Software to make ebooks look 'pretty'

by Tommyg123

Posted: 10 years ago 14 replies

WEB DESIGN

Hi everyone,

Rather than just using the same old boring black text on a white MS Word style document for an ebook I wanted to make it more interesting.

If you imagine a scale from 0 to 10. And 0 is a plain MS Word document and 10 is an online magazine. Somewhere around a 6 would be ideal.

Just have a bit of colour and play around with images and fonts.

I've looked at MS Works as they have some templates but all very dated and boring.

I'm amazed at how many cool pieces of free software there is these days on the Internet.

Any cool publishing software similar to this out there?

I considered just using Gimp (like Photoshop but free) but that's not really for publishing and it's more for one off images.

I'm sure you get what I'm after. Any ideas would be great

Thanks

#ebooks #make #pretty #software

criniit 10 years ago

I use powerpoint to make PDF Ebooks that look great.
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Steve B 10 years ago

Tommy,

Either MS Word or OpenOffice will do exactly what you want. Your problem is . . . you haven't yet found the right template.

If you think all the templates you've seen are boring, design your own.

If you don't want to do that, hire a free lancer to design a template to your own specifications.

You need to be clear and make up your mind about exactly what you want. In your thread title you talk about "ebooks" and in your post, it talks about online "magazines." There is a big difference.

Figure out what you want and then go after it.

Steve
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John Taylor 10 years ago

Hire a graphic designer to create a background image, header image and
footer image that you can insert into a Word document. Then you'll have
your own unique branded template that you can use over and over again.

John
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elusian 10 years ago

Where are you selling your books? If it is on platforms that allow pdfs then here is my suggestion:

If you know of anyone with a Mac, ask to borrow it. Use the ibook software. It is free for Mac Users. You can create a cover that is colorful and dynamic. On top of that you can use one of their free templates to format the book and put pictures on every page. You will be amazed at how professional your books will begin to look.
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Tommyg123 10 years ago

Thanks guys.

Steve, I appreciate your point. I guess i don't really have a clear image in my mind of what I want to have it look like. Kind of 'I'll know it when I see it' hence some good templates to look at would be good.

But the template idea is a good one. I think 'brochure' is inbetween an ebook and a magazine and a quick google lead me to a few brochure templates. Have colourful colums and lots of room for images.
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sr.20 10 years ago

Tommy if your creating your first eBook and want to make it stand out, the basic formatting of word/open-office is perfect you can tweak the fonts , coloring and sizes. or download diffrent fonts from places like dafont.com but i would just keep it simple, easy to read and nothing too fancy.

From my experience after reading many eBooks and producing... very few people are going to take notice of the layout unless your niche is to do with style and design

People just want to know the facts and strategies without the fluff, if you plan on writing a full series of the eBook then as John mentioned a template would be a benefit. I hope this helps
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Tommyg123 10 years ago

Hi Clarke. Thanks for the suggestion.
It is my first ebook. And it isn't in a design niche.

But I just relate things to myself. I'm a notoriously fast reader. I skim things and if something doesn't grab me quickly I am on to the next thing. Just don't want my readers to be turned off when faced with hundred odd pages of boring looking text. So trying to spice it up a bit and make it easier to read in bite sized chunks which is how I like to learn.

Thanks
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- Aenea01 10 years ago
  
  Hi Guys,
  
  My first post here - you got me out of lurk mode I make ebooks for indie authors every week, so am familiar with what you are wanting here.
  
  What you need to know about ebooks - they may look like 'real books' but they are not at all like real books. They are all written html, not text for one, and the reason so many are 'boring' is that we (the coders) are asked to create 'clean code' for each book so that it will display on all devices.
  
  The end user (buyer) sets the fonts, text size, color, background ect via their device. If you include a header/footer or page numbers I will strip them out. Think about the last eBooks you bought, what you wanted was to view them on your phone/tablet/computer and for the text to display without a bunch of gaps or blank space and look good on every screen.
  
  Magazines in pdf form can do much more but not all devices will be able to display them. The largest market right now is Kindle, so creating code that they approve of will be your entry ticket there.
  
  If I can answer any questions please let me know!
  
  Thanks
  
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Aenea01 10 years ago

PS I usually advise people to concentrate on their writing not their layout. I don't care and even prefer if its done in Notepad or something simple - less garbage formatting to strip out when moving it to html
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JosephC 10 years ago

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- cash365 10 years ago
  
  I think Aenea01 and Clarke Hanna are right on this one, Tommy. Try not to overcomplicate things!
  
  Nontheless, just to answer your question in the OP, I want to share the following link (not an affiliate link) with you from a template site where I have found many different free templates which maybe could be of some help if you don't want to follow Aenea's and Clarke Hanna's tips:
  
  TheTemplateWizard | Professional PowerPoint Templates and Print Design Templates
  
  good luck!
  
  PS: you really don't need good luck to be successful if you just take consitent, targeted action! Go for it!
  
  PS2: KISS (Keep It Stupid Simple)
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  Failing forward fast
  
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Tommyg123 10 years ago

Thanks everyone. I was wondering if there is any online software that allows you to upload an ebook and then drop it in to various templates and design layouts?
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Aenea01 10 years ago

Not really. Many will attempt but you won't be happy with the results. I can tell you don't think in code (which is fine, really) so let me just say moving between one writing program and then someone else's software will always introduce code fragments where you don't want them. Makes it look messy.
You might look into magazine layout software, it may be more of what you are looking for.
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Tommyg123 10 years ago

Thanks everyone
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chaotic squid 10 years ago

I find it interesting that so many people seem to recommend MS Word when it's essentially just for making documents. Adobe Indesign is what you want if you want to better stylize articles and make an eBook. Tons of beautiful templates available, usually get mine at graphicriver.
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