Set the foundation of your book's design (fonts, trim size, body text sizing, and paragraph style), the settings every other part of Styles builds on top of, including every preset.
What You Can Do
- Choose a body font and a heading font independently, from Deckle's font library or your own uploaded font files.
- Pick your trim size and have body size, line height, and margins update automatically to match it.
- Choose between indented paragraphs (the fiction convention) or block-style spaced paragraphs (the non-fiction convention).
- Set text alignment (left, justified, center, or right) and turn automatic hyphenation on or off.
How to Change Typography Settings
- Open Styles and select the Typography category.
- Pick your body and heading fonts under Fonts; upload your own font files here too, if you have them.
- Under Sizing & rhythm, pick a trim size first; adjust body size, line height, and paragraph style from there.
- Under Text options, set alignment and hyphenation.
Trim Size Is the Master Setting
Trim size isn't just a page dimension: picking one automatically sets font size, line height, and margins to values matched to that size, based on real print-typography conventions. You can still fine-tune body size and line height individually afterward, but you're not starting from scratch for every trim size you try.
A Couple of Things Worth Knowing
💡 Indented vs. block paragraph style changes which setting you see next. Indented paragraphs get an indent-size control, block paragraphs get a spacing-between-paragraphs control instead, matching how each style is actually built.
💡 Uploading a custom font family works best with multiple files at once (Regular, Bold, Italic). Select them together so Deckle registers the whole family, not just one weight.
💡 A missing bold or italic variant is flagged automatically if your chosen font doesn't include it, rather than silently faking a bold/italic style.
FAQ
What happens to my body size and line height if I change trim size later?
They reset to that trim size's matched values. If you'd already fine-tuned them manually, you'll want to re-adjust after switching trim sizes.
Should I use indented or block paragraphs?
Indented is the standard convention for fiction; block (spaced, no indent) is standard for non-fiction. Either can be used regardless of genre; it's a formatting choice, not a hard rule.