Reply To: Text on Spine

Hey Hank, two (tiny!) addenda to your excellent step-by-step. First off, this is exactly how I taught myself to create covers!

Rotate the frame so that the top of the letters face the front cover, and the bottom of the letters face the back cover.

It's easier to explain the function rather than the form :-)

The spine should be readable when the book is lying flat on its back, with the front up.

Am I correctly remembering that the German style is the other way around? (And do they have a logical reason, other than “It's been done like this fur years”?)

Place the text frame in the Spine Area – adjust the position so that the text is visually centered on the Spine.

Simply set that frame's height to the spine width (remember, it's rotated) and set Vertically Centered in the text frame properties. If you have an all-caps (or Mostly Caps) title, you can set the Baseline Options to Cap Height. Otherwise use x-height, so lower case characters will be exactly in the center. Don't use Leading, it's of no use on a spine.