Summary: Book Themes in Puzzle Book Studio put your own art behind every page of a puzzle book: a full-page background, corner art on the outer edge of left and right pages, and a soft frame around the puzzle. You build the theme once, preview it on a real page, apply it to the book, and save it to your theme library for the next book in the series.
Overview
A plain puzzle book is a stack of black-and-white grids. A themed one looks designed: a soft background, a frame around each puzzle, a little art in the corner. Book Themes does that inside Puzzle Book Studio, for every page at once, using art you already own, so there is no page-by-page work in a separate design program.
One theme, two pages: a background on the whole page, a rounded frame around the puzzle, and corner art on the outer edge of the left and the right page.
A theme is a short stack of layers:
- Image layers use your own PNG or JPEG files: a background, a corner flourish, a logo, a set of images that rotate from page to page.
- Panel layers draw a filled, bordered rectangle with rounded corners. No art file is needed, which makes them the quickest way to frame a puzzle.
This tutorial builds the three-layer theme in the picture above: background, frame, corner art. It takes about ten minutes the first time and a few clicks every time after.
It works on books you have already made, too. Open a saved book with Restore Project in the Studio and add the theme; the puzzles are not regenerated.
Required Modules
Puzzle Maker Pro with Puzzle Book Studio, plus any puzzle module you make books with. Book Themes is part of Puzzle Book Studio, so it comes with every edition that includes the Studio (Creative and Productivity) at no extra cost. If your edition builds books with Instant Puzzle Books, you can upgrade at any time to an edition with Puzzle Book Studio Creative or Productivity to get the Studio and its themes. See Puzzle Maker Pro Editions Explained.
Preparation
A book open in the Studio. Generate a few puzzles and open them in Puzzle Book Studio as usual, or restore a book you saved earlier. A short test book of four to six puzzles is enough to design on. The theme works the same on a 300-page book.
Your art, as PNG or JPEG files. Print needs about 300 pixels for every inch of paper (300 dpi). So a full-page background for an 8.5 × 11 inch page should be at least 2550 × 3300 pixels, or 2588 × 3375 pixels if the book uses bleed (see below). Corner art works best as a PNG with a transparent background, so only the art shows and not a white box around it. Save corner art at the size you want it printed: a 600 × 600 pixel image prints 2 inches square.
Keep all the art for a theme in one folder you will not move or rename. The book and the theme remember where each file is, not the picture itself, so back that folder up together with your book projects.
Decide where the book will be printed, before you place anything. It changes one setting on every layer:
- KDP or another print-on-demand service: these print on a larger sheet and cut it to size. Art that should reach the paper edge needs bleed: an extra strip, 0.125 inch wide, on the top, bottom and outer edge of each page, which is cut away. Turn on Bleed in Book Settings → Page Trim Size and Margins, and place full-page art in the Bleed (whole page) area. No thin white line appears after cutting.
- Home, school or office printer: these cannot print right to the paper edge. Place your art in Inside margins, so nothing important falls in the white strip the printer leaves.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Open the Theme Editor
In Puzzle Book Studio, first select a puzzle page, so the editor has a page to preview. Then click Book Themes… in the toolbar.
The window has three parts. On the left is your Theme library, the themes you have saved. In the middle is the theme you are editing: its name, its list of layers and the settings of the selected layer. On the right is the Preview of the page you selected, redrawn after every change.
Click New in the theme library and type a name in Theme name, for example “Kids Activity – Pastel”.
Nothing reaches the book until you click Apply to book. If you close the window first, it asks whether to discard your changes.
Add the Background
- Click Add image layer. Give the layer a Name such as “Background”.
- Under Images, click Add… and choose your background file.
- Under Placement, set Area to Bleed (whole page) for a KDP book, or Inside margins for a book you print at home or at school. Set Size to Cover.
Cover fills the whole area and keeps the picture’s proportions, trimming whatever overflows. The Anchor decides which part is kept: leave it on Center, or pick Top if the important part of your art is at the top.
Leave Drawn on Behind content. The background then sits under the puzzle, the title and the page number.
If the background is strong or dark, lower its Opacity % so the grid stays easy to read. For a bold, colourful image, start around 30%. A pale background, like the one in the picture above, can stay at 100%.
Frame the Puzzle with a Panel
A white panel behind the puzzle keeps the grid easy to read on a busy background, and its border gives the page a finished edge. This is especially important if your puzzle has a transparent canvas / background.
- Click Add panel layer and name it “Frame”.
- Set Fill to white, Border to a colour from your background, Border width (in) to about 0.04 and Corner radius (in) to about 0.25.
- Under Placement, set Area to Trim and Size to Custom %, with Width % around 90 and Height % around 93 on an 8.5 × 11 page (about 87 and 91 on 6 × 9). The frame border then sits about 0.4 inch inside the page edge, clear of the cut, with a strip of background showing around it.
Panels have no picture to keep in proportion, so they offer two sizes: Stretch (fill the area exactly) and Custom %.
The layer list runs from back to front: the layer at the top of the list is at the back, and each layer further down is drawn over the ones above it. So the Frame belongs below the Background in the list, where Add panel layer already put it. To change the order, select a layer and click Bring forward (one step toward the front, one row down the list) or Send back (one step toward the back, one row up). The tick box in front of each layer turns it off without deleting it.
Add Corner Art to the Outer Edge of Each Page
In a printed book, the outer edge of a right-hand page is on the right and the outer edge of a left-hand page is on the left. Corner art looks best there, away from the spine.
