Books & Booklets

Books & Booklets

Introduction

This article takes you through file setup protocols for various book finishes.

Templates
To help you set your files up, download the latest InDesign templates here.


Books & Booklets

The most important thing to remember when supplying Book and Booklet print-ready files is, that you will commonly have to supply a cover and a text file separately.

Things to be aware of when Designing

  1. It’s unlikely that objects which cross pages will line up exactly. It’s best to avoid them or accept that there will be some vertical movement throughout your Booklet.
  2. Some colour variation is inherent in the printing process and will be most noticeable where two pages of the same colour meet.
  3. We recommend that you keep important objects at least 4mm from the ‘finished’ size. As a result of movement when binding and trimming, we advise you to increase your margin to avoid anything being chopped off.
  4. For perfect bound, on the binding edge, we advise an internal ‘Quiet Zone’ of at least 16mm.

Perfect Bound Books

Perfect Binding is a widely used soft-cover book binding method. With this binding method, the pages and cover are glued together at the spine with a strong, flexible thermal glue.
  1. The page count must be divisible by 2. If it is not, blank pages must be added.
  2. A spine must be allowed on the cover. The size of the spine will be stated on your Print IQ Quote. (Alternatively, you can also use the Spine Calculator to get the width of your spine)
Your cover file needs to be supplied as a spread that includes the spine and is separate from the internal pages file:
  1. Spread 1 includes the outside back cover and outside front cover with the spine in between.
  2. Spread 2 includes the inside front cover and inside back cover with the spine in between.
  3. If your cover is single-sided, supply a one-page file. If it is two-sided, supply a two-page file.
The inside cover must have an artwork-free spine with an additional 5mm on either side of the spine width for edge glueing.

Tip: Avoid objects which cross over from Inside Front Cover & Inside Back Cover to Text Pages. It’s not good practice to have artwork or text crossing pages, as they are less likely to align. If you use this method, please ask for advice.




Wiro Bound Books

The page count must be divisible by 2. If it is not, blank pages must be added, this is in particular for the text.

Covers are dependent on what the job requires, with Wiro Bound books you can separate them into 3 sections:
  1. Front Cover
  2. Text pages
  3. Back Cover - A printed back cover is an optional addition, and a plain card back is also available.
All files for Wire Bound books should be supplied as single-page PDF files. 

Be mindful when designing for wiro bound books, it's best to leave a larger margin on the bound edge of the page for the wire binding.



Saddle Stapled Booklets

The page count must be divisible by 4. If it is not, blank pages must be added and the minimum number of pages is 8.

If the internal text and cover are printed on different stock, the cover file has to be supplied as a spread that is separate from the internal text file:

  1. Spread 1 includes the front cover and back cover.
  2. Spread 2 includes the inside of the front cover and the inside of the back cover.
  3. If your document is printed on the same stock, the cover and internal text will be supplied in the same file as single pages.
  4. If your cover spread is single-sided supply a one-page file. If it is two-sided, supply a two-page file.
  5. The Text (internal pages) must be supplied as single-page PDFs.
Tip: If your finished size is A5, your covers should be sized at 296x210mm, not 297x210mm. Two A5 measurements do not equal and 
A4 size.






Questions?
If you have any questions, please contact your account manager.

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