D&D 5E 2024

LAYOUT TEMPLATES
FOR ADOBE INDESIGN
CHAPTER 1

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 O V E RV I E W

What's included?
T
hank you, Author for using this template table variations, Statblocks, Sidebars, Backgrounds,
for your content! Everything you need to Character classes, Spell and Feat templates.
make your content look as close as possible to
the 'real' products is included here. Art element libraries
A number of libraries filled with premade art ele-

What's included? ments that can be easily placed over or under your
art.
Fonts Fuzzy art borders. 120 fuzzy border templates to
Three different set of fonts:
give your art the frazzled look used in the books.
Ornate image borders. All sizes of ornate, golden
Official fonts. The same fonts used in the 2024
image borders.
series of Core books. Actual font files are not in-
Art decorations. 96 color "splotches" to put be-
cluded since they need to be purchased or pulled
hind art or further customize your page design.
in via Adobe Fonts.
Remake fonts. A number of fonts have been gotten
a remake as free versions that get close to their Examples
inspiration. These are included with this template An example layout that uses elements present in
and can be found in the file "Template_Letter_Re- the libraries to see them in use and borrow them
make_Fonts.idml" for your own designs.
Google fonts. A selection of fonts from Google Support
Fonts aimed at looking as close as possible. These Shoot any questions or feature requests to dnd@
will be the furthest from the "official" look, but pixelforge.media for support!
are free and easy to acquire. They are also includ-
ed with this template and can be found in the Artists
file "Template_Letter_Google.idml". The layout Note: This template does not use any AI art, and
hasn't been fintetuned for Google Fonts, how- all art used has been published by the artist for free
ever, so you will likely need to make additional use.
adjustments to round out the overall look for this
• A Good Bounty by babeskull16 (cc-by 4.0)
template.
• Eberron Heroes & Villains Art Pack by DM's
Guild
Page backgrounds
Hand-crafted "parchment" backgrounds that are • Background texture by Freepik
aimed to be as close as possible to the Player Hand- • Art for "Backgrounds" example by Freepik
book.

Page templates
Templates for immediate use for the most common
pages: Cover, Credits, Table of Content, Regular
text pages, Chapter pages, Character classes, Back-
grounds

Text styles
50 pre-defined "rules" (=Paragraph styles) of how
text should be formatted based on the styles used in
the book.

Layout element library

Common elements found in the Core books have
been recreated for easy copy-pasting, such as all
 O V E RV I E W

How to use this Template

Y
our book, adventure or content is written How to get started
but now it is time to make it look great - but
how? This template gives you all the tools Check out what's available. Have a look below and
necessary to create a beautiful product - and one get an overview of what's in the template.
that looks (almost) professionally made. Pick a font set. Choose one of the font sets and
Do I need InDesign knowledge? grab the respective Template file. Make a copy
and open it.
All of these templates utilize Adobe InDesign. Download and set fonts. Make sure you've ac-
Learning the basics of the software will pay big quired the necessary fonts and/or have installed
dividends and there are many resources online that them. Then, once the template is open, it will like-
you can use. In addition, below you can find a tuto- ly be met with a complaint from InDesign that it
rial that covers most aspect of this template. cannot locate the necessary fonts. The font might
have slighlty different names. Use the "replace"
Where are all the elements? functionality to select the correct font types (see
The previous page illustrated what's included. The Tutorial for more detailed instructions.
below splits out where you can find them and how Layout your content. From here, it's all you! Put
to get going: your content in and enjoy!

Intro & Tutorial. This very file provides an over-

view of how to use the templates, all available
Font options and a tutorial that will walk you
through the main features.
(Filename: Intro and Tutorial.pdf])
Element library & Book of Examples. This set of
files represent the main template. They have all
the different layout elements to use and a set of
examples for copy-pasting. There are three differ-
ent files, one for each Font set:

• Official: "Template_Letter_Official.idml"
• Remake: "Template_Letter_Remake.idml"
• Google: "Template_Letter_Google.idml"
(Note: the Google Fonts have been applied "as-is", so you'll
need to make some manual adjustments to tweak the look
(such as Font sizes))
• (Filename: Template_Letter_[Font set].idml)

Art elements: Masks. This file includes the 120

fuzzy borders to review and copy into your main
layout file.
(Filename: Art_Elements_Library_Masks.idml)
Art elements: Splots. This file includes almost 100
splots in different colors to refine your layout
where desired.
(Filename: Art_Elements_Library_Splots.idml)
 O V E RV I E W

Fonts of D&D
T
his template was setup with a number of
Font options. Most fonts are not included,
please purchase or download the respective
set of fonts separately (see instructions).

