More Information About Our Printing Services
Book Printing
Get the Best Custom Book Printing Services Now
Imagine holding your dream book in your hands, with your name on the cover and every word, image, and design element meticulously crafted to your specifications. This dream can become a reality with the right custom book printing service. Navigating the world of custom book printing can be daunting, but we’re here to help. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process, from choosing the best custom book printing service to understanding the book printing process, customization options, and essential tips for creating a high-quality, professional custom book.
Short Summary of Custom Book Printing Services
- Choose a book printing service based on factors such as binding options, paper type, cost and turnaround time.
- Customize your book with typography, color palette and imagery for an attractive design.
- Consider print run size and customization level when selecting digital or offset printing to achieve accurate, professional results.
Choosing the Right Book Printing Service for Your Custom Book
Selecting the perfect book printing service for your project is crucial. A book printing printing service that provides high-quality and customizable options can turn your dream book into a tangible reality. Consider factors such as binding options, paper type, and cost when evaluating book printing services. With numerous binding options available, such as perfect bound, saddle stitch, plastic coil (also called spiral binding), and wire-o binding, it’s essential to find a custom book printing service that caters to your specific needs.
The cost of printing your own book can vary greatly, with factors such as binding options, paper stock, and trim size influencing the price. To ensure you receive the best value, compare book printing prices and services offered. Don’t forget to factor in shipping costs when comparing book printing prices. Some book printing companies provide free UPS shipping if your order is over a specific dollar amount ($399 for Dazzle Printing), while other companies pass the cost of shipping on to you. Just the cost of shipping can add well over 10% to the cost of your custom book order.
Turnaround time is also important. Some custom book printing companies, including Dazzle Printing, can deliver your printed books within just a few days of proof approval, offering a fast turnaround time for your project. Dazzle Printing‘s standard turnaround time is 4 to 6 business days, with expedited times of 3-, 2-, 1-, and same-day processing available.
Customization Options for Professional Quality Books
Customization is key when creating a unique and professional-looking book. This guide will delve into the many options available to you, such as cover design choices, paper quality and types, and binding options.
By understanding these customization options, you can create a custom book that truly reflects your vision and meets your specific requirements.
Cover Design Choices for Your Custom Book Project
The cover is the first thing potential readers see, so it’s essential to create an eye-catching and memorable design. Popular book cover design ideas include bold typography, unique illustrations or graphics, and minimalist designs. When designing your book cover, carefully consider typography, color palette, and imagery to produce an attractive and impactful design that will captivate readers.
Keep in mind the genre, protagonist, tone, design rules, and distinct style when creating your book cover. This will provide readers with a preview of what they can expect from your book. Be mindful of common missteps in cover design, such as having too many elements, not adhering to the genre, selecting an inappropriate font, utilizing low-quality images, and failing to ensure readability.
Cover design can be difficult, so if you must, hire a professional designer to graphic design your unique book cover.
Paper Quality and Types of Paper for Your Book
Selecting the right paper type and thickness is crucial in determining the aesthetic and longevity of your book. Paper options range from gloss, matte, and uncoated white. Book pages can be printed on either uncoated or coated paper stock, with coated paper stock offering a glossy or matte finish.
When choosing paper weight, consider the content of your book. For pages with mostly text, 60# or 70# uncoated paper should be fine. If your book contains extensive photos or color, opt for a heavier paper, such as 80# uncoated or 70#, 80#, or 100# gloss or matte finishes.
Binding Methods for Custom Book Printing
The binding options you choose plays a significant role in the overall presentation and durability of your book. Binding methods are manner in which pages are secured together. Options available include perfect bound, spiral bound, wire-o, and saddle stitch. Each binding option has its unique advantages and is suitable for different types of custom books. For example, perfect binding is recommended for softcover books with a printed spine, while saddle stitch is the most economical choice for booklets.
Plastic coil or spiral binding and wire-o, which use a plastic spiral or wire coil to secure the pages together, are cost-effective and durable options, particularly for technical training books, business reports, yearbooks, and cookbooks. It’s essential to choose a binding method that complements the content and purpose of your book, ensuring a professional and long-lasting final product.
Preparing Your Manuscript for Quality Custom Book Printing
Before sending your manuscript off to be printed, it’s essential to thoroughly edit, proofread, and format the text. This will help prevent reprint costs and ensure a polished final product. Be sure to use a professional layout tool, such as Adobe InDesign, to set up your document size, orientation, and number of pages.
When your manuscript is ready for printing, save it in a print-ready, non-editable high resolution PDF format, incorporating fonts used. This will ensure the highest quality print and prevent any formatting issues.
It’s also important to send multi-page PDF files as single-pages rather than spreads to guarantee proper alignment during the printing process.
