Full page maps for books - important specs to have in attention

[TaniaGomesArt]

Hello everyone.

I'm an illustrator, but also a book layout designer.
Because of this, I'm highly aware that most illustrators don't have knowledge of some basic stuff when it comes to making an illustration that will be used in full page. Being in maps or in children's books that I didn't make the illustrations, just the layout, I had a lot of situations where the illustrations didn't fit right. For the record, most authors are unaware of that too, so sometimes they ask for a map with some specifications, and just after realise that it's not fiting how they would like. This is perfectly normal of course, none of them are layout designers.

So, since I just finished a map that was going to be used in a full page, I decided to make a thread that may be helpful to some of the artists making commissions here. Some of you may already be very familiar with this if you have been working with maps for books for some time, but for the ones who aren't, here is what you need to consider if you are making a full size map for a book.


1 - Size: what about the bleed?
So, this map was done to a 5x8 size book. If a client asks you this, the normal thought is "ok, the proportion has to be 5x8" right?
Wrong...

If the map will be full page, it will need a bleed. Bleed specs depend on the specific printer that will publish the book, so it's always good to ask for the specs.
In most cases though, bleed is 0,125 in.

Now, there are 2 cases:
1 - and the most common, the printer just need an exterior bleed.
In this cases, you need to add bleed on top and bottom, and also on one of the sides (the one oposite to where the gutter will be). So the size/proportion wil actually be 5,125x8,25 in

2 - some printers also use an inner bleed.
In this cases, you add the bleed on all sides, so the final size will be 5,25x8,25

2 - Bleed will be cut!!

Ok, so now you made the map in the right size!
You just need to remember that this bleed part will be cut out, so you shouldn't have important elements going right to this part.
On maps, probably the most important is to remember that if you have a frame, it should not go to the end of the illustration or it will end up getting cut.
Of course, you should not have names or important places going on that part too.


These 2 points are important, but I find that the most important of all is number 3:

3 - Remember the gutter!!

You did a gorgeous map, all with the right size, very well centred, and now in the book, the part of the gutter is just unseen so some important info is missing and the map ends up seeming not centred!

Yes, this happens sometimes.

The gutter size will have a huge gap in what is seen, not only because a tiny part will be lost when glueing, but mostly because the book will not open on a 180-degree angle, so visually, there a space there that is not really a visual drawing area.

How to solve this? If you have a frame, you can do as a did in this map: just add extra space there. It may not look so good on the illustration, but once it's on the book it will look a lot better and give the feeling that it is in fact centered. If your map does not have a frame, it is best to add some continuation of the terrain there, so that the maps flows, but something that is not important to the story. You may have to come up with some extending of the original map.

Hope this is helpful.
There are always a lot of different situations so this does not cover everything, but you at least get some notion of 3 important point when doing a full page map for a book.

portfolio.jpg

[jbgibson]

Is there a rule of thumb on detail - like “don’t go over a couple of dozen named features on one book-page map”? Should there be a sense of, like in the writing itself, “ruthlessly prune away that which doesn’t contribute to/ pertain to the story”?

[TaniaGomesArt]

Is there a rule of thumb on detail - like “don’t go over a couple of dozen named features on one book-page map”? Should there be a sense of, like in the writing itself, “ruthlessly prune away that which doesn’t contribute to/ pertain to the story”?

Ahahahah, you just made me laugh with the way you said the last part.

I believe that should be a rule, yes, but to be honest, when making commissions, it can be hard to convince clients to take some info out of the map. They tend to think that everything is important to the story.

But whenever I look at a map sketch and clearly see that they just have too many named stuff, I have serious talk. Normally you just need to say "to put all this names plus the terrain features on the map I have to make the text so small that on the book no one will be able to read". Most clients take this very seriously and immediately comply with you, simplifying things.

If we are seeing things from a layout design point of view, anything that's on a page should be easy to read/see, so in a sense, yes, there is that rule of tumbs. Finding the balance between a beautiful map illustration and a good design is sometimes hard but, to me, since I work on both areas, is in that balance that the secret is But yeah, sometimes you will end up doing what the client wants... or refusing the job.

[Jaxilon]

This could become very important all a sudden for someone here. Thanks for taking the time to explain some of these pointers.

Hmm, might want to move this to the How-Do-I section.

[TaniaGomesArt]

I'm still finding my way around here, so I will try to find out how to move a thread to another section. Thanks

[Jaxilon]

I'm still finding my way around here, so I will try to find out how to move a thread to another section. Thanks

One of the CLs have to do that so sorry for the confusion. I was in a hurry the night I mentioned it. I've moved it now. Thanks!

[selden]

What are the recommended border sizes on the printed page?

You've mentioned how much space (bleed) should be added outside the destination page size, but how much white space is usually recommended within the edges of the page?

Similarly, how much space should be allowed for the gutter?

Presumably the precise amount will vary depending on the binding method, but is there an appropriate compromise?