Font overview

Google Fonts
Element D&D Original Close alternatives
(Download all here)
Book title
MODESTO CONDENSED NODESTO CONDENSED ALEGREYA
BOLD BOLD SANS SC
Chapter title
Wolpe Pegasus
Opti Pegasus Average
Regular
S emibold Regular
(Small Caps)
Chapter
W OL P E P E G A S U S
subtitle
REGULAR
OPTI PEGASUS AVERAGE
(CAPS)
SEMIBOLD REGULAR
Initial

T C
(ITC Slimbach) None, consider: rimson Text
Bookinsanity
(2014 font)
Headings
Mrs Eaves Mr Eaves
Regular Regular Libre Baskerville
Small Caps Small Caps
Body
None, consider:
TT Jenevers Bookinsanity Crimson Text
(2014 font) Regular
Sidebar &
Statblocks Alegreya Sans +
Scala Sans Scaly Sans
Alegreya Sans Small Caps
Regular Regular Regular
Annotations
Dai Vernon Misdirect Zatanna Misdirect Walter Turncoat
Regular Regular Regular
Examples for comparisons

Google Fonts
Element D&D Original Close alternatives
(Download all here)
Book title

PLAYER'S HANDBOOK PLAYER'S HANDBOOK PLAYER'S HANDBOOK

Chapter title

Fonts of D&D Fonts of D&D Fonts of D&D

Chapter
subtitle
I N T R O D U C T IO N I N T RO D UCT I O N INTRODUCTION

T
Initial

T
his is the beginning None, consider: his is the beginning
of something great Bookinsanity of something great
and wonderful (2014 font remake) and wonderful

Headings

Create a character Create a character Create a character

Body
Lorem aliquip exercitation enim Lorem aliquip exercitation enim Lorem aliquip exercitation enim
nostrud ut. Cupidatat non est nostrud ut. Cupidatat non est nostrud ut. Cupidatat non est
consectetur officia sunt ut irure consectetur officia sunt ut irure consectetur officia sunt ut irure aute
aute dolore. aute dolore. dolore.

Sidebar &
Statblocks AC 11 + omnihil luptaest AC 11 + omnihil luptaest AC 11 + omnihil luptaest
HP 40 + 10 inuscid ute con 5 HP 40 + 10 inuscid ute con 5 HP 40 + 10 inuscid ute con 5
Speed 30 ft.; Et 30 ft. Speed 30 ft.; Et 30 ft Speed 30 ft.; Et 30 ft