Understanding the Custom Book Printing Process
To create a high-quality printed book, it’s important to understand the specific printing processes used in book production, including digital and offset printing methods and color management techniques.
In the following sections, we’ll delve into the differences between digital and offset printing, as well as how to manage color for the most accurate and vibrant results.
Digital vs. Offset Printing of Custom Books
Digital printing is a method that utilizes digital technology to transfer an image directly from a computer to a printer, making it an efficient and cost-effective approach for small print runs. Offset printing, on the other hand, is a traditional printing technique that uses plates to transfer an image onto a substrate. This printing process is most suitable for large print runs.
Both digital and offset printing have their advantages and drawbacks. Offset printing offers higher quality prints, improved color accuracy, and cost-effectiveness for large-volume printing. Digital printing, however, provides faster turnaround times and cost-effectiveness for small print runs, and is the preferred option for variable data or multiple originals.
Ultimately, the printing method that best suits your project will depend on factors such as the size of your print run and the level of customization required.
Color Management and Print Quality of Your Book
Color management is the process of controlling the appearance of an image across various output media, ensuring that the colors in the printed book are consistent with the colors of the original design. To achieve accurate color reproduction, use a CMYK color mode when preparing files for printing.
In addition to using the appropriate color mode, it’s important to ensure that your images and documents are of sufficient resolution. For optimal results, use a resolution of 300 dpi or higher. You can’t just look at an image on your computer screen to determine whether it is high resolution. Images on computer screens are typically 72 dpi, which will be very grainy when printed. You can check images in a program like Adobe Photoshop to determine the resolution.
There are now AI programs available that can improve the image quality of photos, but it is typically best to start out with a high resolution image.
By incorporating proper color management techniques and adhering to recommended resolution guidelines, you can create a professional-quality book with vibrant, accurate colors.
The Benefits of Print-on-Demand Book Printing Services
Print-on-Demand book services offer a convenient and cost-effective solution for authors looking to self-publish their work. These services allow you to order books as needed, avoiding larger upfront costs and providing greater control over the self-publishing process. Some key benefits of utilizing Print-on-Demand services include no initial costs, rapid turnaround times, and minimal order requirements. For instance, at Dazzle Printing, our minimum order quantity is only 25 copies and you can order in increments of 1 copy.
Popular print-on-demand services, such as Dazzle Printing, are highly regarded for their high-quality products, helpful customer service, and extensive selection of printing options and customizations. By utilizing a print-on-demand service, you can streamline the self-publishing process and focus on promoting your book and connecting with readers.
Testimonials and Success Stories for Book Printing
Testimonials and success stories from authors who have used book printing services to self-publish their books can provide valuable insight and inspiration. These stories can help you understand the quality of the services offered by various book printing companies, as well as the potential for success when self-publishing your book.
Dazzle Printing is proud of the numerous 5-star Google reviews we have received from our wonderful clients.
Many authors have found success through self-publishing with the help of book printing services, achieving their dreams of seeing their work in print and reaching a wider audience. By researching and learning from the experiences of others, you can make an informed decision and confidently embark on your self-publishing journey.
Summary of Custom Book Printing
In conclusion, choosing the right custom book printing service is essential for bringing your dream book to life. By considering factors such as customization options, binding methods, paper types, and cost, you can find the perfect service to meet your needs. Understanding the printing process, including digital and offset printing methods, color management techniques, and best practices for preparing your manuscript, will help ensure a high-quality, professional final product.
Remember, the world of book printing may seem daunting, but with the right guidance and resources, you can navigate it with ease and create a stunning, professional book that you’ll be proud to share with the world. Embrace the journey, and let your creativity shine as you embark on the exciting adventure of self-publishing your dream book.
Tips
Tips for Printing Your Book
To ensure that your printed book is of the highest quality, it’s essential to follow certain best practices during the design and printing process. In the following sections, we’ll provide tips on using high-quality photos, setting up proper bleeds, leaving large margins and plenty of white space, proofreading carefully, and more.
Use High Quality Photos
Incorporating high-quality photos in your custom book is vital for maintaining a professional appearance. Ensure that your photos are crisp, clear, and free from pixelation or blurring. When selecting photos for your book, use a recommended file format such as JPEG or TIFF/TIF and a resolution of at least 300 dpi for optimal results.
Consider the size of the images you’re using in your book, and make sure they meet the minimum recommended size for the specific type of book you’re creating. By using high-quality photos, you can create a visually appealing book that showcases your work in the best possible light.
Make Sure You Set Up Proper Bleeds
Setting up proper bleeds is essential for a polished final product. Bleed refers to an extra 0.125 inch around all edges of the pages or cover of your book, helping to prevent any white edges or cuts off of the pages during the printing process. Books are typically printed on large sheets of paper, usually at least two to four pages on a sheet, and then cut down to the trim size.
