Print Options
Perfect bound books offer a massive canvas for customization. These options can be displayed as dropdowns or a quick-reference specification table.
Standard Book Sizes:
- A4 (210mm x 297mm) — The standard for luxury corporate catalogs and directories.
- A5 (148mm x 210mm) — The most popular size for novels, poetry books, and journals.
- Custom / Square Sizes: (e.g., 210mm x 210mm) — Highly popular for creative agency portfolios and lookbooks.
Available in both Portrait and Landscape orientations.
Page Count Capacity:
- Suitable for documents starting from 40 pages up to 400+ pages.
- Note: Total page count should ideally be a multiple of 2 or 4 to ensure clean binding.
Premium Cover Options:
Standard practice pairs a heavyweight 300gsm or 350gsm cover cardstock with lighter inner pages to create a rigid, durable book structure.
Inner Paper Weights & Finishes:
- 115gsm / 130gsm / 150gsm Silk or Gloss: Perfect for sharp imagery, vibrant photography, and rich colours.
- 100gsm / 120gsm Uncoated: Provides a tactile, premium matte finish that is highly readable and easy to write on.
Cover Protection & Lamination (Highly Recommended):
- Matt Lamination: For a smooth, sophisticated, non-reflective protective finish.
- Gloss Lamination: For rich, high-contrast colors and a high-shine, vibrant look.
- Soft-Touch / Velvet Lamination: Gives your cover a luxurious, suede-like texture that feels incredible to hold.
Artwork
Because perfect bound books feature a wrap-around cover and a physical spine, file setup requires precision. Please review our essential artwork checklist:
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The Wrap-Around Cover File: Please supply your cover artwork as a single, spread layout including the Back Cover, the Spine, and the Front Cover all in one file (e.g., [Back Cover] + [Spine Width] + [Front Cover]).
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Calculating the Spine Width: The exact thickness of your spine depends entirely on your total page count and chosen paper stock. Please contact our team before finalising your cover artwork—we will calculate the exact spine width in millimeters for you.
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Inner Pages File: Supply your inner pages as a single, multi-page PDF in sequential order (Page 1 to the end). Do not supply them as spreads.
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The “Hinge & Hinge-Bleed” Safe Zone: Perfect binding requires a small amount of glue on the inside edges of the front and back cover, which creates a “hinge.” Please keep all critical text, logos, and page numbers at least 10mm away from the spine edge on all internal pages so they don’t get trapped in the binding fold.
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Standard Bleed: Include a standard 3mm bleed on all outer edges of your pages, with images and graphics saved at 300dpi in CMYK mode
Perfect Bound Booklets
When your document demands the ultimate premium finish, perfect bound printing is the gold standard. Utilising a clean, square, glued spine, perfect binding turns standard multi-page documents into stunning, retail-ready paperback books, high-end corporate brochures, luxury annual reports, thick product catalogs, and literary magazines.
The process involves gathering your inner pages into a neat block, roughing the spine edge, and binding them to a wrap-around heavyweight cover using an incredibly strong, flexible polyurethane (PUR) adhesive. This creates a flat, professional spine that can be printed on, allowing your books or catalogs to be easily identified when stacked or placed on a bookshelf.
At Barkers Litho, we specialize in high-precision perfect binding. We ensure that your covers are beautifully scored to prevent cracking, your pages are bound with maximum strength, and the final book is cleanly trimmed for an ultra-sharp, professional aesthetic that instantly commands respect.
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Perfect Bound Booklets
When your document demands the ultimate premium finish, perfect bound printing is the gold standard. Utilising a clean, square, glued spine, perfect binding turns standard multi-page documents into stunning, retail-ready paperback books, high-end corporate brochures, luxury annual reports, thick product catalogs, and literary magazines.
The process involves gathering your inner pages into a neat block, roughing the spine edge, and binding them to a wrap-around heavyweight cover using an incredibly strong, flexible polyurethane (PUR) adhesive. This creates a flat, professional spine that can be printed on, allowing your books or catalogs to be easily identified when stacked or placed on a bookshelf.
At Barkers Litho, we specialize in high-precision perfect binding. We ensure that your covers are beautifully scored to prevent cracking, your pages are bound with maximum strength, and the final book is cleanly trimmed for an ultra-sharp, professional aesthetic that instantly commands respect.
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