Tri odlukeThree decisions before we lay out the book
A working response to three questions from the mockup: the Croatian diacritics, how the two languages sit together, and how to make the engravings feel like one book rather than separate clippings. Everything below is a draft to react to — not a final design. Toggle the corner button to see it on cream paper or on baba's green table.
The háček has to be drawn, not borrowed
On the current chapter opener the caron over š is a wide, splayed checkmark that has drifted off its letter and collided with the neighbouring i. That is a font defect, not a taste call — and it undermines the "made with care" premise on the most visible word on the page.
Malformed háček, off-centre, touching the next letter.
Clean, centred wedge — the same high-contrast register you already use.
Cheapest fix first: tag the text as Croatian in InDesign — a lot of "ugly caron" problems are just untagged text falling back to a generic accent. If it still breaks, swap only the display face. Faces with genuinely well-drawn Slavic accents: Tiempos Headline, Lyon Display, Freight Display; free options that pass the test — EB Garamond and Playfair Display (both shown here), PT Serif, Source Serif 4.
Two good ways to hold both languages
You're right — Croatian on the left page, English on the right is a classic, dignified choice, and each language gets a full, uncluttered page. The real question isn't can we, it's photos and page count: a full mirror spends a whole spread on text, so the food photo moves to its own facing spread and the book roughly doubles in length. For a private family book that's usually fine — the extra calm reads as generosity, not waste. Here are both, to compare.
Model A · Jedna stranica / One page — Croatian leads, English helps
Purica s mlincimaTurkey with Mlinci
Sastojci
- 1 purica (2,5–3 kg)
- 500 g suhih mlinaca (gotovih)
- ulje (za podlijevanje)
- sol · papar (po želji)
- topla voda (po potrebi)
Priprema
- Puricu dobro operite, ocijedite i osušite. Posolite izvana i iznutra te ostavite na hladnom da odleži 4–5 sati.
- Zagrijte pećnicu na 200 °C. Stavite puricu u nauljenu tepsiju i prelijte smjesom ulja i vode. Pecite 2,5–3 sata.
- Tijekom pečenja redovito prelijevajte vlastitim sokom. Ako tekućina ispari, dolijte malo tople vode. Okrenite je 2–3 puta da lijepo porumeni.
- Mlince izlomite na komade ~5 × 5 cm, prelijte kipućom vodom, poklopite 5 minuta, pa dobro ocijedite.
- Ocijeđene mlince prelijte vrućom masnoćom od pečenja, posolite i kratko izmiješajte da upiju mast.
- Puricu narežite i poslužite s mlincima.
Ingredients
- 1 turkey (2.5–3 kg)
- 500 g dried mlinci sheets
- oil (for the roasting liquid)
- salt · pepper (optional)
- warm water (as needed)
Method
- Rinse the turkey, drain and pat dry. Salt inside and out, then rest in a cold place for 4–5 hours.
- Heat the oven to 200 °C (390 °F). Set the turkey in an oiled pan and pour over a mix of oil and water. Roast 2.5–3 hours.
- Baste regularly with its own juices. If the liquid dries out, add a little warm water. Turn 2–3 times so it browns evenly.
- Break the mlinci into ~5 × 5 cm pieces, cover with boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain well.
- Pour the hot roasting fat over the drained mlinci, salt, and toss briefly so they soak it up.
- Carve the turkey and serve with the mlinci.
Ne žuri s mlincima — neka odstoje u masnoći dok režeš puricu; upiju okus i budu mekši. Don't rush the mlinci — let them sit in the fat while you carve; they take on flavour and turn silkier.
The trick here: Croatian runs longer, so it gets the wider column and English the narrower one — tuned (~53 / 47 on this recipe) so both languages end on the same baseline instead of leaving English ragged and short. It reads as deliberate, and recipe + photo still fit one tight spread. One caveat to know going in: the balancing ratio is per recipe — a longer method or a shorter one shifts it, so the column split gets nudged recipe by recipe rather than set once for the whole book.
