PRINTING YOUR
BOOK MADE EASY

Paper Types

Paper weight is measured in grams per square metre, known as GSM. The higher the GSM rating the heavier and thicker the paper is. Selecting the right paper weight is important to get the look, feel and durability of the pages of your book right.

Pages inside a book would generally be heavier, more durable paper ranging from 100-150gsm for colour. For black and white mono print pages can start from 70gsm.

• 115gsm is a premium finish coated paper with a slightly glossy feel. It’s a medium thickness paper that holds colour extremely well. If you have a thicker book with lots of colour pages, this is a great paper to choose for printing your book.
• 150gsm is a high-quality, premium paper that’s perfect for colour. If you’re printing wedding photos or want to show off your photography, this is a great choice.
• A good quality finish to a book cover is best to be 250-300gsm, regarded as board weight.

Our online BookWIZARD will show the recommended paper weight for your book which makes it easier to make the decision on paper.

Book Sizes

We understand that the size of your book is important which is why we have a variety of book sizes to choose from and custom options.

• Standard (19.7cm x 13.2cm) (197mm x 132mm) – Our standard book size.
• Novel (20.3cm x 12.7cm) (203mm x 127mm) – A popular size for trade paperbacks in the UK.
• A5 (21cm x 14.8cm) (210mm x 148mm) – This size is usually used for novels, notebooks, and pocket books.
• Demy (21.6cm x 13.8cm) (216mm x 138mm) – The type of fiction you would see in a UK airport tends to be Demy – because it is slightly larger than UK trade books and attracts more attention.
• US Royal (22.9cm x 15.2cm) (229mm x 152mm) – American trade books come in this bigger size.
• Royal (23.4cm x 15.6cm) (234mm x 156mm) – Slightly larger than the US trade size and will also suit hardcover books.
• A4 (29.7cm x 21cm) (297mm x 210mm) – A4 is the standard size used for many magazines and catalogues.
• Square (21cm) (210mm) – We like this size for full-bleed images when using landscape or portrait formatting.
• And, of course, Custom Size – Because we are the home of flexible services.

Spine Width

The spine of a book is crucial to its durability and how your book appears to potential readers as they frequent their favourite bookstore. Your spine width is calculated like this:
Type of paper + number of pages in your book + binding finish = spine width.

This is the most frequent looked-over (yet important) aspect of printing your own book. Too often authors and book publishers forget to include this calculation and end up disappointed once they realise their minimum page count doesn’t create a spine width suitable for the type of book they’ve written.

Check out Printondemand’s online spine width calculator – it’s easy to use, has all the papers we offer and will give you the much-needed spine measurements for your own book.

What is bleed?

We understand that the size of your book is important which is why we have a variety of book sizes to choose from and custom options.
The bleed is the area at the edge of the page which will be trimmed off when the book is printed. We require 3mm bleed to account for movement in the paper and print, this ensures that there are no white strips left at the edge of your book.

• Top Tip

o To apply bleed you need to extend the object box out past the edge of your page. Then when creating the PDF you need to set your bleed margins to 3mm.
o With Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Adobe Photoshop you can’t add bleed when creating a PDF. You need to make your page/image size 6mm bigger and treat it as bleed, remembering that it will be trimmed off.

How do I supply my files?

• Supply your transcript as single pages not double page spreads and if you are including page numbers make sure they are not placed on the binding edge.
• Ensure your transcript has sufficient margins. We recommend 10-15mm top, bottom and outside edge and 15-20mm on the binding edge.
• The cover PDF should be supplied as a spread including the spine
• Images included within the pages should be embedded in the right place and don’t need to be any higher resolution than 300dpi
• The inner PDF should contain only the inner pages in the correct running order, including blank pages if there are any.

Check out Printondemand’s online spine width calculator – it’s easy to use, has all the papers we offer and will give you the much-needed spine measurements for your own book.

If you are using our BookWIZARD, there are two ways you can supply your files:

BookWIZARD – Log into your account. Under the actions tab there will be a button with a folder on it. When hovering over it, it says ‘supply files’, click this and follow the wizard to upload both cover and text file (PDF files only). Supply the cover as a spread and the interior pages as individual pages.
Trouble uploading? Try optimising the file and retry. A sharing site may be required for large files.

Book Vault – Navigate to the ‘Add a Book’ page. Fill in the specifications of the book and click ‘Add This Book’. On the next page, click on the ‘Choose file’ tab next to each section. Upload both cover and text file (PDF files only). Supply the cover as a spread and the interior pages as individual pages. If you are supplying a cover image for wholesale purposes, it will need to be a JPG file.