Is there anywhere that custom compile formats are offered, either free or paid? I’m an old programmer, but my brain goes numb every time I try to alter the look of my text. I’ve been using Atticus to format my books, but it has its issues, and I thought I’d see if there was a place I could pick up premade formats for both ePub and print in Scrivener.
Of course, the Compile Formats in the Scrivener Formats category are Ready-made. And you can choose which Layouts you Assign to your Section Types.
And there is your issue: Every Project has its own Types, so you always have to Assign Layouts to Types.
You could agree on, or comply to, a fixed set of Types, but every Project is different.
It would be interesting to know what other Compile Formats you’d want other than the Scrivener Formats for e-book and Print, so I could create them for you…
If on Windows, don’t Compile to Print directly. It has a bug I’ve never seen resolved. Compile to PDF, and Print from there.
Personally, I don’t own a printer.
I read everything digitally.
Remember, you can double click a premade template closest to what you want and then tweak it to your personal needs. The key is making sure your section types are consistent. All Acts/parts are one section type, all chapters are another, all scenes are the same type, front/back matter are one section type (often best to use the As-Is section layout with these to preserve unique formatting for these sections). Practice as you write. Compiling is wonky. Antoni’s Book on Scrivener has a great section on Compile and is a good place to start.
Understand your requirement. Compile formats for various publishers and their house style could be made, for example as STEM publishers provide their house style LaTeX formats.
But the problem with “generic” compile formats is that they would still need to be adapted to your way of working. If you have created your own styles, for example I have one to format social media/IRC posts. I also, against the advice of Scrivener support, use styles (as structural markup) extensively in my Projects being a die-hard SGML user. Any external compile format therefore would need extensive modification.
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To be fair, that’s the advice for people who don’t (yet) know what they’re doing (in other words: not you). If you’re able and willing to handle all those styles in the Compiler, it’s a perfectly fine way of doing it.
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I compile to PDF, to upload to retailers for print copies of my books.
Yes, but my needs are fairly simple as a fiction author. And I like to keep it as simple as possible. Atticus works for me, it’s just that it’s had its probloems.
Compiling is way overly complicated, at least for what I want to do. I’ll check out Antoni, thank you.
My biggest problem, and I think most peoples’ problem, is that when you go into the compile formatting, there’s so much stuff in there, it’s almost incomprehensible. The few times I’ve managed to get a template to work, it was one heck of a lot of tinkering, unsure as to exactly what was supposed to change when I altered something. I might check out your book, and see if that helps.
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I must say, I kind of like the idea, and it would fit the practice of leaving the Compile Format Designer out of the Compile loop, and still supplying several choices in Section Layouts.
Section Types should be adapted to the Format, though. And Binder Structure should be restricted as well.
When I create a book with the Compile Format for a 6x9 paperback, or a text-only E-book, for KDP, always some Style, image, or table messes up the layout. You’ll have to adapt the Format anyway. Assistance in implementing the Format could also be part of this service… What would that be worth to you?
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Yeah. Once you start to reduce Scrivener’s flexibility, suddenly the Compiler starts to look very simple. 
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For me, probably not that much, because with fiction, it’s generally a very simple final result. Atticus and Vellum do a good job of this, with predefined styles for ePub, and for the various sizes of print books — my issue, having purchased Atticus, is that it’s buggy and slow, and perhaps they’ll eventually fix that. As far as Scrivener, importable compile formats that could have the chapter heading fonts adjusted would be useful, and of course for print, the ability to chose font and font size for the text. Atticus and Vellum do a good job of this but of course, you need to buy them. Perhaps there’s a market there for a bundle of predefined fiction compile formats for Scrivener users.
Well worth watching the video tutorials on Compile. They make it easier to understand and use. Though as I Compile rarely need to revisit the videos before thinking about do it.
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If you want a format that allows you to adjust the fonts, the supplied Compile Formats already do that.
If you want a format that comes with your preferred font pre-defined, well, I guess it’s your money, but this is one of the easiest Compile tasks there is.
First thing to try: the global font override, top center of the main Compile screen. As noted, it’s global. It will change the entire output document to the desired font, while leaving font size, italics, etc. intact. (Pro tip: If you can’t get the font you want and can’t figure out why, check this setting.)
To change font size, or to change the font other than globally, do this:
In the lefthand pane of the main Compile screen, locate the format you’re using, right-click, and choose the Edit (or Duplicate and Edit) option. Select the Section Layouts tab in the format editor.
Select the Layout you want to change. In the preview at the bottom, adjust formatting as desired. Make sure the “override text and notes formatting” box is checked. (Pro tip: If your changes to the format seem ineffective, check this setting.) Save, Compile, done.
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