Book production & printing

These days a book will normally have been written on a computer so most people supply us with a digital file, most commonly having used Microsoft Word.

Assuming you have the manuscript in Word then you have two choices. The first is that you lay it out yourself so that it looks exactly as you want the final page to look. If the final size of the page is A5 then if you set your book up on an A4 sheet, if you use 16 point for the text we can reduce it to A5 and it will print as 11 point. We would need you to supply your Word file as a pdf because Word does not embed fonts and if we do not have exactly the same version of the font that you are using the text may reflow. You will receive proof copies of the book from us at every stage so that you can be sure that everything is as you want it to be.

The other alternative is that you can pay us to design and layout the book from your Word files and jpg images (for photographs for example). We would give you our best estimate of the cost of this part of the job, but this aspect has to be an estimate rather than a quotation because of the possibility that unforeseen problems arise. You will need to allow plenty of time for this part of the job because you will need to see more than one proof before it is ready to print.

A ‘page’ is one side of a sheet of paper. If you are supplying a pdf then you will be able to tell us the number of pages. Depending on how the book is being bound it may be necessary to add blank pages at the end to make the book a multiple of 4, 8 or 16 pages. If we are designing and setting the book for you we won’t know exactly how many pages it will be until we have finished that process, though we should be able to make a reasonably accurate estimate.

We always allow for the cover being in colour, but the contents may be either black and white or colour, or a mixture of both. If we are printing the book then our software can distinguish between a page with colour and a page in black and white which reduces the printing cost (with digital printing the cost per colour page is several times the cost of a black and white page).

above, if we are doing the design and typesetting will probably take several weeks before the book can be finally signed off. If the book is not being printed by us in-house then it will take at least three weeks, and longer at busy times of the year. If you are having a book launch always build in extra time in case there is an unexpected hold-up.

A5 is the most economical trimmed size for a book because it means that four pages fit onto an SRA3 sheet. With digital print each sheet through the machine costs the same. Any final book size larger than A5 means that only two pages can be fitted onto a sheet.

Our paper is Carbon Neutral and FSC. We would normally print on 90gsm or 100gsm white bond. Other possibilities are thicker paper, different colours, and silk. All of these are more expensive than the standard. 

We produce perfect bound paperback books in house. Glue technology has greatly improved recently and our glue is suitable for most applications. However, if your book is going to be subject to a lot of wear and tear it may need to be PUR bound, which would allow it to be opened flat without the risk of pages becoming detached, or in some cases sewn in sections to give it even better strength and longevity. If you require those sorts of binding we would get prices from the trade specialists that we deal with. If you require case binding then again we would get prices from trade specialists, unless it was for a very few copies in which case we would ask one of the craft binders that we deal with for a price.

Most of the books we print in-house are runs of 200 or less. For longer runs we can get you good prices from the trade specialists we deal with.

Although it is possible for us to turn a book around in a few days if we receive print ready pdf files it normally takes longer than that. As noted above, if we are doing the design and typesetting will probably take several weeks before the book can be finally signed off. If the book is not being printed by us in-house then it will take at least three weeks, and longer at busy times of the year. If you are having a book launch always build in extra time in case there is an unexpected hold-up.