Book Spine Width Calculator

How to use our Spine Width Calculator

First, calculate the Spine Width of your book using our below Book Spine Width Calculator. Note that our Book Spine Width Calculator applies to the book paper stocks that we use, and might not apply to the paper stocks that other Book Printing Companies use. Once you have your Spine Width, you can create your Book's Cover File in Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Canva, etc, using the following size formula. Book Height x (Book Width + Spine Width + Book Width). Another way to look at that would be Book Height x (Back Cover Width + Spine Width + Front Cover Width). For Example, an A5 Book is 210mm Tall x 148mm Wide. If an A5 book had 100 pages of 100gsm uncoated plus a 300gsm Art Cover, the spine width would be 6.90mm. That means the Book Cover File would be created at 210mm Tall x (148mm + 6.90mm + 148mm) = 302.9mm wide.

 

 

Here is a visual example/representation of what your Book Cover File will look like when complete. You'll note that the Book cover file is supplied as one complete spread, with the books back on the left, the books front on the right, and the books spine in the middle, with 2.3mm offset crop marks and 5mm bleed. Please remember, as a rule, your Book Spine needs to be at least 3mm to allow for any Perfect Binding or PUR binding.