Book Specifications & Limitations

Bleed is an extension of the page content, meaning that if you have a full bleed black page the bleed has to be black, or if you have an image, the bleed has to be an extension of the image all the way to the bleed edge. The function of bleed is to ensure that when being trimmed to its final size, any pages with solid background color or edge-to-edge images will not have white lines along the edges of the pages.

• Contents within your bleed are 'safe'; contents on your bleed will be trimmed.
• If important page elements, like page numbers, are too close to the edge, they may be partially trimmed off. We suggest all essential contents be set at least 0.25" inside of the page edge. Contents that are too close to, or right on the edge of your book (less than 0.25" from the edge), are at risk of being trimmed off slightly, or significantly changing the design of your book.
  

For the foil stamping we will need a vector based PDF file. Please outline your text and/or graphics before exporting to PDF. All type and graphic elements should be set to the actual size desired, and should be black on a white background. Do not make an effort to represent a foil color when creating the file.

Cover Foil

• Foil dies to be used on the front or back of a book cover can be up to 5” x 12”
• If your cover’s foil stamping design will not fit on a single die, it may be necessary to use two dies which will add cost to your book order.
  
• Some designs may require multiple dies even if they fit within 12" x 5”. We will review the number of dies needed upon file receipt.
  
• Please note that foil stamping does not do a good job filling in large areas.
  

Spine Foil

• Min. page count for spine foil: 60 pages
• Max. Foil Stamp height: height of book minus 0.875” on top and bottom
  
• Max. Foil Stamp width: determined by page count
  
• Min. margin of 0.1" on either side of spine stamp
  
• Min. margin of 0.875" on top and bottom of spine stamp
  

Printed Endpapers

The size of your PDF file for Printed Endpapers should be:

• Book Height by twice the Book width.
• Bleed: 0.25" on all sides
  

Gatefold pages are pages that fold out, which can be added to your books at an added cost.

• Maximum 4 gatefold pages per book.  
• Can be added to books up to 8.75” wide.
  
• One fold per page. The fold must occur 0.125” inside the outer edge of the book block. The folded flap must end 0.5” away from the binding (when folded). Thus, the flap area of the gatefold page file must be 0.625” narrower than the book width.
  
• You can include these extra wide pages within your contents file or send them as a separate file.