What is a style sheet?
Creating the style sheet is the most important part of the book. This document contains all the rules imaginable for design for the entire book to ensure that design is consistent throughout. Below I have copied and passed 3 years of examples of style sheets into a document that can be used as examples.
FONTS AND FONT Sizes
This can be really overwhelming. Once you set up the book, or you can look at the font book though the main book from the previous year if you still have access to it, make sure and pick a font that reflects your theme. If your theme is bold and in your face, a slim condensed font will not fit. If your theme is nostalgic, a fat and bold font will not fit. The font is integral in ensuring that the tone of the book, and the theme, are carried throughout the book. When looking for a font, there are two ways to do it. Look through all of the fonts for one that you like. If it has a variety of fonts in the same family (i.e. bold, condensed, italic, etc.) than congrats, you found your font! However, many of the fonts in edesign do not have full font families. If you find a font that you like and that fits the tone and theme, you can use it as a decorative font for headlines maybe, but find a font family that compliments it that you can used for copy (you don't want to have cursive dominant copy). There is only one rule when picking fonts: you cannot use a font that has been used in the last 3 years. Seniors do not want 2 yearbooks with the exact same font and headline patterns, because even though you understand the difference between the books, they may not.
When you have chosen a font, now you have to decide if you want to use lower (this is your freedom) or upper case (WAIT YOU'RE GONNA NEED THIS), or a combination of the two (fit in, STAND OUT). This should be a pretty easy decision once you have your theme and fonts. By now, you have an idea of what you want the tone to be, and based on the font, generally, NOT ALL THE TIME, bolder fonts use caps and narrower fonts use lowercase in the headlines. That is NOT a rule, just something that happens like 75% of the time depending on the theme and tone. Know when you want things to be in caps or all lowercase. For example, headlines (all lowercase, all uppercase, a mixture, one word upper the rest lower?), or bylines (upper or lower case), etc. The one thing I would recommend, for the reader's sake, do not put any copy in all caps. If you want to do a pull quote in the dom package in all caps to fit the theme, by all means do it (look at WAIT YOU'RE GONNA NEED THIS).
As you can see from the previous year's style sheets, there are different size fonts for different packages from year to year. This is because some fonts just naturally print larger or smaller than others, so you have to mess around and see what is right for your book. For simplicities sake, I recommend making the subheads and the copy for all packages the same size, but the subheads a bolder font. It is easier for designers and less likely that someone will mess this up. Another thing to do to make it easier is to have each package decrease in font size by one.
When you have chosen a font, now you have to decide if you want to use lower (this is your freedom) or upper case (WAIT YOU'RE GONNA NEED THIS), or a combination of the two (fit in, STAND OUT). This should be a pretty easy decision once you have your theme and fonts. By now, you have an idea of what you want the tone to be, and based on the font, generally, NOT ALL THE TIME, bolder fonts use caps and narrower fonts use lowercase in the headlines. That is NOT a rule, just something that happens like 75% of the time depending on the theme and tone. Know when you want things to be in caps or all lowercase. For example, headlines (all lowercase, all uppercase, a mixture, one word upper the rest lower?), or bylines (upper or lower case), etc. The one thing I would recommend, for the reader's sake, do not put any copy in all caps. If you want to do a pull quote in the dom package in all caps to fit the theme, by all means do it (look at WAIT YOU'RE GONNA NEED THIS).
As you can see from the previous year's style sheets, there are different size fonts for different packages from year to year. This is because some fonts just naturally print larger or smaller than others, so you have to mess around and see what is right for your book. For simplicities sake, I recommend making the subheads and the copy for all packages the same size, but the subheads a bolder font. It is easier for designers and less likely that someone will mess this up. Another thing to do to make it easier is to have each package decrease in font size by one.
COLOR PALLETE OR pull color?
This decision needs to be made before you create your cover. If you decide to have a color palette throughout the book, it needs to be present somewhere on the cover. Remember, every single design element in the book needs to be present somewhere on the cover. Everything depends on the theme. If your theme has something to do with being random and embracing what life throws at you, a color palette does not make sense. Traditional books usually have a color palette for each section of the book. Pull colors come from a color in the dominant package that stands out. Neither option is better than the other, just make sure that it fits your theme and works for you.