The Core Idea: Themes and Overrides

Your Pendrilo library has two layers of formatting control. The first is the theme—a template that defines fonts, margins, chapter heading styles, and colors. The second is the per-book override, a set of tweaks unique to that one title.

When you apply a theme to a book, Pendrilo uses the theme as the starting point. The moment you change a single detail—say, bump the line spacing from 1.5 to 1.8—that book develops its own override. The theme stays untouched. Your other books, still using the original theme, see no change at all.

This separation is intentional. It lets you experiment with one title's formatting without accidentally reshaping your entire backlist.

When You Edit a Book's Formatting

Open the Formatting view for any book. You'll see a live preview of your manuscript in multiple formats—Kindle, iPad, phone, and paperback. Adjust any setting: font size, line height, margin width, chapter heading style, drop cap behavior, or color scheme.

Each tweak is stored as an override for that book alone. If you change the body font from Cambria to Georgia in Book One, Book Two keeps whatever font it already has. If Book Two hasn't been edited yet, it displays in whatever the active theme prescribes. The moment you modify Book Two's font, Book Two gets its own override too.

The Modified Badge and What It Means

When a book carries per-book overrides—tweaks you've made in the Formatting view—a Modified badge appears next to the active theme name on that book's theme card in the gallery. That badge signals one thing: "This book is using the theme, but with local changes."

It's not a warning. It's simply a signal that this book is no longer pure theme; it's theme plus local tweaks. That's fine. Many authors keep the badge visible as a reminder that this book has been customized. If you ever export the book or preview it on a Kindle device, those overrides go with it.

The badge appears only when the book has active overrides. If you later reset the book to the theme, or undo every single override you've made, the badge disappears.

What "Reset Book to This Theme" Does

Every book in the Formatting view's gallery has a "Reset book to this theme" button on the active theme card when that book carries overrides. Use it when you've accumulated tweaks you want to strip away and start fresh with the theme's defaults.

This action removes all per-book tweaks and reverts the title to the active theme, no more and no less. The Modified badge disappears. Other books in your library remain unaffected. It's a clean slate for one book, not a global operation.

A practical example: you've been tinkering with Book Three's font size and margins for weeks. You realize the overrides have drifted far from your original intent, and you'd rather return to the theme you built three months ago. Click "Reset book to this theme," and Book Three snaps back to the theme's original state. The badge vanishes. Book One and Book Two carry on unchanged.

Backdrops and the Corkboard

Backdrop artwork appears throughout the studio—behind the Corkboard, the Plot board, Formatting, Workshop tabs, and every editor view. When you pick a backdrop from the library's backdrop chooser (available since v2.24, and unlimited backdrops since v2.46), it paints as the background on the corkboard only. Everywhere else in the studio, your chosen backdrop persists as the background across all views. The backdrop sits still while your content scrolls over it, dimmed so the text and cards remain the brightest things on screen.

If you apply a non-default backdrop skin to the corkboard—like Cork, Linen, or a photo texture—it replaces the backdrop artwork on that single view. The backdrop artwork returns immediately when you switch back to the Default board skin or move to any other editor view. This design respects the visual grammar of the corkboard itself: a textured board surface is its own aesthetic, distinct from the ambient backdrop you chose for the rest of your workspace.

Your backdrop pick is saved to the book, so each project—a space opera and a cozy mystery—can wear its own desk. The same picker also lives in Edit book details, where an "Account default" card clears the book's choice and returns it to your personal account-level default. The on/off toggle remains account-level and follows you to any device. Focus mode always hides the backdrop, giving you a blank canvas to write in.

Syncing Across Books (Or Keeping Them Different)

Most authors want consistency across their series. If you've tweaked Book One's formatting and it looks exactly right, you might want Book Two to inherit those same tweaks.

The solution: there's no automatic cascade from one book to another—each title owns its own formatting layer. This design respects the fact that different books might need different treatments. A memoir might use a serif font with tight spacing; your paranormal romance might prefer a sans-serif with generous margins.

If you want all books in a series to share the same base formatting, the cleaner path is to create a dedicated theme for that series, then apply that theme consistently to each book. The theme becomes the source of truth, and individual books override only where they truly differ.

How Chapter Headings and Scene Breaks Render Consistently

Every surface that displays your book uses the same rendering path for chapter headings and scene breaks. When you pick a chapter-heading style (Classic, Modern, Ornate, Banner, Minimal, Uppercase, Framed, Editorial, Grand, Double rule, or Accent bar) or a scene-break ornament, Pendrilo marks it with the same style attribute in the underlying markup. That means every format—the editor preview, the print PDF, the EPUB, and the beta-reader share link—shows identical styling. Change the style in Formatting, and it updates everywhere at once. If you later reset the book to the theme, the heading and scene-break styles come back with it.

Why This Matters for Your Workflow

Separation of themes and overrides saves time and prevents mistakes. You can:

  • Test a new font or margin width on one book without worrying about wrecking the others.
  • Keep a consistent brand across your series by using the same theme, then deviate where it makes sense (tighter margins for poetry, looser line height for young readers).
  • Build a theme library over time—Classic for literary fiction, Modern for thrillers, Non-Fiction for essays—and reuse them across multiple projects without each one interfering with the others.
  • Hand off formatting to a designer or co-author who can adjust Book Two's tweaks without accidentally touching Book One or Book Three.

In practice, most indie authors find this workflow straightforward: you're managing templates and local edits, which keeps your formatting intentional and repeatable.

A Quick Troubleshooting Thought

If you changed a font in your book and the change didn't appear everywhere, check: Did you edit a per-book override, or did you edit the theme itself? If you only tweaked Book One's formatting view, then Book Two was never going to change. If you want Book Two to match, you either need to apply the same overrides there, or swap Book Two to use a different theme that has those settings baked in.

The Modified badge is your friend here. It shows you at a glance which books are running on pure theme and which ones have local tweaks. Use that visibility to keep your formatting intentional.