--- title: "Book writing software for a novel in Icelandic" description: "Write and typeset an Icelandic novel: þ ð æ and the accented vowels all the way to the print PDF, low-high quote marks as you type, hyphenation by Icelandic rules and fifteen book faces." source: https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-icelandic --- # Book writing software for writing a novel in Icelandic TL;DR Icelandic needs þ, ð, æ and six accented vowels to survive from the keyboard to the printed page, and that is where most tools fall over. Galley carries them through every export, hyphenates on Icelandic patterns and types the low-high quote pair. Íslenska ## Að skrifa skáldsögu á íslensku Galley er þar sem þú skrifar skáldsöguna og þar sem þú býrð til bókina. Þú skrifar frá fyrstu setningu á alvöru bókarsíðu: þitt brot, þínar spássíur, letrið sem bókin verður prentuð í. Gæsalappirnar eru íslenskar, orðskipting fylgir íslenskum reglum, og fimmtán bókaletur eru í boði, öll með frjálsu leyfi svo þú megir selja það sem þú prentar. Út kemur prentklár PDF og gild EPUB. Viðmótið er á ensku; bókin er á íslensku. ## Why Galley is the right book writing software for a novel in Icelandic Icelandic asks a simple question of a writing tool and most of them fail it: can þ, ð, æ and the six accented vowels get from your keyboard to a printed page without one of them turning into a box, a question mark or an underscore. They break in three places. In the font, when a face has no glyph for þ, which is more common than you would hope. In the export filename, where non-ASCII characters get stripped and a book called Þögnin downloads as a row of underscores. And in search and sort, where a naive tool folds ð into d and decides two different words are the same. Galley handles all three, and the filename fix in particular exists because it was found and repaired rather than assumed. The quotes are the second thing. Icelandic sets „low, then high“ and most tools give you the English curly pair. Galley picks the pair from the book’s language. The third is the font licence. Galley embeds the face inside your PDF and your EPUB, so every face on the shelf is one you may sell the book with. Everything else is the same app: a [true book page](https://usegalley.com/features/make-the-book) at your trim, the [story bible](https://usegalley.com/features/story-bible) beside the manuscript, a print-ready PDF and a valid EPUB. ## How Icelandic gets typeset **The whole alphabet survives.** Þ ð æ ö and á é í ó ú ý come through typing, autosave, search, sorting, both exports and the download filename. **Sorting is Icelandic**, which matters because þ, æ and ö sort at the end and a cast list sorted the English way is wrong. **Hyphenation follows Icelandic rules**, in the justified print PDF only. **Italics work**, and every face on the shelf carries a real italic cut. ## The typefaces you get for Icelandic Fifteen faces, all under the [SIL Open Font License](https://openfontlicense.org/). Coverage is the thing to check with Icelandic, because þ and ð are where a half-finished face gives up. All fifteen carry them. **EB Garamond** is the safe first choice for a novel. ![Sample sentence in EB Garamond](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/eb-garamond-en.png) **Charis SIL** and **Gentium Book Plus** both come out of SIL, whose whole business is scripts that other foundries skip, and both have unusually deep coverage. ![Sample sentence in Charis SIL](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/charis-sil-en.png) ![Sample sentence in Gentium Book Plus](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/gentium-book-en.png) The rest of the shelf: Crimson Pro, Cormorant, Lora, Libre Baskerville, Literata, Source Serif 4, Spectral, Alegreya, Vollkorn, Cardo, Newsreader and Libre Caslon Text. The [typeface documentation](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#typeface) lists every face by language. ## Exports for an Icelandic novel - **Print-ready PDF** at your trim, mirrored margins, real gutter, font embedded. - **EPUB 3** with your cover, tagged `is`. - **Store-ready EPUBs** for Kindle, Kobo and Apple Books. - **Word and Markdown** for an editor or an archive. - **Manuscript format**, double-spaced. - **A proofreading PDF** two pages to a sheet, and a **large print PDF**. - **A watermarked copy per beta reader**. The [KDP preflight](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing#preflight) checks the file first. ## Icelandic punctuation The quote pair you get automatically. Icelandic fiction also opens speech with a dash at the head of the line, and that is a character you type. The [dialogue punctuation rules](https://usegalley.com/resources/dialogue-punctuation-rules) and [dashes, hyphens and