Watch our video demo and/or read through the suggestions below! (If you can't see the YouTube player click HERE.)
These are suggestions intended to give you a generic idea of what happens when you want to get a book bound. once you've had a book bound and trimmed you'll have a better understanding of how the process works, what your finished product will look like, and how to make the best work you can within the confines of this process.
- We strongly encourage making an appointment for all book orders!
- We require 24 hours turnaround for all perfect binding orders (or more if order is for 5+ books)
- We do not accept book orders or appointments during rush times: noon-1pm, 5:30-6:30pm
- Minimum page count for perfect binding a book is between 8 and 12. Anything less than that and it kind of defeats the purpose of perfect binding.
- Maximum thickness for binding is approximately 2 inches.
- Minimum page size is 5" square (may be trimmed smaller after binding)
- Maximum page size is 17" square
- Make sure to include bleeds (artwork extends past crop area) on your interior and cover designs.
- Be wary of design elements close to the edge of your pages/cover! (may get trimmed off)
- Print a mock-up of your whole book on the SB black-and-white printers first so you can see how all the elements fit together, to proofread, and to make sure things look right in general.
- Print with crop marks, or manually add crop marks to interior/cover after printing.
- Print your final interior pages to your preferred printer, on your preferred paper type(s). Be sure to center on the page.
- We can offer image alignment (making sure back and front of page match up well), this does take extra time and requires an appointment.
- Do NOT trim any of your interior pages yet. We will trim book as a whole AFTER it is bound, unless there is a specific reason to do so beforehand.
- Measure the thickness of your stack of interior pages to determine spine thickness (note: we will NOT do any measuring for you).
- If your cover design utilizes a defined spine or design element, adjust your spine and cover design to the width you just measured.
- Print your cover to your preferred printer/on your preferred paper (we recommend a thicker stock than interior).
- Measure the distance from the front edge of your spine, to the edge of the sheet of paper. Repeat with the back spine.
- You can use the worksheet below for reference and recording of your measurements.
- Bring all of your book materials into the SB, fill out order form ahead of time or in person - including your measurements.