Templates & Fonts

Stet's templates control the visual design of your book: how chapter titles look, what ornament appears between scenes, and the overall typographic feel. Fonts let you customise the typeface used for headings and body text.

Both are set in the left sidebar and update the preview immediately.

Templates

Stet's templates control the visual design of your book. Templates are grouped by genre. Click a group header to expand it and see the options inside. Click any template to apply it. The preview updates immediately.

Fiction

Non-Fiction

Memoir & Essay

Poetry

Customising a template

Every template can be adjusted using the Style controls that appear below the template picker. You don't need to switch templates just because one element doesn't suit your book. Tweak it directly.

Scene Breaks: the ornament that appears between scenes within a chapter. Options: asterisks (✦ ✦ ✦), rule (———), fleuron (❧), blank line, or a custom character of your choice.

Chapter Numbers: how chapter numbers appear in headings. Arabic (1, 2, 3) is the default for most templates. Roman (I, II, III) is traditional and works well with Classic. Written (One, Two, Three) is warm and suits memoir. None removes the number entirely. Only the chapter title shows.

Chapter Label: the word that precedes the chapter number. "Chapter" is the default. You can change it to "Part", remove it entirely, or type any custom label. Setting it to none with no number and a simple title gives a very clean, minimal result.

Chapter Opener: the style of the chapter opening. Simple (left-aligned title), Centred, Drop Cap (large first letter on the opening paragraph), Numbered (number prominently displayed), or Ornamental (decorative element above the title).

When you've customised a template, a small dot appears next to its name in the picker. Click Reset to template defaults to restore the original settings. Selecting a different template also resets any customisations. There's no wrong choice. Try a few and see what feels right for your book. You can change the template at any point before export.

Trim sizes

Trim size is the physical dimensions of your printed book. Set it in Print Settings at the bottom of the sidebar.

Common trim sizes and their typical uses:

Stet displays measurements in inches or millimetres based on your Mac's locale. You can change the default in Stet → Settings → General.

The trim size affects the print PDF only. Ebook formats reflow to fit any screen size.

Check your distributor's supported trim sizes before finalising. Amazon KDP and IngramSpark both support all the sizes above.

Fonts

Stet uses New York (Apple's serif typeface) for both headings and body text by default. You can replace either with any font installed on your Mac.

Setting a heading font

Click the font name next to Chapter Headings in the sidebar. The font picker shows all fonts currently installed on your Mac, grouped by family.

• Search by name to find a specific font quickly
• Each font name is rendered in the font itself so you can see how it looks
• Select a font to preview it immediately in the book preview

Setting a body font

Click the font name next to Body Text. The same picker applies. Body font changes affect the running prose throughout your book.

Choosing a good body font

For print books, a well-designed serif typeface is standard. Good options to look for:

• Garamond (various versions): classic, elegant, very readable in print
• Caslon: traditional British book face
• Palatino: warm, open, works well at small sizes
• Minion: designed specifically for books, used by many publishers
• Freight Text: contemporary, works well in both print and ebook

For ebooks specifically, readability on screen matters more than print conventions. Many ebook readers let users override your font choice, so the body font affects Apple Books and Kobo but not Kindle.

Importing a font file

If you have a font that isn't installed system-wide, you can import it directly into your Stet project. Open the font picker, scroll to the bottom, and expand Advanced → Import Font File.

Imported fonts are stored inside your .stet project file and travel with it. They are embedded in your exported EPUB and PDF files automatically.

Only use fonts you are licensed to embed in published files. Font licensing for embedding varies. Check the license that came with your font or the font foundry's website.

Font embedding in exports

Kindle uses its own font rendering system and ignores custom fonts. This is the same behaviour as Vellum and every other book formatting tool. Your font choices will show correctly in Apple Books, Kobo, and most other ebook readers.