we simply add a little space between each line. In this case, it’s 12/18. The 2 extra points amount to 1/32 of an inch, but make the entire page much lighter.

typography
Filosofia 12/18

And if we expand the leading to 12/20, the entire color of the page changes:

book design
Filosofia 12/20

Here’s an example of the exact same page set in Adobe Minion Pro, 12/16. Minion carries a little more weight than Filosofia, can you tell?

book design
Minion 12/16

One of the most popular typefaces for book design is Garamond. This example is set in Adobe Garamond Pro in the same 12/16 specification. Garamond, while a bit lighter than Minion, also has a narrower set width, and you’ll note this page, even though it has the same number of lines, actually fits about 2 lines more copy in the same space than the Minion sample, since this font is more space efficient. This makes Garamond a great choice for long books, or where space is at a premium:

book design
Garamond 12/16

On the other hand, here’s our page again, set in Cochin, a font more often used for headings. Note the very wide set width and relatively short height of the lowercase letters (this is the “x-height”). Wide fonts like this can work for books where the text is sparse, like a book of photos with captions, or inspirational quotes. Here, although we still have the same number of lines, less copy fits on the page, and the overall color of the page is quite different from the Filosofia, Minion, or Garamond samples.

typography
Cochin 12/16

Finally, adding a running head can subtly shift our perception of the book page color. This is the Garamond page with a typical running head.

typography
Garamond 12/16 with a running head

Final Thoughts

Is type color something to be concerned about? That depends on what kinds of books you’re publishing, and what your readers are looking for. But it is something to keep in mind if you’re doing your own page design, and something I always consider when creating new book designs.

New call-to-action

Joel Friedlander

Written by
Joel Friedlander

Book Cover Design Checklist

Set your book up to SELL with our FREE Book Cover Design Checklist to boost the quality of your book to its very best!
Liked this post? Share it with friends!

More Helpful Articles