What does the designer need to receive from the author or publisher to start a layout project?

One of the biggest sources of delay, rework and frustration in editorial layout projects is not in the designer's work — it is in what the designer receives before starting. Incomplete manuscripts, low-resolution images, vague briefs and texts that are still to be proofread are what turn projects that should take two weeks into processes that drag on for two months.

For authors and publishers, understanding what the designer needs — and why each item matters — is the most efficient way to guarantee a well-executed project on time and on budget. For the designer, having a clear checklist to share with clients before each project starts is part of the professional process.

This article maps everything the layout designer needs to receive before opening InDesign for the first time — and what happens when each item is missing or incomplete.

1. Why the initial brief matters more than it seems

There is a common belief that layout is a simple sequential process: the author delivers the text, the designer makes it look nice on the page, the author approves. In practice, the process is far more interdependent — and the decisions made at the start of the project determine the quality and efficiency of everything that comes after.

The designer needs specific information before making any design decision: the book's format determines the margins; the printing method determines the file specifications; the target audience guides the typographic tone; the visual references align expectations no verbal description can capture precisely.

Without that information, the designer works with assumptions — and wrong assumptions only appear in the revision rounds, when the rework is already built into the project.

The real cost of an incomplete brief

A revision round that requires a format change — for example, discovering that the book is going to a POD platform that does not accept the chosen format — can invalidate all the pagination already done and require days of rework. The time spent on a complete brief at the start is invariably less than the time lost correcting decisions made with incomplete information.

2. The complete checklist: everything the designer needs to start

The checklist below represents the minimum set of information and materials a professional layout project requires. Each item has a technical or strategic reason for being there.

Table: complete briefing checklist for layout

3. The manuscript: the most critical item — and the most frequently problematic

The manuscript is the raw material of the whole layout project — and the quality with which it reaches the designer largely determines how much rework will be needed before the layout even begins.

What "final, proofread manuscript" means

When the designer asks for the "final, proofread manuscript", that specifically means: the text is in its definitive version, has been through professional spelling and grammar proofreading, and will not undergo content changes after the layout begins.

That condition is more important than it seems. Any change to the text after the layout has begun — even a small paragraph insertion, a character-name change, or the correction of an error that appeared later — can cascade through the whole document: change page breaks, disorganise manually positioned special elements, and require a review of every affected page.

The correct format for the manuscript file

The layout designer works with professional software — Adobe InDesign or Affinity Publisher. To import the text efficiently, the file needs to be in a compatible format: preferably .docx (Microsoft Word) or .odt (LibreOffice). PDF files are not suited to layout — the text cannot be edited or reformatted easily.

The manuscript should be sent without elaborate formatting. Fonts, sizes, colours and any attempts to pre-format the text in Word will be discarded by the designer — who will apply the correct editorial styles in InDesign. Excessive Word formatting only creates noise that has to be removed before starting.

What the designer will do with the manuscript before laying it out

Before importing the text into InDesign, the designer puts the manuscript through a cleaning stage: removes inconsistent manual formatting, standardises spacing, identifies every type of text element (titles, subheadings, quotations, notes) and prepares the file to receive the correct paragraph styles. The cleaner and more standardised the manuscript, the faster and more efficient that stage is — and the lower the total cost of the project.

4. Common manuscript problems — and how to avoid them

Most delays in layout projects originate in manuscript problems that could have been avoided with simple preparation before sending. Knowing these problems is the first step to not making them.

Table: frequent manuscript problems and how to prevent them

How to prepare the manuscript before sending it to the designer

A simple check in Word before sending the file can save hours of rework:

1. Use Ctrl+H (Find and Replace) to replace double spaces with single spaces throughout the document

2. Check that the titles are marked with the correct Word styles (Heading 1 for chapters, Heading 2 for sections) — this helps the designer identify the structure

3. Remove manual hyphenation — InDesign will apply correct typographic hyphenation

4. Check that the images that need to appear in the book are clearly referenced in the text and will be sent separately in high resolution

5. Confirm with the proofreader that the text is in its definitive version before sending

5. The production definitions: format, printing and distribution

Beyond the manuscript, the designer needs clear definitions about the book's production characteristics. These definitions determine the technical specifications of the whole project — and changing them after the layout has begun can require extensive rework.

Page format

The format — the page dimensions in centimetres — is the first project decision. It determines the margins, the width of the text column, the amount of text per page and, consequently, the total page count of the book. A 300-page book in 14 × 21 cm format can have 280 pages in 15 × 23 cm format — and the page count affects the printing cost.

If the author has no clear format preference, the designer can recommend one based on the genre of the work and the printing method. For POD on Amazon KDP, the available formats are pre-defined — and the designer needs to know which platform will be used before choosing the format.

Printing method and distribution platform

Offset and POD have different technical specifications for bleed, minimum margins, colour profile and final file format. The designer who does not know the printing method will make assumptions — and wrong assumptions on this dimension can result in files rejected by the printer or quality problems in the print.

For POD, it is essential to know the specific platform — Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Clube de Autores — because each has its own specifications for bleed (in millimetres or inches), minimum gutter by page band and file format.

Understand the technical differences between the methods: How does the designer adapt a layout for different distribution formats, such as POD and offset?

Digital version (ebook)

The author needs to state whether the book will have an ebook version alongside the print one — because that affects the layout decisions from the start. A project planned for both formats uses paragraph styles configured for efficient export to EPUB, avoiding formatting that creates problems in the digital format.

See how the two formats relate: Can the same layout file be reused for print and for the digital version (ebook)?

