At PrintingCenterUSA, we take it upon ourselves to make the entire process of designing, ordering, and printing your projects as simple as possible. This includes providing templates and content that help you create a print-ready PDF file. If you take advantage of our multitude of design resources, then we will be able to take your cook book, children’s book, memory book, photo book, business book, etc and deliver a stunning, professional product right to your door.

Creating the layout for your book can be a daunting task, however. You have already done the extensive legwork of creating the content for your magazine, catalog, or program and now it’s time to piece it together into a user-friendly visual package. We have laid out some easy steps and tips for you to follow to finish your project. Pair these tips with our downloadable templates and online design tool, and you will be 100% ready to self-publish your book.

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MAP IT OUT

Each book is unique and deserves its own special treatment. Map out your project outline, set up some ground rules, then plug and go! Consistency in book layout treatment is key to instilling authority, legibility, and nuance. The solution needs to be so natural and well-executed that the reader doesn’t even think about the layout. The point is to showcase your content to the reader/viewer as clearly as possible—nothing should take away from your work.

1. SIZE

First, you need to understand what type of project you’re working with. What are the dimensions for your layout? PrintingCenterUSA offers custom layout sizes, but that can make the cost go up. You may want to consider some of our standard sizes: 8.5x11, 6x9, 4.25x11, 6x6 and 8x8, although custom sizes are available. As an added bonus, when it comes time to upload your files, you can upload your individual pages into your book designer tool to help you visualize the entire project.

2. BINDING

Another important consideration for your book is what type of durable soft-cover binding you will be utilizing. PrintingCenterUSA offers saddle stitch, perfect bound, spiral, and wire-o binding. Selecting the binding that is right for the feel of your project is crucial! And it’s good to keep this in mind throughout the entire book layout process. To learn more about our binding options, click here.

Bindery Options: Learn More

3. OUTLINE

I’m sure your project already has some sort of structure. Now take that structure and thumbnail out your project! This will help you gain perspective on the entire layout. You may see things that you didn’t notice when you were in the weeds of preparing the content of your book. Think of it as a puzzle and outline the home of any written content, images, captions, table of contents, footnotes, page numbers, blank pages, etc. If you’re outlining a picture book, for example, you may want to select the format you are going to present your images in. Are they full page bleeds, tiled out, single images in the middle of the page?

4. MARGINS & BLEEDS

Now that you understand the dimensions of your book and where your images, spreads, and bleeding images are, you can prepare your document template.

• Margins: We’re here to tell you that minimizing your margins is not recommended. It creates a poor user experience for the reader. For pages that are all text, you should consider how much your reader can handle. A combination of leading (the space between lines) and margins will help ensure you aren't making every page feel like an encyclopedia. We recommend a .5 in margin on the outer three sides and a .8 in margin for the binding edges.
  
  
• Bleeds: If your book will contain images or graphics that bleed off the page, then you should set up your template with bleeds from the very beginning of the designing stage. This way you’re not having to go back in at the end to adjust your images. Our recommended bleed setting is .125 in.

5. TYPOGRAPHY

Another way to make designing your book extremely easy is to select your fonts and the font size hierarchy at the beginning.

• Fonts: Typically, your main header font is the only font you want to use a creative/artistic font for. BEWARE of Papyrus and Comic Sans! For your main copy, a clean font is recommended. For a more graphic and contemporary look, stick with a san serif like Arial, Helvetica, Avenir Next, or IBM Plex Sans. For a more legible body copy, don’t stray from the classics like Garamond, Georgia, and Sabon Next. If you’re clever, you’ll pick a font family that has a variety of weights (Bold, italic, thin, etc.) This will help with consistency. Another tip is to limit your use of font types/weights within one project to 3 or 5. For a larger book this may be more difficult—but rules are meant to be broken sometimes. Just remember to not get carried away! And to break rules with intention.
  
  
• Font Sizes: One tip I tend to follow myself is to set font size rules at the beginning. Similarly to the three font type rule listed above, try to stick to a 5 font size rule.
  • Large Headers (30 pt or above): these are excellent for adding a more graphic feel to your project while simultaneously helping your reader/viewer follow along the outline.
  • Primary Headers (16-24 pt): these help separate sections within your copy and help with navigation.
  • Sub Headers (12 pt bold): these help distinguish sections even further and break up the text.
  • Body Copy (10-12 pt regular): this is your primary body copy. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking 12 pt is too small—It is not. 
  • Footnote/Page Count (8 pt): For lesser information or page navigation, keep it small. These need to feel like they’re in the background of the rest of the book.
    

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6. BODY COPY

This blog is not about giving you writing tips. But, hey, body copy deserves to be pretty, too!