Annotations
Magma mephits like to Magma mephits like Magma mephits like
be warm to be warm to be warm
 InDesign Basics • Table styles (how to format a whole table)
In this walkthrough, we will touch upon how to • Object styles (how to format everything in the
use a range of Adobe InDesign features to put box)
your content into this format. Nevertheless, if you
have the opportunity to complete a Beginner Tuto-
rial of Adobe InDesign (e.g., on YouTube), it will
make your usage of this template much easier.
This template utilizes Adobe InDesign, the very
software used to layout all D&D books. When put-
ting your product together, and potentially finding
yourself somewhat frustrated that it doesn't look as
A style defines a wide range settings, including:
amazing as an official one, remember: Professional
graphic designers likely spent months putting books • What font, font style, size, letter distance, dis-
like the Player's Handbook together. We won't be tance between lines, ...
able to replicate it at that level - but it will still look • What color, what stroke (outline) color, stroke
great! thickness, ...
In this chapter, we will touch on a few basic fea-
• What lines to apply (underline, border lines, cell
tures of Adobe InDesign. This template was put
lines), ...
together with Adobe InDesign 2024. None of the
• What spacing to apply between words, lines,
used features are "new", so older versions of InDe-
paragraphs, ...
sign should work just fine. Make sure, however, to
use the .idml file instead of the .indd file.
The beauty of styles are that once set up, they allow
Everything is a box you to apply all these settings at once with a single
When pondering how to get your content into a click. This also translates into another principle:
layout, tools like Microsoft Word or Google Docs Avoid making manual adjustments in your InDesign
likely come to mind. While both appear to be sim- document. (Almost) everything should be done
ilar to Adobe InDesign, they serve a different pur- through a style. Why?
pose. Word and Docs are text processing software
with the goal of getting your long-form text *pro- Predictable. A style is a rule defined centrally and
cessed.* The focus is on putting it into a presentable then applied where applicable - it will not deviate
structure, but not necessarily to have this structure from its definition.
be precisely controlled. Most of us have experi- Changes are easy. Imagine you manually set the
enced pasting a picture into a Word document, only size of your headings in a 200 page document,
for it to change the setup of your whole document. and then realize half-way through that each
Adobe InDesign is meant to produce high-quality should be 2pt larger. With styles, you make a
publications, and to do so requires the ability to single, central change to the style governing your
place content in a predictable and reliable way. headlines and it will cascade through your docu-
This is achieved through an important paradigm: ment.
Everything is (in) a box. Every heading, text and It's fast. While the setup cost is higher, once you
image in InDesign is in a box that is placed on the have your styles established, it takes mere clicks
page (and stays there), as well as following certain to format a whole page (and you have the advan-
rules. tage of having all the setup already done for you
in this template!)
The power of styles In summary, everything is a style and avoid the
Creating predictable layouts translates to having temptation to make manual adjustments in your
strict rules that get applied consistently across your document. This includes manually changing font
document. InDesign achieves this through "styles". size, or adding a few empty paragraphs to space
There are styles at multiple levels of an InDesign text out.
document: InDesign will help you do that: Every time you
• Character Styles (how to format a single charac- deviate from a style, a "+" will be displayed behind
ter / word) the style in the Paragraph Style window. On the
bottom bar is also a button labeled "Clear over-
• Paragraph Styles (how to format a whole para-
rides" which will remove all your adjustments and
graph)

6 chapter 1 Using the Template

bring your text back to the defined style. changes will be kept even if the paragraph style
is changed (which might not be true for manual
adjustments)
When to apply what style?
Each type of style has its own use case:

Object styles
These are mostly used to style a specific type of
stand-alone content (think: a stat block). In this
template, there are very few Object styles since
many of the available content types have addition-
al elements and complex layout applied to it that
cannot be replicated with Object styles (e.g., the
decorative intricate borders around an image or the
little black triangles creating the illusion of perspec-
tive with sidebars).
Nevertheless, whenever you have a single, sepa-
rate content component (Stat block, sidebar, imag-
es) check whether there is an available Object style.
Recommendation: Often its easiest to simply copy
an element from the example section vs. setting a
new one up from scratch and applying object styles.

Paragraph styles
These are the most commonly used styles in this
template. Every single type of text in this template
is attached to a Paragraph style.
Applying a style is simple. Select the text, select
the paragraph style - done!

Character styles
This type of style serves two purposes:

Building blocks. Character styles can serve as

"building blocks" for Paragraph styles. Some
paragraph styles combine multiple formats, such
as bolding the word until the first colon, then
continuing with "regular" text. This combined
style is made up of two Character styles (one for
the bolded text, one for the regular). In summary, make sure that the default for all
Overrides. Their second purpose is in overriding a of your text has no Character Style applied to it
paragraph style at dedicated points where a para- ("[None]"). Only apply them, when you need to
graph style cannot apply or does not make sense. override single words or phrases in a paragraph
A common example is bolding a single word or style.
writing something in small caps (like Dungeons
& Dragons) in the middle of a sentence. These Table styles
As the name implies, they format tables. Tables can
be fiddly in InDesign hence I recommend to simply
Apply your own Judgment copy-paste tables from the example section and
This template attempts to emulate the D&D 2024 adapt them to your needs. If you need to set up a
style of the Player's Handbook as closely as possible. table from scratch, however, a few table styles are
Please make sure you read all policies regarding pre-defined.
DM's Guild content carefully to ensure that using
these styles and/or single elements of this template
is allowed and in line with the rules.