Model B · Cijeli razmak / Full spread — Croatian left page, English right page
Purica s mlincima
Sastojci
- 1 purica (2,5–3 kg)
- 500 g suhih mlinaca (gotovih)
- ulje (za podlijevanje)
- sol · papar (po želji)
- topla voda (po potrebi)
Priprema
- Puricu dobro operite, ocijedite i osušite. Posolite izvana i iznutra te ostavite na hladnom da odleži 4–5 sati.
- Zagrijte pećnicu na 200 °C. Stavite puricu u nauljenu tepsiju i prelijte smjesom ulja i vode. Pecite 2,5–3 sata.
- Tijekom pečenja redovito prelijevajte vlastitim sokom; ako tekućina ispari, dolijte tople vode. Okrenite je 2–3 puta da lijepo porumeni.
- Mlince izlomite na komade ~5 × 5 cm, prelijte kipućom vodom, poklopite 5 min, pa ocijedite.
- Prelijte ih vrućom masnoćom od pečenja, posolite i kratko izmiješajte da upiju mast.
- Puricu narežite i poslužite s mlincima.
Ne žuri s mlincima — neka odstoje u masnoći dok režeš puricu; upiju okus i budu mekši.
Turkey with Mlinci
Ingredients
- 1 turkey (2.5–3 kg)
- 500 g dried mlinci sheets
- oil (for the roasting liquid)
- salt · pepper (optional)
- warm water (as needed)
Method
- Rinse the turkey, drain and pat dry. Salt inside and out, then rest in a cold place for 4–5 hours.
- Heat the oven to 200 °C (390 °F). Set the turkey in an oiled pan, pour over a mix of oil and water, and roast 2.5–3 hours.
- Baste regularly with its own juices; if it dries out, add warm water. Turn 2–3 times so it browns evenly.
- Break the mlinci into ~5 × 5 cm pieces, cover with boiling water for 5 min, then drain.
- Pour the hot roasting fat over them, salt, and toss briefly so they soak it up.
- Carve the turkey and serve with the mlinci.
Don't rush the mlinci — let them sit in the fat while you carve; they take on flavour and turn silkier.
Each language owns a full page — equal footing, calm, and you never cross the gutter mid-recipe. Croatian runs longer, so its page ends lower; let the English page's white space breathe rather than padding it. The food photo lives on the adjacent spread, and you'll use roughly 2× the pages of Model A. For an heirloom where page count isn't the real constraint, this is honestly my lean — with Model A's balanced columns the strong runner-up if you'd rather keep each recipe to a single spread.
From scattered specimens to one composed field
The engravings read as separate clippings because each item is a full-contrast, isolated specimen floating on cream at an inconsistent scale — a catalogue sheet, not a picture. Same artwork, four treatments. Pick one and make it the system.
Scattered, full contrast
Items float with big gaps, no shared ground, wildly different scale. Competes with the title instead of supporting it.
Recolour, tone-on-tone
Drop to a soft green-sepia ghost of the palette. Now it recedes as a backdrop and the chapter title leads.
Toile — a repeating field
Tile one motif tone-on-tone so it reads as texture/wallpaper — very heirloom, and unified by definition. Lovely on endpapers too.
Composed & grounded
Cluster the items so they overlap, anchor to one surface with a shared shadow, and vignette the edges — a still-life, not a spec sheet.
Options A–C here are simulated by re-processing the existing artwork, so they only hint at the direction — a real toile needs a seamless tile, and a real still-life should be redrawn (or re-arranged) to a consistent scale and line weight. My pick: A or B as the everyday chapter-opener system, with the odd full still-life (C) where a chapter earns a showpiece. Whatever you choose, recolouring into the palette is the single biggest lever.
What I'd lock next
- 1Diacritics: tag Croatian in InDesign; if still broken, swap the display face and run the Čč Ćć Đđ Šš Žž test at 120pt.
- 2Layout: choose Model A (balanced columns, one spread per recipe) or Model B (full left/right spread), then roll one more recipe through it to pressure-test length and photo placement.
- 3Engravings: choose one unifying treatment (A/B/C) and recolour the whole set into the palette.
- 4Then: replace the lorem-ipsum chapter intros and the "SECTION TITLE" running heads, and show the cover + TOC.