Helpful Tips - Cover Layouts I
When you lay out the cover of a book in a desktop application, make sure that the front and back covers, as well as the spine are designed as one contiguous page. An example is shown below.
White Space: This .25-inch white space allows us to place trim, registration and color identification marks, which will be used by our pressmen during printing.
Bleed: Any background color or photograph that extends to the edge of the page after trimming is called a bleed. To ensure ink coverage to the bleed edge, the image or background color must extend .25 inch beyond the trim. This area will be trimmed away after printing. Neither trim nor registration marks should be placed inside the bleed area.
Trim Size: Size of finished book.
Spine Width: To determine the book's spine size, divide the number of pages by the paper's thickness (measured in "pages per inch" or ppi). Our 50# paper is 500 ppi and our 60# paper is 416 ppi. Spine Width Chart
Layout Dimensions: To determine the dimensions of your cover layout page, use the following chart: or CLICK HERE to download
| Width of Cover Layout |
|
|
|
| White space (.25 inch x 2) |
= |
.5 |
inch |
| Bleed (.25 inch x 2) |
= |
.5 |
inch |
| Trim size (width) ( ____ inches x 2) |
= |
____ |
inches |
| Spine width |
= |
____ |
inches |
| Total Width of Cover Layout |
= |
____ |
inches |
| Height of Cover Layout |
|
|
|
| White space (.25 inch x 2) |
= |
.5 |
inch |
| Bleed (.25 inch x 2) |
= |
.5 |
inch |
| Trim size (height) |
= |
____ |
inches |
| Total Height of Cover Layout |
= |
____ |
inches |