chapter 1 Using the Template 7

 Digital only Get and load the fonts
Lastly, a quick note on these templates: Their main This template comes with three variations on fonts:
purpose is to generate content that is suitable for
digital distribution. Print distribution comes with Official fonts. This one is set up with the same
additional requirements (certain color modes, fonts that the print product uses. They are not
having content go over the page borders ("bleed"), included in this template and you will have to
sufficient resolution of image assets, etc.). This acquire the fonts on your own. When loading the
template was not setup with physical print in mind template, the font might not be recognized due
and your results will likely not be great if you try to to slightly different names. The next section will
professionally print (e.g., "Print on Demand") doc- outline how to deal with that.
uments created with them. Should you get to that Remake fonts. This one is set up with freely avail-
point, hire a professional graphic designer! able fonts that aim to get as close as possible to
the official fonts.
Google fonts. This one is set up with Google Fonts
Applying the template which are fonts that have been created and made
This chapter focuses on how to put your content in available by Google. They are all free, and can be
the template, applying all the features outlined in used in any product, even for commercial pur-
the previous one. poses. You can find all fonts used for this version
with the link posted under the Font overview
Setup your environment table.
This section will go over a hodgepodge of things to An overview of the fonts can be found in the styles
prepare for putting your content into the template. overview.
Adobe InDesign settings (optional) Load (or replace) fonts
We will be utilizing a bunch of InDesign features The moment you load up InDesign, the software
that are good to have handy. InDesign allows the will complain if its missing any fonts. Make sure
setup of "Workspaces" that will save the way you you have all necessary fonts installed.
have set up all available tools. Reorganizing is
simple: Open the respective feature window
through the "Windows" menu at the top bar. Then
drag the window into the right sidebar until it
attaches. I recommend moving the following
features into your sidebar for easy access:
Fonts sometimes have different file names. If you
have the right fonts installed, but the names don't
match, use the "Replace Fonts" functionality. Select
the Font to replace, use the dropdown to select the
font you have actually installed and make sure you
check the box for "Redefine Style when Changing
All" so that the Font update trickles through to the
pre-defined text styles.

Setup your content

On a closer look, all current D&D books follow a
strict hierarchy in how their content is structured.
This template has replicated that hierarchy and
bringing your content in will be easiest if you do
too. This will make applying the styles a lot easier.

The basic structure used is:

- Chapter title
- Section title (H2)
- Subsection title (H3) (the underlined headings in
the PHB)
- Paragraph title (H4)

8 chapter 1 Using the Template

All text follows this structure and the order of lev-
els is preserved throughout.

Setup the template

Once InDesign, your fonts and your content is
ready, the fun can begin. Make a copy of the tem-
plate, and let's dive in.
This template assumes that your content follows
a basic D&D book structure:

1. Cover
2. Credits
3. Table of Contents
4. (Content pages)
5. Back Cover (often left out in digital publications)

The template is set up in the same way.

Add content
Add text to text boxes
Each page in the template has a "Parent" page that Putting your content on the page is now
defines its basic layout. There are three parents straight-forward: Copy and paste the text in the
defined: box. Make sure that no Character Styles are select-
• 00-Cover page (a single page with the Cover ed (it should be [None]). After your text is in, apply
layout) your Paragraph Styles by selecting the desired style
for each respective section.
• A - Chapter start (Page with the top-level text
Many styles "know" what style should follow next
style of a chapter start)
(e.g., after a Heading, the non-indented body text
• B - Default pages with or without footer should follow. After a non-indented paragraph, the
next one should be indented), so in many cases you
Both A and B parents have one large text frame can keep typing / pasting content in and the right
on them that defines the basic layout (two columns, formatting should be applied.
location of the text box, background art), the footer If not, select the whole chunk of text that you want
information (Chapter and page number) and the to apply your paragraph styles to, then in your
footer art on them. Paragraph Style window select the highest level
Whenever you add a new page, the template of a paragraph style (e.g., the H2) and select "Apply style
Parent page will be applied. XX, then Next Style". This will cascade through all
Changing the Parent is simple. In the "Pages" automated styles in your selection.
window, right click on the page you'd like to change
and select "Apply Parent to Pages".

