Books, covers & spines

Step by step

1. Set up the inside pages

   Single pages at the finished size, in reading order — not printer spreads. A saddle-stitched book must be a multiple of 4 pages; for a self-cover booklet the cover pages count in that total.

2. Work out the spine

   For perfect and PUR bound books, use our spine calculator: enter the page count and stocks and it gives you the spine width and the full flat cover size. Saddle-stitched books don’t have a printed spine.

3. Build the cover spread

   One page laid out as back cover, spine, front cover — two cover widths plus the spine. Add 2mm bleed all round. If the inside covers are printed, supply them as a second page.

4. Mind the spine and gutter

   On perfect and PUR books the glue takes up part of the inner margin, so keep text well away from the spine edge and don’t run important detail across a spread. Only put text on the spine when it’s 5mm or wider — the calculator will warn you.

5. Allow for creep on thick booklets

   On saddle-stitched books with lots of pages, the middle pages push outwards and get trimmed a little more. We allow for it — just keep content off the outer edges.

Case bound and wire-o books are quoted individually — ask us for the cover and board setup before you design.

Templates & tools