Book formatting software

What book formatting software does

Writing a book and producing one are different jobs, and formatting is the second. Your manuscript is a stream of words; a book is an object with a trim size, a typeface, margins that account for the binding, running heads that know which chapter they are in, and a page count that has to be even. Formatting software is what converts the first into the second.

Concretely, it does four things:

1. Imports your manuscript and works out its structure — which paragraphs are chapter headings, which are scene breaks, which are block quotes. How well a tool does this determines how much of your first afternoon is spent fixing it.
2. Typesets the interior. Type, leading, measure, drop caps, ornaments, chapter openings, running heads, folios, and the small conventions that make a page read as a book rather than a document.
3. Builds the apparatus. Title page, copyright page, table of contents, also-by page — generated from your metadata rather than typed out and then kept in sync by hand.
4. Exports the two files retailers accept. A reflowable EPUB for ebook stores, and a fixed-layout print-ready PDF for paperback and hardcover.

The two files you actually need

EPUB, for ebooks

EPUB is the ebook standard and every major retailer takes it, Amazon included — Amazon converts it to their own format on upload. It is reflowable: the reader chooses the type size and the text rewraps, so there is no such thing as a page. That is why an EPUB cannot be a PDF and why designing one is a different discipline: you control relationships and hierarchy, not positions.

Print-ready PDF, for paper

A print PDF is the opposite: every page is fixed, at exactly the trim size you are printing. It needs embedded fonts, images at print resolution, an inside margin wide enough for the binding, and — if anything runs to the edge of the paper — bleed. The cover is a separate file, sized to two covers plus the spine, and the spine width depends on your final page count. That is why the cover is always the last thing you make.

How to choose a tool

Most comparisons start with features. Start instead with the three things that are hard to change later:

1. Will it run on your computer?

This eliminates more options than anything else. Vellum, the tool most often recommended in author groups, is macOS-only — no Windows version exists. Browser-based tools run anywhere but keep your book on someone else's server. Installed cross-platform tools run anywhere and keep the files on your disk. Decide which of those you are comfortable with before you look at a single feature list.

2. Are you buying a writing tool or a production tool?

Some tools do both. If you already draft happily in Word, Scrivener or Google Docs, a combined tool is paying for half a product you will not use — and its import step is the one you will care about. If you have not settled on a drafting environment, a combined tool is one fewer thing to learn.

3. How much of print production does it cover?

Every tool in this category exports a print PDF. Far fewer help with the production arithmetic around it: spine width for your specific printer, the gutter minimum for your page count, whether your images are above 300 DPI at final size, what the book will cost to print and what that leaves you per sale. If you are publishing paperbacks — especially through both KDP and IngramSpark, which calculate spines differently — that gap is where your evenings go.

Then, the ordinary questions

• Import. Does it read what you write in, or must you convert first?
• Trim sizes. A fixed list, or custom sizes too?
• Type. Curated presets only, or your own licensed fonts?
• Series. Can you change the back matter once and rebuild every book?
• Offline. Does it work on a train?
• Price shape. One-off, subscription, or free with paid export?
• Trying it. Can you see your own book formatted before you pay?

The main tools

Four products cover most of what authors actually use. Here they are on the points above — and then in more detail, with the caveat that we make one of them.

Vellum

A macOS-only formatting app, sold as a one-off purchase in two editions: Vellum Ebooks, and Vellum Press which adds paperback and hardcover PDFs. It is the tool most indie authors mean when they say their book “looks professionally typeset”.

In short: macOS only, bought outright in two editions, and concentrated on typesetting rather than on print production.

Atticus

A browser-based writing and formatting tool sold as a one-off purchase. Because it runs in a browser it works on Windows, macOS, Linux and Chromebooks, and it offers an offline mode.

In short: A browser tool covering drafting as well as formatting, bought outright, with the manuscript kept in the cloud.

Reedsy Book Editor

A free, browser-based writing editor that exports a clean EPUB and a print PDF. It is part of Reedsy's wider marketplace of freelance editors, designers and marketers.

In short: Free and browser-based, with a small set of templates, editor collaboration built in, and no print-production tooling.

Alhora

Ours. A desktop application for macOS, Windows, Linux and ChromeOS that takes a finished manuscript and produces the EPUB and the print PDF, with the print-production checks built in — spine width per printer, gutter minimums by page count, image resolution, cost and royalty estimates, and a pre-flight pass against store requirements before you upload. Formatting and previewing a whole book is free; a plan unlocks export.

In short: the production stage done properly, on whatever computer you own — and free to format and preview a whole book first.

Do you need any of this?

Not necessarily. Three honest alternatives:

• Word. It will export a PDF and Amazon accepts .docx for ebooks. Viable for one short, simple book. It becomes painful with images, with print, and with anything you have to revise.
• Hire a formatter. Typically £100–£300 a book. Sensible if you publish rarely and value your time more than the fee. Less sensible if you revise often, because every revision is another invoice.
• InDesign. What the trade uses, and the ceiling is higher than anything in this category. It is also a subscription and a genuinely steep learning curve, and it has no idea what KDP requires.

Formatting software sits in the middle: better than Word, cheaper than hiring out every revision, and far quicker to learn than InDesign.