Cutters are unable to trim large stacks of pages exactly on the edge of every page, so a bleed is needed so that when the page is trimmed, no white shows.
Be Careful of Spreads
Spreads play a crucial role in ensuring that your book is printed in the correct order and assembled properly. A spread refers to two pages viewed together, which are typically visible when a book or magazine is opened.
The important thing to note with spreads is that the binding method will often affect your pages on the binding edge. For instance, with perfect bound books, some of the page will get caught in the spine. With plastic coil and wire-o binding, the pages are punched on the bound side. If the pages are not set up properly, texts and photos can get punched. Saddle stitching is the only binding method that does not affect the bound edge of the book.
For perfect bound books, we recommend that you do not place words across a spread. Often, a letter or two will get caught in the spine, making it difficult to read the words. With photos, do not place a person’s face across the spread. Offset the face on one page or the other. People often won’t notice when a leg or arm is caught in the spine, but it is very noticeable when a person’s face gets caught in the spine.
By being careful with spreads, you can guarantee that your book is printed and assembled correctly, resulting in a professional and polished final product.
Leave Large Margins and Lots of White Space
Margins and whitespace play an important role in the readability and aesthetics of your book. By leaving large margins and plenty of white space in your book design, you can create a professional look and make reading easier for your audience.
Standard margins for a printed book are at least half an inch on the top, bottom, and outer margins, and at least three quarters of an inch on the inner margin. Ensure that your book design incorporates these guidelines, as well as any whitespace that will enhance the readability and appearance of your book. Don’t be afraid of white space. The more white space, the more professional your book looks.
By doing so, you can create a visually appealing book that is easy to read and navigate.
Proofread and Edit Your Book Carefully
Proofreading and editing your book are essential steps in ensuring a polished final product. By carefully reviewing your manuscript for errors and inconsistencies, you can avoid reprint costs and maintain a professional appearance. Many readers will look at typos as a sign that the books is not professionally published.
Some effective proofreading techniques include taking frequent breaks from reading, reading the text slowly and carefully, and reading the text aloud. Additionally, consider viewing your manuscript in a different format, such as a printed or audio version, to gain a fresh perspective and identify any errors more easily.
If you have the budget, it is a great idea to hire a professional editor to review your book for formatting and grammatical errors. Or, consider asking friends or family who are avid readers to proofread your book.
Set Up Your PDF File Properly
At Dazzle Printing, we only accept PDF files for printing. Sending the original files, such a Microsoft Word, can result in images and fonts shifting on the page, so that the final version does not look right.
When preparing your manuscript for printing, it’s essential to set up your PDF file correctly. Use professional software like Adobe Acrobat to save your file as a press-ready PDF. Make sure to embed any fonts in the PDF.
When sending multi-page PDF files to the printer, ensure they are sent as single-page images rather than spreads. This gives the printer the maximum flexibility in adjusting pages to make sure that they print correctly.
Use a CMYK Color Format
Using a CMYK color format is crucial for achieving accurate color reproduction in your printed book. CMYK is the industry standard for book printing and provides the most reliable method for producing a wide range of colors.
Set Up a Spine for Perfect Bound Books
When creating a perfect bound book, it’s essential to set up a spine that displays crucial information such as the author’s last name, title, and publisher or colophon (logo). This will help readers identify your book on the shelf and ensure a professional appearance.
Review Similar Books
Readers come to expect a certain look when reading a certain genre of book. When designing your book, be sure to review other books in your genre and incorporate the things you like about those books. It’s a great way to make sure you you don’t forget any important details before sending your book off to print.
Options
Dazzle Printing prints a wide variety of products, but we specialize in book printing services and other multi-page document printing. With the most up-to-date printing and bindery equipment and decades of experience, we provide our clients with outstanding book printing products with outstanding customer service and reasonable prices.
Here are some tips to consider when deciding on options for your book printing:
Quantity
We have a minimum print quantity of only 25 copies, with 1 copy increments. As your printing quantity increases, the cost per book will decrease. While we always ship a couple of extra copies with your order, we can’t guarantee how many extras you will receive.
Page Count
Pages are counted like pages in a book. One sheet of paper with printing on the front and the back counts as two pages. With our book printing services, we can print any bind anywhere from 8 pages to over 600 pages. Remember to include 4 pages for your cover in your page count — front outside cover, front inside cover, back inside cover, and back outside cover.
Color vs. Black and White Printing
If your inside pages contain mostly text, black and white printing will be fine. However, if you have photos or graphic elements on the inside pages, consider color printing. Our prices for color printing are reasonable and your readers will appreciate the use of color.
Sizes
Our four standard book sizes are 5.5 x 8.5, 6 x 9, 8.5 x 11, and 9 x 12. You can also print nonstandard sizes up to 9 x 12. When ordering a nonstandard size, select the next larger size on our calculators. For example, if you want to print a 7 x 10 book, use the 8.5 x 11 size. Then note in our note section of the order form what the finished size of the book will be.