6. Visual references: the item that most speeds up the alignment of expectations

Of all the brief items, visual references are the ones that most efficiently align the author's expectations with the possibilities of the project — and the ones most frequently missing when the author does not provide them.

Verbal descriptions of visual preferences are inherently imprecise. "I want something elegant and modern" means completely different things to designer and author — because the two have distinct visual references for what "elegant and modern" means. When the author shows five specific covers they admire, the designer extracts far more precise information: the proportion between title and image, the typographic weight, the use of colour, the level of visual detail.

How to choose good visual references

• Select covers of books of the same genre as the work — references from other fields may be visually inspiring but unsuited to the specific market

• Include interior layout references too — most authors think only about the cover, but the interior of the book is equally important

• Explicitly include covers you do not want to resemble — that negative information is often more revealing than the positive preferences

• Don't limit yourself to Brazilian books — international references are valid and frequently show trends that have not yet reached the local market

The question that reveals more than any description

One of the most revealing questions the designer can ask in the brief is: "Show me a book of the same genre that you think has excellent visual production — and tell me what specifically you admire about it." The answer to that question contains more useful information than any quantity of adjectives like "sophisticated", "modern" or "classic".

7. Images, logos and visual elements: what to send and how

For books with a visual component — author photos, illustrations, charts, publisher logos or editorial imprints — the designer needs to receive those elements before starting the project, not during or after.

Minimum resolution for print

Every image that will appear in the printed book needs a minimum resolution of 300 dpi at the size at which it will be used. Images taken from websites or social media (usually 72 dpi) are unsuited to print — they will appear pixelated or jagged in the physical book.

A simple way to check: if the image is less than 1 MB and was found on the internet, it probably does not have enough resolution for quality printing. Photos taken with modern smartphones at maximum settings usually have adequate resolution — as long as they have not been compressed when shared.

Author photo for the back cover

The author photo that will appear on the back cover is one of the elements most frequently sent in inadequate quality. The author needs a professional photo in high resolution — preferably taken by a photographer, not cropped from a selfie or an event photo.

Beyond the resolution, the framing matters: the designer needs space around the face for compositional flexibility. A photo cropped too tightly limits the design options for the back cover.

Logos and identity elements

Publisher logos, editorial imprints and any visual-identity element should be sent in vector format (.ai, .eps, .svg) or as a PNG with a transparent background and high resolution. Logos in JPEG — especially with a white or coloured background — create technical composition problems that require unnecessary manual treatment.

8. Mandatory editorial information

Beyond the content and visual elements, the designer needs a set of editorial information that has to appear in specific positions in the book — and that needs to be provided before the layout advances to those sections.

ISBN and cataloguing record

The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is the book's international identification code — mandatory for any book distributed commercially in Brazil. It appears on the back cover (under the barcode) and on the reverse of the title page.

The cataloguing record (in Brazil, the ficha catalográfica) — a standardised bibliographic summary that appears on the reverse of the title page — is required by law for books published in Brazil. It is provided by a library registered in the IBICT system and needs to be obtained by the author or publisher before the layout begins.

Title-page data and credits page

The title page contains the full title, subtitle, author name, publisher and city of publication. The credits page (the reverse of the title page) contains the cataloguing record, the ISBN, the copyright data, the credits for proofreading, translation (if any), design and printing, and the edition of the book.

These data need to be provided by the author or publisher before the designer lays out the opening pages of the book — which are frequently the last to be finalised, but which depend on this information to be correct.

The mistake that delays the delivery deadline

One of the most common delays in the final stages of a layout project is waiting for the cataloguing record or the ISBN — elements the author knew they would need, but left to obtain after the layout was "almost done". Getting the cataloguing record can take days or weeks depending on the library. Requesting it before the project begins eliminates that delay.

Frequently asked questions about what to send the designer

Can I send the manuscript as a PDF?

Not recommended. PDFs do not let the designer import and reflow the text efficiently in InDesign. Text in a PDF is an image of text, not editable text — which makes it impossible to apply paragraph styles, adjust spacing or make any edit to the content. Always send the manuscript as .docx or .odt.

And if the text still needs one last review?

The layout should only begin once the final proofread is complete. If the text is still being proofread, agree a specific date with the designer for the project to start — and only hire them when the text is really ready. Revisions done during the layout not only delay the project, but can invalidate hours of work already done.

Does the designer need all this information at the same time?

Not literally at the same instant, but the earlier each item arrives, the fewer decisions are made on assumptions. The manuscript, format and printing method are needed before the visual system is designed; the ISBN, cataloguing record and title-page data can arrive during the project, as long as they are ready before the opening pages are finalised. The safest approach is to gather everything before the start — which is also the right moment to hire the designer. When should the designer be hired in the editorial process — before or after proofreading?

What happens if I send an incomplete manuscript and then send the rest?

It depends on what is missing. If it is a small section still being written — a preface, a dedication — it is usually possible to lay out the book and insert those elements at the end with minimal impact. If it is a whole chapter or elements that affect the structure of the book — such as an index or extensive note sections — the absence can generate significant rework when the material arrives.

Conclusion: a well-made brief is the project's best investment

The quality of a layout project begins long before the designer opens InDesign. It begins the moment the author or publisher sits down to gather what will be sent — and decides to do it carefully and completely, instead of sending what is available and leaving the rest for later.

A complete brief is not bureaucracy — it is respect for the time and work of everyone involved. It ensures the designer can start with confidence, make informed decisions and deliver a project that matches expectations with no surprises along the way.

The best layout project begins with the best conversation before it. And the best conversation begins with the right information on the table.

To understand every element of editorial design in depth: Book designer: the complete guide to book layout and cover design

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• Book designer: the complete guide to book layout and cover design