Add content to pages

All elements of the Parent page are now applied to
your new regular page. However, all elements are
"locked". This makes sense for a bunch of them (no
need to move the background art, or the page num-
ber). Nevertheless, we actually need to add our text
and need access to the big text box on the page.
All "locked" elements are marked with dotted
lines on your page. The fastest way to unlock one
is to hold CTRL + Shift (or Command + Shift on Link text boxes
macOS) and click into the text box. The dotted lines Text can flow from one page to another if the text
will turn into a solid line, indicating that the box boxes are properly linked. In the "Default page"
has been unlocked. parent, both text boxes on the two-page spread are
already linked, as indicated by the little interlinked
chain in the lower-right corner of the box.

chapter 1 Using the Template 9

 To link across pages, select the originating text box add content within them to maintain the anchored
and click in the white square on the lower right. object.
The cursor will change to indicate the linking mode.
Next, click in the text box of the following page and Footer section markers
the text should flow between the pages. The footer of the pages has space reserved for
chapter and section information ("Chapter 1 | Book
Overflowing text of Elements"). This information is pulled in by In-
At times, your text boxes are smaller than the con-
Design via "Section Markers".
tent they contain and the text won't be visible on
To set a section marker, select the respective pag-
the page. This is called "overset" text.
es in the Pages window (Window > Pages). Right-
In this case, the white square on the lower right
click and select "Numbering & Section options".
will turn into a square with a red plus. Keep note
The dialog window has a field "Section marker".
of these, otherwise text might not show up in your
Put your section title in there to apply this to the
publication.
selected pages.
All "overset" text will also show up in the "Preflight"
Alternatively, you can manually override the sec-
window that highlights any issues.
tion box on each page.
Add objects with Text Wrap
Often elements cannot or should not be added in Placing images
the text flow (such as sidebars). In these situations, Art or other images with a straight border often
the element needs to push the text out of the way. look out-of-place in fantasy books. The trend has
This is called "Text Wrap". gone towards border decoration of various kinds.
Move your element (e.g., a sidebar picked from The following describes the decorations used in the
the example section) and move it into the text flow. 2024 books and how to replicate them, if desired.
All elements from the examples should already
be set up with text wrap and the text should flow I don't need border decorations
around them. If not, open the "Text Wrap" window
If you have no desire to place any border deco-
(Window > Text Wrap). Here, the settings can be
rations on your art, you can ignore the following
adjusted of how much space should be around the
paragraphs.
object.

Anchored objects Frazzled corners

At times, there are graphical elements that are tied The most common used technique are "frazzled"
to the text, but are not text elements themselves. borders where semi-transparent elements give bor-
For example, each spell in the Player's Handbook ders this particular look. Achieving those borders
is separated by a swirly line which is in a specific often require a bit more advanced graphic design
position. This swirly line is a graphical element that skills, but these templates also include a number of
is "anchored" in place. This mean that it doesn't pre-made borders that you can apply.
have to be manually adjusted each time more text is
added above it, but it moves with the text. Option 1: Use pre-made borders
It is a fiddly feature, so if you intend to use it, I The last file includes a whole catalog of pre-made
recommend simply copy-pasting them from the borders you can apply to your art. The principle
example section. here is simple: These templates are "cut-outs" that
Similarly, the sidebar boxes have the black line you place over your art to achieve the desired look.
and triangles (for the faux perspective). They are Below shows an illustration of how the templates
also put in place through anchored objects. The work and the challenge with them.
template sidebar will have instructions on where to

Look at these faux perspective corners

These boxes have some anchored elements to
maintain this look with some InDesign magic. It is a
fickle magic though, so best to copy-paste these from
the example section.
• The black picture represents the background art
("paper" look). The orange lines are the footer art

