Kernsetzer

Kernsetzer is book formatting software for self-publishers. It imports a manuscript from Word (.docx) or Markdown, works out the front matter, chapters and scene breaks, and lays the book out in the chosen theme and trim size: running heads, page numbers, chapter openers, margins and gutter. From the same project it exports a print PDF for KDP, IngramSpark and other print-on-demand services, and an EPUB 3 for the ebook stores. Before export it checks the book against what printers and stores ask for (margins and bleed, the page count KDP and IngramSpark allow, embedded fonts, picture resolution, the ISBN, alt text in the ebook) and says how to fix each finding. Hyphenation, quotation marks and dashes follow typesetting conventions for English and German. Footnotes are set at the foot of the page; pictures can stand in the text, beside it, on a page of their own or out to the edge (full bleed). It runs offline and without an account, and the manuscript stays on the computer. Without a license key the app keeps working with the basics and exported books carry a watermark; the license will be a one-time purchase. The document model and the Word/Markdown importer are open source (MIT or Apache 2.0); the layout engine and the app are not.