ellipses](https://usegalley.com/resources/dashes-hyphens-and-ellipses) sheets cover the general cases. ## How long an Icelandic novel is Icelandic publishers quote length in words and in printed sheets. The market is small enough that print runs are small and the trim and page count matter to the economics more than they do in a larger language. The [word count to page count converter](https://usegalley.com/resources/word-count-to-page-count) and the [spine width calculator](https://usegalley.com/resources/book-spine-width-calculator) are the two that decide your printing cost. ## Trim sizes for an Icelandic book Six standards, from mass market at 4.25×6.87 inches to Royal at 6.14×9.21. Icelandic trade fiction is commonly issued around 14×21cm, between the Digest at 5.5×8.5 inches and Royal. The [trim size comparison](https://usegalley.com/resources/book-trim-size-comparison) puts them side by side. ## Metadata and the copyright page The [copyright page](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing#copyright-page) writes itself from the metadata you filled in. An Icelandic ISBN comes from Landsbókasafn Íslands. ## Translating into or out of Icelandic A translation in Galley is its own book: its own language, its own typeface shelf, its own ISBN, its own cover, still linked to the original, with the editor split so the original sits read-only beside what you write. There are pages on [writing a novel in Norwegian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-norwegian), [writing a novel in Danish](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-danish) and [writing a novel in Welsh](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-welsh), which is the other small-language case on this site. No machine touches the prose. Galley has [no AI anywhere near your writing](https://usegalley.com/blog/no-ai-in-your-prose). ## Self-publishing and traditional publishing in Icelandic **Self-publishing.** Amazon takes Icelandic in all three formats, which is unusual for a language with this many speakers. Domestic reach still runs through Icelandic bookshops, and the same print PDF serves both. **Traditional publishing.** Icelandic publishing runs on the jólabókaflóð, the run of new titles released before Christmas, and the schedule that implies is worth knowing before you plan a launch. The [submission package](https://usegalley.com/docs/publishing#where-it-goes) assembles the synopsis, the bio and the opening chapters. The same book exports both. The longer arguments are in [Galley for self-publishing](https://usegalley.com/blog/galley-for-self-publishing) and [Galley for traditional publishing](https://usegalley.com/blog/galley-for-traditional-publishing). ## Where to go next - [Writing software for novelists who don’t write in English](https://usegalley.com/blog/write-a-novel-in-your-language) covers every script Galley sets. - [Book design and typefaces](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#typeface) lists every face by language. - [Series and translations](https://usegalley.com/docs/series-and-translations) covers the full language list. - [From manuscript to published book](https://usegalley.com/blog/manuscript-to-published-book) is the whole route. ## Questions people ask about writing a novel in Icelandic ### Do þ, ð and æ survive export? Yes. They come through typing, autosave, search, the print PDF, the EPUB, the Word file and the download filename, so a book called Þögnin arrives under its own name. ### Which quote marks does an Icelandic book get? The low-then-high pair, „like this“, which is the Icelandic convention. The rule follows the book's language. ### Does Galley hyphenate Icelandic? Yes, on Icelandic patterns, and only in the print PDF when you justify. ### Can I sell an Icelandic book on Amazon KDP? Yes, in all three formats: Kindle ebook, paperback and hardcover. ## Other languages - [Book writing software for Norwegian](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-norwegian)Write and typeset a Norwegian novel in Bokmål or Nynorsk: guillemets as you type, hyphenation for both written standards, fifteen book faces and a print-ready PDF. - [Book writing software for Danish](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-danish)Write and typeset a Danish novel: »reversed guillemets« as you type, hyphenation by Danish rules, fifteen book faces and a print-ready PDF for Amazon or a Danish printer. - [Book writing software for Welsh](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-welsh)Write and typeset a Welsh novel: the digraphs sorted as single letters, to bach on ŵ and ŷ, Welsh hyphenation, and a print-ready PDF for Amazon or a Welsh printer. Start the book. Galley sets it in Icelandic from the first sentence to the print PDF. [Launch Galley](https://app.usegalley.com)