Creating a cookbook

Good Morning!

Initially, this cookbook project seemed like a daunting task. I did my best to apply everything I have learned and make it all come together. This class has forced me to confront topics I had previously avoided and put my knowledge to practical use. I must say, it has been one of the more challenging classes, but I am so thankful for the opportunity to take what I learned and apply it in a hands-on way. What a cool idea it is to create a cookbook!

I began by creating parent pages, setting up my page numbers, and ensuring they were positioned correctly for an eBook format. I asked ChatGPT for assistance in creating recipes for four appetizers, four entrées, four side dishes, and four desserts. Unfortunately, I didn't have the premium subscription for ChatGPT, so I couldn’t generate the images I needed. Finding images online and adjusting them to fit took a while. However, using the "Fit Image to Frame Proportionally" option helped immensely, and I’m glad that feature is available in InDesign. I cropped images and applied what I learned in photography to make them more aesthetic and interesting to the viewer.

  

I then created my table of contents and incorporated my story, using the Rasa typeface, which I also used in my restaurant branding project, along with Athelas for the body text. I developed various paragraph styles for the headings, table of contents, subheadings, and body style, adjusting the leading and size to ensure clear and legible reading. I sampled colors from my logo to apply the same palette to the text in the table of contents and on the cover. Overall, I learned a lot about the importance of paragraph styles, placing images in frames, and using parent pages.

 

I was excited to see that I completed my first eBooK (what a cool accomplishment!) Once I grasped the process, everything came together much more quickly. I would have liked to add a bit more personality and creative design to the eBook, but I lacked the time. Nevertheless, I feel like I have built a solid foundation to work from going forward and am much more confident in using InDesign.