Perfect bound books are a popular choice for a polished and professional look. With glued edges and individual sheets, these books offer a classy, durable spine that’s perfect for catalogs, magazines, and high-end lookbooks. This guide is designed for advanced users familiar with Adobe Illustrator or InDesign and will walk you through the entire process—from calculating spine width to setting up the correct page count and bleeds.

Understanding Perfect Bound Books

Perfect bound books give you a sleek, stylish look with pages neatly glued along the spine. It’s perfect for larger projects, anywhere from 48 to 300 pages, with a smooth, seamless finish that looks super professional.

Step 1: How to Calculate Spine Width

The first step in setting up your perfect bound book is calculating the spine width. This is essential for ensuring your cover fits perfectly. Use the following formula to calculate the spine width based on the number of pages and the thickness of your chosen stock:

For quick reference, here are two tables—one for text stocks (inside pages) and one for cover stocks.

Text Stocks (Inside Pages)

Cover Stocks

Step 2: Popular Sizes and Stocks

To help guide your decision-making, we’ve listed our most popular sizes and stocks below. Understanding these examples will help you accurately calculate your spine width and prepare your files for print.

Example Scenarios:

52 Pages – For a 52-page book with a 15pt C1S cover and 80lb Uncoated inside stock, the flat size would be:

• Front cover width = 8.5"

• Spine width = 0.1874"
  ((52 - 4) ÷ 2 × 0.00585") + 0.015" × 2 + 0.017" = 0.1404" + 0.015" × 2 + 0.017"

• Back cover width = 8.5"

Total Flat Size = 17.1874" x 11"

24 Pages – For a 24-page book with a 10pt C1S cover and 100lb Silk Text inside stock, the flat size would be:

• Front cover width = 8.5"

• Spine width = 0.087"
  ((24 - 4) ÷ 2 × 0.005") + 0.010" × 2 + 0.017" = 0.05" + 0.010" × 2 + 0.017"

• Back cover width = 8.5"

Total Flat Size = 17.087" x 11"

Step 3: Setting Up Your Cover – Flat Size and Bleeds

Once you’ve calculated your spine width and reviewed the total flat size, you can set up your cover file. The flat size includes the front cover, spine, and back cover. Don’t forget to add 0.125" bleeds around all edges to ensure your design extends fully to the edge after trimming.

Important Note: Score Lines for Easy Folding

To make sure your cover opens and folds smoothly, we include a score line that’s 0.25" from the edge on both the front and back covers. This ensures your cover doesn't crack when folded.

Step 4: Pages vs. Sheets

When setting up perfect bound books, remember that we count everything in pages. Each sheet has two sides, and each side is a page. For example, if your book has 88 pages, that means there are 44 sheets of paper inside.

Here's a helpful guide:

• Pages refer to individual sides of a sheet (front and back).

• Sheets refer to a single piece of paper, which counts as two pages.

Always provide your page count, not the number of sheets, when submitting your project.

Step 5: Page Count and Bleeds for Interior Pages

For your perfect bound book, the interior pages are printed on individual sheets, with each side counting as a page. Every page, even blank ones, should be included in your total page count. Here's what to keep in mind:

• Page Count Will Be Even: Since each sheet has two pages, your page count will always be an even number.

• Don't Include the Cover in the Page Count: Unless your book is a self-cover (where the cover is the same stock as the interior pages), the cover is not included in the total page count.

• Add Bleed: Each interior page should have 0.125" bleed on all sides to ensure proper trimming.

Step 6: File Submission Formats

We prefer that files be submitted in EPS or PDF format. These formats ensure the best quality for your print project and maintain the integrity of your design. If you have any questions about setting up your files, we're here to help!

Want to See and Feel the Options?

We encourage you to order our Book Sample Pack to explore different styles and paper stocks for your project. It includes all our most popular sizes and stocks, so you can see and feel them before making your final decision. Order your sample pack here: Book Sample Pack.

Need Help?

If you have any questions or need assistance with setting up your files, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]. We're happy to help!

Whether you want to bind your product catalogs or informative booklets, we provide our customers with perfect bound books. Unlike traditional saddle stitched method of binding, the perfect bound method is unique, stylish and gives your books a cleaner finish. With this versatile service, you can not only create catalogs and booklets but also storybooks, yearly diaries, and notebooks, which can be used in-store, at events and trade shows. Even though this binding method has been around for a while, it remains a popular choice amongst our customers as it gives them the best binding results.

Whether you want a 10-page book or a book with hundreds of pages, there is no limit on the number of pages for you choose to from. We ensure that the spine (binding edge) of each book is sturdy and robust so that you receive the best quality book. The spines of our perfect bound books can be as thick as 25-inches or as thin as 2-inches.

Read more: Design Considerations for Perfect Bound Books

Due to the frequency of the question, “How do I determine the size of the spine when designing the book?”, we’ve created a Perfect Bound Booklet Maker. This tool helps you determine the size of the spine by merely entering the paper specs how many pages the book has (page count). The tool then automatically calculates a template for you.

Use Our Perfect Bound Booklet Maker

The smallest perfect bound book we can produce is 3.5" x 2" (open size of 7" x 2").

The largest perfect bound book we can produce is 13" x 10" (open size of 26" x 10").