Your Print Edition

Preview and Customization

When creating your print edition, Vellum will take care of the most complicated formatting needs for you. However, there are a few simple controls you can use to customize.

Preview

To see your print edition in Vellum, select Print in the Preview’s Device Popover:

By default, Vellum’s Preview will show your print edition in Draft mode. This mode is optimized for speed, and gives you a good idea of what your text will look like.

Draft mode does not include all of the Automatic Layout features that Vellum employs to generate your final PDF.

To see this final version, you can use the Preview’s Settings Popover to change the Preview Quality to Proof:

Print Settings

Most of Vellum’s print-specific customization can be found in the Print Settings dialog, accessible from the File menu.

The Print Settings dialog allows you to make changes to the size and layout of your print edition. It contains controls for changing your trim size, margins, font size, line-spacing, and more.

Header and Footer Style

You can choose the text that will appear at the top and bottom of each page by using the Header and Footer carousel in Vellum’s Styles pane.

Generation, Proofing, and Uploading

When you are happy with how your print edition looks in Vellum, you’re ready to generate the print interior PDF that you will upload to the print-on-demand service of your choosing.

Note: Generating files for print requires a Vellum Press license.

Generating Your Print Edition

To create your print edition, use the Generate sheet.

If you don’t see Print in the list of platforms, click on the ellipsis button to the right of Generate for to show the platform selection view:

Once you’ve enabled Print, press Continue to return to the generation view, and then use the Generate button to create your print interior.

Viewing Page Spreads

After you generate the Print edition of your book, you can proof it using your Mac’s built-in Preview application. Use its View ▸ Two Pages mode to view your pages side-by-side as spreads:

Uploading Your Cover

For your print edition, you’ll upload a cover file directly to the print service of your choice. This is a completely separate file from the interior file that is created by Vellum. The specific requirements of the cover file will depend on the service you use.

If you choose to use Amazon KDP, for example, you can generate a template for your book using their Cover Template Creator. Services like IngramSpark and Barnes & Noble Press offer similar options.

To use these template creation tools, you’ll need to know the total page count for your book. You can find that by opening your PDF, or by going to Vellum’s Print Settings.

Ordering Review Copies

If you use a service that supports it, we highly recommend ordering review copies of your book before publishing. Especially when using KDP, we recommend ordering multiple copies, as printing results can vary from copy to copy.

Troubleshooting

I see blank pages in my generated PDF

When creating your interior file, Vellum may insert blank pages to ensure some elements begin on the right side of a spread. Vellum will do this before the first page of Chapter 1 and before many types of front and back matter.

For front and back matter elements, you can control this behavior using the Begin On options, accessible from Vellum’s Chapter menu.

To better understand the use of blank pages, we recommend viewing your book as page spreads. You should find that these blank pages only appear on the left side of the spread.

Depending on your page count, Vellum may also append a blank page to the end of your PDF. This is necessary for services like IngramSpark.

I don’t see any page numbers in my book

Vellum will only include page numbers in the Chapters of your book, and hide them for front and back matter like a Copyright page.

If you don’t see any page numbers, it could be because none of the elements of your book are marked as Chapters. To check and change an element’s type, use the Convert To menu found next to an element’s title.

Can I use color images in my book?

Yes, you can change this in the Print Settings dialog. Since color printing can be expensive, Vellum defaults to using black and white images in your print edition. To allow color images, select the Images menu item in the Print Setting’s Additional Controls, and choose Color.

Where do I upload the print edition cover?

For your print edition, Vellum produces the interior PDF for your book. When you’re ready to publish using a print-on-demand service, you’ll upload this PDF and a separate file for the wraparound cover. If you are going to use Amazon to publish your print edition, you can find an example of this step on our Uploading to KDP page.