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Using Pressbooks for Digital Publishing

This is a short introductory guide to using the Pressbooks publishing platform.

Anatomy of a Pressbooks Book

On the web version of Pressbooks, each "chapter" functions as a single scrollable webpage. When working with a lot of content per chapter, it is important to consider how the organization of the book will work best for your content and readers using the book.

A publication created in Pressbooks is structured like a standard book with familiar types of sections and chapters:

  • Front Matter (Table of Contents, Acknowledgements, Introduction)
  • Main Body that contains Parts & Chapters
  • Back Matter (Bibliography, Index, etc.)

Books are made up of parts. When you create a new book, Pressbooks will automatically generate 3 parts of your book: Front matter Main body Back matter You can always add new parts to your book

You can embed limited types of media throughout the chapters in your Pressbooks publication, or have a special section at the end for media objects. In the end, your Pressbooks publication will look like a type-set publication.

Pressbooks automatically creates a title page, copyright page, and table of contents. 

Book Organization Options

One Page Organization (Per Chapter for Example)

Pros Cons
Single-scrolling page Can be overwhelming when there is too much content
All chapter content is in one place Can be too busy when text, media, and interactive content is combined
All interactive exercises are embedded in a chapter With textbooks, it is not as easy to return to earlier content or review it

Multi-Chapters as Pages

Pros Cons
Reads more like a traditional book Adds a lot of "chapters," crowding the table of contents and navigation
Content is broken into pieces, so readers can pick and choose what they want to read Readers may skip important content
Items can stand alone (interactive exercises, media, other content) Needs more thought to structuring up-front

Copyright

When gathering material for your digital exhibit, it is important to be aware of copyright and licensing restrictions.

If an image or text is taken from an electronic database (e.g. ARTStor) or a website owned by an organization (e.g. The Getty, DPLA), there are often restrictions on how you can re-use and display these materials. Some material might even be in the public domain—books, images, scores, etc. published pre-1924—but the holding institution can still apply licenses and restrictions.

Learn more at the Copyright Research Guide or Learning About Copyright. Or contact the Scholarly Communications office.