Perfect Bound Softcover – Setup Guide
We take a single sheet of card and wrap it around the inside pages of your book to create a perfect bound softcover. Therefore, your file should be created as a single spread.
Before constructing the cover file, please contact your account manager to determine spine width. Spine width will be determined based on the number of sheets and stock type used.
The “Page Height” and “Page Width” measurements in the guide below should be the same as the inside pages of your book.
As with your inside pages, you should include 3mm of bleed around the edge of your design that will be trimmed off. Make sure to keep all important text and graphics at least 10mm away from the trim line.
Inside front and back covers
Because the book block is glued into the cover, perfect bound books have an 8mm area on their inside covers that will be glued to the first and last text page. If an image or graphic is to cross from inside front cover to the first page, or inside back cover to the last page, the 8mm hidden area must be allowed for.
There should be no images or graphics 5mm from the right edge on the inside front cover (allowing for 3mm bleed) and 5mm from the left edge on the first text page. Likewise there should be no images or graphics 5mm from the left edge on the inside back cover and from the right edge on the last text page (see illustrations below).
