Cover Setup

Setting up a cover file for a softcover perfect bound digital book for printing is easy. The cover needs to be set up as one page with the back cover, spine, and front cover all pieced together, as well as proper marks and bleeds provided.

First, design your cover in the software of your choice. (We recommend InDesign)

Second, determine your spine size by downloading our spine calculator here. Once you have the spine size, you are ready to setup your cover document. For example, let's say you are wanting a 6x9 inch book and you have determined your spine size is 1/2 inch. That means you would make your document size for the cover 12.5 x 9 inches. (6 inches for the back cover, 6 inches for the front cover plus 1/2 inch for the spine equals 12.5x9)

Now that you have your cover file setup properly, you are ready for designing. Remember when designing to always have your colors and images that bleed extending 1/8 inch past your trim area. Bleed is when you have colors running off the edge of the sheet. In order for us to trim on those colors to avoid having white space showing, we ask for extra bleed or color for us to have room to trim into. See template below.

Finally once your design is complete, just convert your cover into a Print ready PDF and you are finished. In Indesign, this can easily be done by going File, Export, select PDF. Then in your PDF export setting, make sure you choose a high quality print setting that does not compress your images. Then under "marks and bleeds" you can add tick marks and the 1/8 inch bleeds. When finished your cover should look something like the below template.

Once the PDF file is made and ready for printing, you can upload the files to our website at www.gaschprinting.com then click on the "Send a File" button.