--- title: "Book writing software for a novel in Irish" description: "Write and typeset an Irish novel: the síneadh fada intact through every export, Irish hyphenation, fifteen book faces and a print-ready PDF for Amazon or an Irish printer." source: https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-irish --- # Book writing software for writing a novel in Irish TL;DR Irish gets its own hyphenation, its own EPUB tag and its own sort order instead of falling back to English, and Amazon takes it in all three formats. What Galley does not have is a Cló Gaelach face, and that is said here so you do not find it later. Gaeilge ## Conas úrscéal a scríobh as Gaeilge Is é Galley an áit a scríobhann tú an t-úrscéal agus a ndéanann tú an leabhar. Scríobhann tú ón gcéad abairt ar leathanach leabhair cheart: do mhéid féin, do imill féin, cló an leabhair chlóite. Tá cúig chló dhéag leabhair ar fáil, gach ceann acu faoi cheadúnas saor ionas gur féidir leat a bhfuil clóite agat a dhíol, agus leanann an fleiscíniú rialacha na Gaeilge. Ag an deireadh tá PDF réidh don chlódóir agus EPUB bailí agat. Is i mBéarla atá an comhéadan; is i nGaeilge atá an leabhar. ## Why Galley is the right book writing software for a novel in Irish What happens to Irish in most software is that it becomes English. The spellcheck is English, the hyphenation is English or absent, the EPUB gets tagged `en`, and a cast list sorts by English rules. None of those is a decision anyone made about Irish. They are what a tool does when it never asks what language the book is in. Galley asks once, from the book’s metadata page. Irish gets its own hyphenation patterns, its own `ga` tag, its own collation, and spellcheck against your browser’s Irish dictionary if you have it installed, with nothing uploaded to make that work. **Amazon lists Irish in all three formats**, Kindle ebook, paperback and hardcover, so every publishing route is open. 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 Irish gets typeset **The síneadh fada goes all the way through**, including into the download filename. **Hyphenation follows Irish rules**, in the justified print PDF only. **Sorting is Irish**, so a cast list comes out in the right order and the lenited forms do not scatter. **Italics work**, and all fifteen faces carry a proper italic. **There is no Gaelic type**, and that is the honest limit. Cló Gaelach with the ponc séimhithe is a whole typographic tradition and no face on this shelf is one. Modern Irish orthography in roman type is what Galley sets, which is what contemporary Irish-language publishing uses. ## The typefaces you get for Irish Fifteen faces, all under the [SIL Open Font License](https://openfontlicense.org/). **EB Garamond** is the safe first choice for a novel. ![Sample sentence in EB Garamond](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/eb-garamond-en.png) **Libre Caslon Text** is Caslon, which Irish and British printing ran on for two centuries. ![Sample sentence in Libre Caslon Text](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/libre-caslon-en.png) **Charis SIL** has the deepest diacritic coverage on the shelf. ![Sample sentence in Charis SIL](https://usegalley.com/images/specimens/charis-sil-en.png) The rest of the shelf: Crimson Pro, Cormorant, Lora, Libre Baskerville, Literata, Source Serif 4, Spectral, Alegreya, Vollkorn, Cardo, Gentium Book Plus and Newsreader. The [typeface documentation](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#typeface) lists every face by language. ## Exports for an Irish novel - **Print-ready PDF** at your trim, mirrored margins, real gutter, font embedded. - **EPUB 3** with your cover, tagged `ga` rather than `en`. - **Store-ready EPUBs** for Kindle, Kobo and Apple Books. - **Word and Markdown** for an eagarthóir 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. ## Irish punctuation Irish sets speech in the curly pair or with a dash at the head of the line, and both are characters you type. The apostrophe does real work in forms like d’imigh, and the closing single quote is the apostrophe in every quote style Galley ships. 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 rest. ## How long an Irish novel is Irish-language publishers quote length in words and printed pages, and the market is small enough that extent decides the print economics. Galley counts words and projects a page count at your trim. 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) do the sums. ## Trim sizes for an Irish book Six standards, from mass market at 4.25×6.87 inches to Royal at 6.14×9.21. Irish publishing follows British formats, so B-format at 5.06×7.81 inches is the familiar paperback. 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 Irish ISBN is issued through the agency for Ireland, and the book’s language field is what tells a store it is Irish rather than English. ## Translating into or out of Irish 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. An English edition of an Irish novel is exactly that case. There are pages on [writing a novel in Welsh](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-welsh), [writing a novel in English](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-english) and [writing a novel in Icelandic](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-icelandic). 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 Irish **Self-publishing.** Amazon takes Irish in all three formats, and the same print PDF goes to an Irish printer or IngramSpark. **Traditional publishing.** Irish-language publishing runs through a small set of houses with support from Foras na Gaeilge and the Arts Council, which is a real route. 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. - [Book typography basics](https://usegalley.com/blog/book-typography-basics) is the set of rules that makes a page look made. ## Questions people ask about writing a novel in Irish ### Does the síneadh fada survive export? Yes. Á, é, í, ó and ú come through typing, autosave, search, sorting, both exports and the download filename, so a book called Oíche Fhada arrives under its own name. ### Is Irish its own language setting? Yes, with its own hyphenation patterns, its own ga tag in the EPUB and its own collation. An Irish book is never filed under English. ### Can I sell an Irish book on Amazon KDP? Yes, in all three formats: Kindle ebook, paperback and hardcover. ### Is there a Cló Gaelach typeface? No. Galley's shelf is fifteen roman book faces and none of them is a Gaelic type. If your book needs the old orthography set in Cló Gaelach, this is not the tool for that part of it. ## Other languages - [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. - [Book writing software for English](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-english)Write and typeset an English novel: fifteen book faces, British or American house style, a print-ready PDF for KDP or IngramSpark and a valid EPUB. One payment, no subscription, no AI in your prose. - [Book writing software for Icelandic](https://usegalley.com/book-writing-software-icelandic)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. Start the book. Galley sets it in Irish from the first sentence to the print PDF. [Launch Galley](https://app.usegalley.com)