Definition
Typesetting
Typesetting is arranging text into finished pages — choosing the face, size, leading and measure, then resolving every page break, widow and orphan. It is the step between an edited manuscript and a printable book.
Formatting and typesetting are often used interchangeably and should not be. Formatting applies styles; typesetting makes judgements about the specific book — that this chapter opening needs a line taken back, that this table cannot break, that this paragraph must lose a line to save a page. Most of the work is invisible when done well, which is exactly why readers notice only its absence.
Related tools & guides
See it handled in your own manuscript
Ceeryo sets your .docx as a book — justified and hyphenated text with widows, orphans and rivers controlled, drop caps, running heads — and shows you every spread before you pay anything.