Binding Style
If you’re printing a book, it’s important to know your binding style options. We offer four binding styles for multipage documents — perfect bound, plastic coil, saddle stitch, and wire-o. However, most books are perfect bound, while many directories and workbooks will be plastic coil or wire-o. While we can perfect bind books as small as 8 pages, we recommend only considering perfect binding for books with over 32 pages.
Paper for Inside Pages
We offer several options for the inside pages of your book —60# uncoated text, 70# uncoated text, 70# gloss or matte text, 80# gloss or matte text, or 100# gloss or matte text. Good options for books that are mostly text would be 60# uncoated, 70# uncoated, 70# matte, or 80# matte. For books with a lot of photos or graphic elements, consider any of our gloss or matte text options. We recommend ordering our printing sample packet, which contains samples of all four binding styles plus samples of all of our paper stocks.
Paper for Cover
For perfect bound books, we offer 80# and 100# cover stock for covers. Either option is good for covers, although as your book becomes thicker, consider the 100# cover stock option.
Lamination
If you’re printing a book, we highly recommend adding lamination to the covers of all books. It provides protection for the cover. Gloss lamination will also make the colors on the cover really stand out, while soft-touch lamination has a great velvety feel to it.
Hard Copy Press Proof
Consider getting a hard copy press proof if you are concerned about any of the options you selected for your book or how your file will look when printed. You will probably notice things in the hard copy press proof that you didn’t notice in your digital file. We print and bind the book to your exact order specifications, so you see exactly how the book will look. After seeing the proof, if you want to make changes to your order options or to your print file, your customer service representative will take care of that for you. The cost for a hard copy press proof is $60 when shipped via UPS ground service and $100 when shipped via UPS overnight service. Use Dazzle Printing’s quality book printing services and request a quote today!
Delivery
We get it. For most of our clients, it is imperative that they receive their printing order by the due date.
We know it’s tough to figure out when your order will arrive. First, you have to approve your proof. Once that is done, your order will ship no later than 4 business days later. But then, you have to wait for UPS to deliver your order, which can take anywhere from 1 to 4 business days.
So how do you make sure you get your order on time?
When you are placing your order, there is a field that asks for your delivery due date. Just tell us the date you need your order. We will let you know if it can be done based on the production speed and UPS shipping option you selected.
If it can’t be done with your selected options? No problem, we’ll work with you to expedite production or shipping.
Again, our normal production turnaround time is 4 business days after proof approval. Orders over $399 receive FREE ground UPS shipping within the contiguous United States (Alaska and Hawaii are excluded from this offer). Our calculators will also estimate expedited shipping costs. The shipping cost displayed is only an estimate, and you will be charged actual UPS shipping costs for expedited service.
With really tight deadlines, call us at 1-800-338-4329 or chat with us online to make sure we can get your project done on time.
Expedited production does increase the cost of printing:
3 business days after proof approval costs 15% more
2 business days after proof approval costs 25% more
1 business day after proof approval costs 40% more
Same business day after proof approval costs 100% more
Before selecting same day service, please check with us to make sure we can process your order the same day. That will typically depend on when you approve your file for printing and how many copies you want.
To determine how many shipping days you are from our facility, please check the UPS map on this page.
Help
To ensure that you are delighted with your printing project, it’s important to ensure that your printing files are set up properly. If you have questions about any of the following topics, please check our frequently asked questions:
PDF Files: We only accept PDF files for printing. The PDF file should have graphics and fonts embedded with printing bleeds included.
Bleeds and Safety Zones: To ensure that no important graphics or text or cut off, it is very important to provide bleeds on your files and ensure that critical text and graphics do not go in the safety zone.
Margins: Make sure you have adequate printing margins all the way around your document, but especially on the bound edge. When binding multipage documents, perfect binding, wire-o binding, and plastic coil binding will use approximately 1/8 of an inch on the bound edge. Without adequate printing margins, some of your text or graphics may get lost in the gutter of perfect bound books. We recommend at least 3/4 of an inch on the bound side for perfect bound books.
Image Resolution: All graphics should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). Viewing images on a computer screen can be misleading, since the maximum image resolution of a computer screen is 72 dpi. A 72 dpi image will look fuzzy when printed. Increasing the size of a graphic will reduce the resolution, while reducing the size of the graphic will increase the resolution.
CMYK vs. RGB Color: Graphics and colors should be converted to CMYK color. Often, photos are in RGB color. If you do not convert to CMYK color, there may be some color shifts when we convert the files before printing. These color shifts are more noticeable in background colors and less noticeable with photographs.
Need a promo code? Fill out the form at the bottom of this page to receive 10% off your first order.
