Self-publishing means dealing with A LOT of different files – in all possible formats. Here’s short guide to all the textual and visual file formats that you might find useful as an author – and which you might encounter or be asked for when working with a book designer.
Text file formats – .docx, .pages, odt, .rtf, .PDF
Editable formats
Let’s start with the basics – you’re probably writing in your book in some kind of a text editor. If you’re a Windows user, you’re might be working with Microsoft Word (which uses .doc and .docx formats). If you’re on a Mac, you’re most likely using Pages (and so, .pages format).
Both Word and Pages files are editable by anyone who opens them with appropriate software. That’s great when you’re working with editors and proofreaders – and useful for designers.
You might also encounter .odt or .rtf files – which are also text editor files, though slightly less popular, and can be opened by most text apps such as Word.
When working with a typesetter/book interior designer, you will be asked for an editable version of your manuscript, so that it can be imported into Indesign.
However, a Word/Pages file is not the right format if you want to send print-ready files to a printer or upload it to a self-publishing platform. Most such platforms won’t even accept such files (and traditional printing companies definitely won’t) – one of the reasons for it is that a Word file is likely to look slightly different on each device it is opened on, depending on the operating system, fonts installed on the device, etc. This means that if you try to print a book from it – no one can guarantee that the printed result will look exactly as the file it looks on your computer.
Non-editable formats
The basic non-editable text file format you should know is PDF. A PDF file will look the same on every screen and every device – it will have consistent formatting, styling, page size, etc.
Editing a PDF requires specialized software such as Adobe Acrobat or Foxit PDF, and, though it is possible, it is also never 100% reliable – attempting bigger changes is risky and the results can be unsatisfactory. If you need to edit your text file – it’s best to do it before you export it to PDF.
PDFs are used to submit print-ready files to self-publishing platforms such as KDP or to printing companies.
PDFs come in many flavours though, and can be saved with many different settings. Your book designer should know which ones to use to make sure that your file can be uploaded smoothly and with no errors (and be able to fix them if they do pop up).
Graphic file formats
Graphic file formats can be divided into two categories: raster files, also known as bitmaps, and vector files.
Raster files
Raster image files are made of pixels – which allows them to display a wider array of colors, permit greater color editing, and show finer light and shading than vectors. A good example of a raster file is a photograph, or a digital painting – if you zoom in very closely, you can see all the individual points that each image is made of.
Raster files come in specific resolutions, which means that they will lose quality if you enlarge them too much.
Common raster file formats are:
- JPG or JPEG – the most popular and universal format, with relatively small file sizes. Doesn’t display transparency.
- PNG – popular web format; displays transparency. Files tend to be significantly larger than JPGs. Unfortunately – it also doesn’t work with CMYK, which is a colour space required for commercial printing. This means that if you want to use PNG image in a book, it will need to be converted to JPG or other format.
- BMP – an uncompressed image format with relatively large file sizes.
- TIFF – another uncompressed format with large file sizes; most often used for publications requiring very high-quality images.
Vector files
Vector file formats are made of mathematical equations, lines and curves, which means they don’t contain pixels. Thanks to that, they can be resized – both enlarged and made smaller – without losing quality. That’s why they are used for graphics such as logos, which need to be crisp and sharp on both pens and billboards,
Common vector file formats are:
- SVG – a web-friendly file format written in XML code, which means that it stores text information as well as visuals (which is useful for SEO – optimizing how high your website ranks in search engines).
- EPS – vector format compatible with almost all systems, but requiring specialized software to open it (such as Adobe Illustrator).
- AI – native Adobe Illustrator format; can be opened by most design programs, but is fully editable only with Illustrator.
- PDF (usually) – PDFs can contain both vector and raster data. This means that if you send or receive a logo in PDF, it can be enlarged without quality loss, but the same can’t be said for a photograph, even if saved in the same format.
That’s it!
I hope you found this article useful – let me know if you think it’s lacking something, or if you have an additional question.
I’m always up for a chat – get in touch via marta@martadec.eu.