Same picture on both sides. Add an image layer with your corner art and set:
- Area to Inside margins, so the art stays clear of the cutting edge and the printer’s blank strip;
- Size to Original (300 dpi), so it prints at the size you saved it;
- Anchor to Top right;
- Mirror on left-hand pages ticked. On left pages the art then moves to the top left.
The corner of the inside-margins area is also where the puzzle title sits, so check the preview: if the art and the title touch, make the art smaller or move it with the offsets below.
Mirroring moves the art to the other side of the page; it keeps the picture facing the same way. That suits symmetrical art such as a star, a dot pattern or a logo.
A matching left and right version. For art that points one way, like a vine growing in from the edge, make a flipped copy of the image in any image editor. Then add two layers with the same settings as above, without the mirror tick:
- “Corner right”: your original image, Pages set to Right pages only, Anchor Top right.
- “Corner left”: the flipped copy, Pages set to Left pages only, Anchor Top left.
To fine-tune the position, Offset X (in) moves the art right (positive) or left (negative) and Offset Y (in) moves it down (positive) or up (negative), in inches. On mirrored left pages, Offset X works the other way round, so the art still moves the same distance in from the edge.
Check Other Pages, Then Apply
The preview redraws after each change. It shows the page you selected before opening the editor. To check another kind of page, such as a solution page or the title page:
- Click Apply to book, then Close.
- Select the other page in the Studio.
- Click Book Themes… again. The book’s theme opens where you left off.
Two quick checks before you are done:
- Is every puzzle still easy to read? If not, lower the background’s Opacity % or rely on the white frame.
- Will it still look good in black and white? Tick Preview in black and white (as on an office printer) to see the page in grey. A cheerful pastel can turn into a muddy grey; if yours does, lighten it or lower its opacity. How to Print a Themed Puzzle Book Without Surprises has the full print check.
When you close the editor after Apply to book, the Studio rebuilds the book with the theme on every page. Export it as usual with Render Book: the theme is drawn in every format you export, including PDF, PowerPoint and page images.
Save the Theme and Reuse It on the Next Book
Click Save to library. The theme now appears in your Theme library in every book you open.
For the next book in the series, open it in Puzzle Book Studio, click Book Themes…, select your theme in the library, click Open and then Apply to book.
Each book keeps its own copy of the theme, so editing the theme later never changes a book you have already finished. To use the new version in a finished book, open that book, click Book Themes…, select the theme in the library, click Open and then Apply to book. To take a theme off a book, click Remove theme from book; your library keeps its copy.
Your library lives in Documents\BookPublisherTools\Presets\PMP\BookThemes, one .json file per theme. To use a theme on another computer, copy its file into the same folder there, and copy its art folder to the same location as on the first computer, so the theme finds the images.
Placement Cheat Sheet
Every image layer, and the single-page image on the Page Art card, uses the same placement settings.
- Area: Bleed (whole page). The full page including the bleed strip. The same as Trim when Bleed is off. For art that must reach the paper edge in a print-on-demand book.
- Area: Trim. The finished page, cut to size.
- Area: Inside margins. The page inside its margins, the spine-side margin included. Safe for any printer.
- Area: Content area. The space your puzzles use, without the strip kept for page numbers.
- Anchor. One of nine points (Top left … Bottom right) that the art is pinned to inside the area.
- Size: Stretch. Fill the area exactly. The picture may look squeezed.
- Size: Cover. Fill the area, keep the proportions, trim the overflow.
- Size: Contain. Fit the whole picture inside the area, keep the proportions.
- Size: Original (300 dpi). The picture’s own size, printed at 300 pixels per inch. Best for corner art and logos.
- Size: Custom %. A box of your chosen width and height, as percentages of the area; the picture is stretched to fill it. Ideal for panels; for pictures, match the percentages to the picture’s shape.
- Offset X / Offset Y (in). Move the art from its anchor, in inches: X positive to the right, Y positive downward.
- Opacity %. 100 is solid; lower values let the page show through.
- Mirror on left-hand pages. On left pages the anchor’s left and right sides swap, and so does Offset X.
Outcome
Your book now has a designed look on every page, from art you chose, and a saved theme that gives the next book in the series the same look in a few clicks. The puzzles themselves did not change: the theme is drawn around them, so you can still reshuffle, change the layout or add puzzles, and the theme follows the new pages.
FAQ
Can I use my own images?
Yes. Book Themes uses only your own art: PNG or JPEG files from your computer. Use art you have the rights to print and sell, such as your own drawings, licensed clip art or commissioned work.
What size should a background image be?
At least the page size at 300 dpi: 2550 × 3300 pixels for an 8.5 × 11 inch page, or 1800 × 2700 pixels for 6 × 9 inches. With bleed turned on, add 0.125 inch on the width and 0.25 inch on the height: 2588 × 3375 pixels and 1838 × 2775 pixels.
Does the theme change my puzzles?
No. The theme is drawn behind or in front of the page content, and the puzzles stay exactly as they were generated. Remove the theme and the book is back to how it was.
Will a theme change books I have already finished?
No. Each book keeps its own copy of the theme. A finished book only changes if you open it and apply a theme to it.
Can different pages get different art?
Yes. Each layer can be limited to certain kinds of pages, to left or right pages, and can rotate through several images. You can also take the theme off a single page or give one page its own image. See How to Choose Which Puzzle Book Pages Get Which Art.