“Typesetting, also often referred to as “”composition,”” “”layout,”” and “”production,”” is the ordering of text on a page for visual display.
Design precedes typesetting. Before typesetting begins, you first need to have templates for your pages. The templates are created during the design stage. Using a simple text-only book as an example, template design elements would include trim size, margins, fonts, number of lines per page, headers and footers, and page numbers.
Typesetting occurs once your page templates are set up. In this stage, the book’s content is imported into the template and each element is formatted according to its specific design across all pages.
Page design is usually done by a graphic designer, who may or may not be a typesetter. Sometimes a designer may create the template, and then hand it off to the typesetter, who will then “”apply”” that design to the content across all pages. In other instances, the designer and typesetter may be one and the same. (We do both.)
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