10 chapter 1 Using the Template

 at the bottom of the page (chapter name, page macOS) to paste the frame at the exact same
number, the lines). position. The frazzled border should now sit on
• The blue picture represents the art. top of your art.
Step 6 Verify the look. Ensure that all components
• The purple represents the frazzled border tem-
come together towards the desired outcome: If
plate.
placed correctly, the the art and the fuzzy border
The desired goal is shown below: The frazzled should be visible, other text elements should be
border sits on top of the art (blue) but does not visible in the non-art areas, and the footer art
block out the footer art (orange). should be visible. If the footer art is above the
image and that is not desired, you can delete it.
Currently, it is "locked" on the Main page to stay
in position across all pages. You can override
this for this specific page. The "locked" status is
indicated by the dotted lines around the boxes.
Hold Ctrl + Shift (Cmd for macOS) and draw a
box while holding Left over the area with the line
footer art.
In the example below, draw a box as described to
The following steps describe how to achieve this touch the dotted-line boxes. The box lines should
result: turn solid, indicating they have been released
from the Main template page. Ensure that only
Step 1 Finish your layout. In order to avoid need- the boxes of the footer line art are selected (it's
ing more graphic design tools like Photoshop, the easy to catch stray boxes). If you have unwanted
templates were made to require minimal Graphic boxes, hold Shift and click on the boxes to dese-
Design effort. This has the unfortunate side effect lect them. Then simply select the footer art boxes
that each template is specific to the left or right you don't want on this page and delete them. This
side of the page since the background art ("paper will only remove them on this particular page.
look") is different on each side. Therefore, it is
recommended that you have finished laying out
your content to avoid any further page shifts
which would require changing all templates.
Step 2 Select a template. There are multiple tem-
plates for different art size and positions included.
You can choose from: Option 2: Use Photoshop
Horizontal half page. Covers half the page (top or If you have Photoshop and are more familiar with
bottom) it, there is another way to achieve this. Since this is
Horizontal third page. Covers third of the page likely familiar, this will be kept short:
(top or bottom) All the masks used to create the templates men-
Horizontal two-third page. Covers two-thirds of tioned above are included (see Folder $X). In Pho-
the page (top or bottom) toshop, load your art and the desired mask, copy
Same variations, but vertical. the mask and paste it into a new Vector Mask.
Save as PSD and place it back in InDesign.
Further templates will be provided for free in a
future update.
Golden Borders
Character art in the 2024 design at times also uses
Step 3 Select the 'Image' layer. This template has elaborate golden borders for decorations. Some of
a specific layer for images and fuzzy borders. these borders have been replicated for use in your
Open Window > Layers and ensure the "Image layout.
layer" is selected. The borders in the Player's Handbook are be-
Step 4 Place your art. Choose the art you want to spoke to the art used, so you will need to adjust
position and place it on the page. them for your own layout as well.
Step 5 Select your desired template. Check out
the catalog of templates and select the desired Step 1 Copy the placeholder example. Utilize the
on. Copy the frame holding the template. Back placeholder example and copy-paste it into your
at your actual page hit Ctrl + Shift + V (Cmd for design.

chapter 1 Using the Template 11

 Step 2 Replace the art. Select the box holding the
placeholder art and hit Ctrl + D (Cmd for macOS)
and replace the art.
Step 3 Adjust the borders. Adjust the different
layers of borders to hit the desired look.

Customizing the template

The template is setup to be easily customized:

Replace fonts. Install your desired fonts. Then hit

Type > Replace Font. Select the font you'd like
to replace. This will apply the new font to all the
Styles as well.
Replace colors. All colors are centrally defined.
You can find them on the right hand side under
"Swatches" or hit Window > Color > Swatches.
Find the color you'd like to replace. Right-click,
select "Swatch options" and change it to a color
of your choice. All instances in the template with
this color are replaced.
Replace background art. The background art is
placed on the Main template pages. You can find
them at the top of the Pages window. Unlock the
background art layer and replace the art. Please
note, that the frazzled border templates are - due
to technical limitations - specific to the used
background art and will not be compatible if you
exchange the background art. Use Option 2 if you
would like to use your own custom art. Alterna-
tively, this template will be updated in the future
with additional styles.

12 chapter 1 Using the Template