Help › Choosing a template
Choosing a template
A template sets how your book looks: fonts, heading sizes, colors, spacing, page size and margins. You choose one for each format (PDF, Word, EPUB and HTML) in step 3 of the book creator on the home page. Every style shows a live preview, and you can switch back and forth before you create the book.
The four types
Each type has its own layout and fonts. Within a type you only choose the colors.
| Type | Good for | Look |
|---|---|---|
| Business | Reports, proposals, general non-fiction | Calibri text, clean headings, tidy tables, running heads |
| Academic | Theses, papers, long reports | Times text, numbered sections, justified paragraphs |
| Technical | Manuals, guides, documentation | Sans text, numbered sections, roomy code blocks |
| Creative | Essays, memoirs, portfolios | Source Sans text with Playfair Display headings |
Each type comes in six color palettes, for example Classic, Ocean Blue or Corporate Gray for Business, and Academic Green or Scholarly Wine for Academic. Choosing a type shows its default palette straight away. Press Apply to close the style picker.
More styles lists the earlier templates, such as Novel, Programming and Minimal, which are still available.
Customize a design
Choose Customize design to start from the style you picked, or use the free Book template designer to build and download a template before you create a book. The editor has four tabs:
- Colors: recommended palettes, or set the primary, body, link, surface and table header colors.
- Fonts & sizes: heading, body and code fonts, and the size of body text, headings 1 to 6 and code, in points.
- Spacing: line spacing (1 to 2) and paragraph spacing (compact, standard or relaxed).
- Page: paper size, portrait or landscape, margins (narrow, standard or wide) and page numbers. These affect PDF output; Word uses the paper size, orientation and margins too.
Press Use for this book to apply the design, or Download JSON to keep it. To use a saved design again, choose Upload template (.json) in the style picker. Nothing is stored on our servers and you do not need an account.
Notes
- Types with numbered sections (Academic and Technical) number your
#,##and###headings for you. Do not type numbers into the headings. - All templates work with both the screen and the print-ready PDF.
- A font that is not installed on a reader's device, or on our PDF server, is replaced by a similar one.
Something unclear? Tell us and we will improve this guide.