What does Lock layout do?
Lock layout is how you tell the formatter a book is finished. Once a layout is locked, opening the book shows you the PDF you exported. The formatter does not typeset the book again and does not save anything to it, until you say otherwise.
You'll find it on the Export page, directly under Print — PDF.
Why you'd want it
Every time you open a book in the formatter, it sets the book fresh from your manuscript and settings, using the typesetter as it is that day. Most of the time that gives you the same book. But we improve the typesetter, and an improvement that makes most books better can move a line in yours. One moved line can carry a paragraph over a page, and one extra page moves your spine width, because the cover is sized from the page count.
So without a lock, opening a finished book just to check one line can quietly leave you with a different book. Your cover would no longer match the interior you uploaded, and nothing on the screen would say so. A locked layout can't change like that.
How to lock a layout
- Format your book and open Export.
- Press Download the PDF on the Print — PDF card. This is the file you'll upload to your printer.
- Press Lock this layout on the card below it.
The button stays grayed out, reading Download the PDF first, until you've downloaded. That's deliberate: the lock keeps the exact file you downloaded, the one on your computer, and never makes a new one of its own.
The page then reopens on your locked book.
What a lock keeps
- Your PDF, stored inside the book. It goes with the book when you back it up with the ☁ button, so it opens on any browser you sign in from.
- The page count, so the Cover Maker keeps drawing the spine for the book you locked.
- Your settings, and your style exactly as it was. A book is set in a style, such as Literary or Modern, and we sometimes refine what a style looks like. A locked book keeps its own copy of the style, so a later refinement can't change it.
- A fingerprint of the text on every page, so a preview can tell you precisely which pages today's typesetter would set differently. See Your locked layout: preview, and allowing changes.
What you can't do while it's locked
In the formatter, the manuscript, Trim, Style, Settings, Front & back matter, Typeset and Export are all switched off, and editing a paragraph is refused. On your book's page, Replace file is refused too, because replacing the manuscript would start a new layout. Each of these says why, and points you to Allow changes.
Everything outside the interior carries on as normal. You can still design the cover, make mockups, and edit your front matter on the Front Matter page. Front matter edits don't touch the locked PDF. They're used the next time the book is typeset, and a preview shows you them.
The lock is only for the print interior. An ebook is reflowable (the reader chooses the type size), so it has no fixed pages to lock.
Locking before you've bought the book
If you lock a book you haven't bought yet, the file kept is the watermarked one you downloaded. The locked screen says so. Once you've bought the book, choose Allow changes, export again, and lock the clean file.
Copies and editions
Duplicate as variant and Make the large print edition never copy the lock. A variant exists to be changed, and a large print edition has its own trim, its own style and its own pages. The original book stays locked.
Changing your mind
Nothing about a lock is permanent. The locked screen lets you preview how today's typesetter would set the book, without saving anything, and lets you Allow changes when you want to work on it again. See Your locked layout: preview, and allowing changes.