Spine Width Calculator

How to use our spine with calculator.

First, calculator the spine of your book width using our below book spine width calculator. Note, our book spine width calculator applies to the book paper stocks that we use, and might not be applicable to the paper stocks other book printing companies use.

Then calculator and create your books cover file in Adobe Illustrator or InDesign using the following size formula. Book Hight x (Book Width + Spine Width + Book Widht. Another way to look at that would be Book Height x (Back Cover Width + Spine Width + Front Cover Width). As an example, a A5 book is 210mm Tall x 148mm Wide. If an A5 book was composed of 100 pages of 100gsm uncoated with a 300gsm Art Cover, the spine width would be 6.90mm. That means the cover file will be created at 210mm Tall x (148mm + 6.90mm + 148mm) = 302.9mm wide.

 

 

And this is a visual example of what your book cover file will look like when complete. You'll note that the book's cover file is supplied as one complete spread, with the books back on the left, the front on the right and the spine in the middle, with crop marks and bleed. Please remember, as a rule, your book spine will need to be at least 3mm to perfect bind or PUR bind.