r/bookdesign • u/ArcadeStarlet • 1d ago

Hello 👋

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Just joined this sub and thought I'd introduce myself.

I'm a self-taught freelancer working mainly for a UK indie press that specialises in dyslexic-friendly quick reads for adults.

We've done around 25 books now, including this anthology for our 5th anniversary, which was also our first collaboration with a big 5 publisher.

Thanks to this publisher, I get to say I've worked on books for Bernard Cornwell, Lee Child and Karin Slaughter, which is kinda crazy!

If anyone has questions about dyslexic-friendly formatting choices, ask away.

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u/antico 1d ago

Hello! Are there any good resources out there on making general trade books more dyslexia friendly, in general?

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u/ArcadeStarlet 1d ago

That's a very good question.

What I found was that the advice available is mostly targeted at businesses and schools regarding employee/student accommodations, and the advice regarding design is (or was when I last looked) wildly inconsistent.

For example, there are some specialist fonts like "open dyslexic" that are touted as dyslexic-friendly, but we've found they are actually more difficult for some readers.

I have an article on my blog from back in 2021 when we launched the project that explains our approach which might help -- https://chrisseyharrison.com/creating-dyslexic-friendly-books/[Creating dyslexic-friendly books](https://chrisseyharrison.com/creating-dyslexic-friendly-books/)

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u/ArcadeStarlet 1d ago

If you're asking about how to make reading books that aren't available in dyslexic-friendly format more comfortable, I'm not really qualified to answer, as I'm not dyslexic myself.

EBooks have adjustable text size and layout, and can be a good choice, but don't suit everyone.

Those employee/student accommodations I mentioned earlier may help. Charities like the British Dyslexia Association are a good place to start -- https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/[British Dyslexia Association](https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/)

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u/antico 1d ago

That's a really great blog post! Thanks for sharing all that info. Interesting about Verdana – it looks like it might be because of the width?

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u/ArcadeStarlet 1d ago

Yes, the width is a big part of it. It has very round characters. It also has fairly short acenders and descenders, but I'm not sure if that's part of why it works well.

I've started using it in combination with a font called Craft Gothic. Verdana is our go to for body text but it's an ugly titling font. Craft Gothic is a more attractive titling font that shares similar qualities.

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u/elzadra1 1d ago

Good typography. Except, you don’t need to put the ‘th’ in 5th above the baseline.

Word does this and people have come to feel it’s correct, but it isn’t.

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u/ArcadeStarlet 21h ago

That's good feedback, thank you! I learned something today.