• Leading: This is very important! Leading is the height between two lines of type. Set your leading to have some breathing room. Nothing makes it harder to read than single-spaced body copy.
  
  
• Widows & Orphans: A widow is a short line, usually one word that is “widowed” to its own line at the bottom of a paragraph. This creates an uneasy break in the copy. Orphans are similar, except the short line is “orphaned” to the next page. Stay away!
  
  
• Rags: A rag refers to the shape your paragraph makes. You don’t want the shape of the paragraph to be distracting, so insert manual page breaks if need be. Another option, especially for a multi-columned layout, is to justify the paragraph. Be wary though, because this can create its own iffy spacing between words and characters (kerning and tracking…but that’s for another day).
  
  

7. IMAGES

When designing for print, it is absolutely crucial to have images and graphics of high quality.

• DPI: The image will ideally be 300 dpi at the appropriate dimensions, but 200 dpi at the lowest. Web images are recommended to be saved at 72 dpi to load quickly, so be careful when saving images from the internet for a print project.
  
  
• Vector: When using graphics, do your best to utilize a vector graphic (scalable) versus a raster graphic. This keeps the sharpness of your graphics top-notch and admirable by even the most nitpicky designer. If a vector isn’t possible, then follow the same rules explained above for images.

8. NAVIGATION

Make sure your project is navigable. Tips 1-6 will absolutely help this, but here are a few more to make sure your reader isn’t getting lost.

• Page Numbers
• Chapter/Section Titles at the top of the page
• Table of Contents

8. OVERALL COMPOSITION

Composition is extremely tricky. Consistency built by using all tips up to this point will help solve the problem for you, but some creative solutions will still be necessary. One thing I do to help my composition seem fully cohesive is abide by the 12 inch 12 foot rule. What I mean by this is when you’ve been staring at and obsessing at one page of your layout for a long time, you must remember to take a step back, zoom out, to see the entire layout, and evaluate how that page fits within the whole. Doing this regularly will keep you from merely designing individual pages and help lead to a cohesive book with an excellent user experience. If you zoom out and see that everything is kind of blending together, here are some extra tips to spice up your overall composition.

• Add in a full spread! These can provide a nice break for your reader.
  
  
• Don’t be afraid of color. In fact, make an entire page one solid color. A good place for these is for at the beginning of a chapter/section. A nice solid page with some larger scale navigational copy (i.e. chapter number and name) can give your composition exactly what it needs.
  
  
• Color scheme! Consistent color schemes or patterns help the composition of the book as well. You should have your main colors, but also have your accent colors! When your text is getting boring, add in a pop of something colorful. If it’s within your color scheme and you place it with intention, then it won’t seem out of place. A good tip for picking your color scheme is to sample from your cover image or a primary image from the text. And as always, be sure you’re working in cmyk ;).

BOOK DESIGN RESOURCES

Free Online Book Designer

With our online design tool, it is easier than ever to design your saddle stitch, perfect bound, spiral, or wire-o book.

 Predesigned Book Template Downloads

If you have the Adobe design software (Photoshop, InDesign, or Illustrator) then you can choose between one of our many free book template grid downloads to help jump start your design!

If you are starting a calendar project and would like to speak with an expert, feel free to give us a call at 800-995-1555. Ready to place your next calendar order? Visit our website to get started!

At PrintingCenterUSA, we make the process of self-publishing your custom book extremely simple. Printing for artists, photographers, businesses, education professionals, health professionals, and non-profit organizations has never been easier.

6 Easy and Affordable Steps to Self-Publish Your Own Book:

1. Write, create, and proof your book copy
2. Create your files in the Adobe Suite (InDesign or Illustrator)
   OR
   Utilize our free online design tool.
3. Upload your print-ready PDF files for a free 43-point file review.
4. We will send you a proof within 1 day for you to ok.
5. Approve or reject your proof.
6. Once you accept your proof, we will print, bind, and ship your book to your specified address and within your selected time-frame.
   
   

Instant Book Pricing: Learn More

Free Book Sample Packet: Learn More

We’ll expand on some of the details of these steps throughout the blog. First, let’s clarify something.

What is the difference between custom book printing and book publishing?

Custom book printing is when you produce and maintain ownership of your book, booklet, magazine, memory book, children’s book, etc. PrintingCenterUSA uses your custom book PDF to print and bind your book without the use of an established book publisher. Traditional book publishers want to own your intellectual property in exchange for printing and distributing your book.

But self-publishing isn’t limited to books. At PrintingCenterUSA, you can self-publish your own soft-cover magazines, booklets, brochures, catalogs, and calendars. We specialize in short run soft cover books and are sure to have the perfect option for your custom project–and at an affordable price.

To help our customers on the self-publishing journey, we gathered some tips to ease any of your self-publishing apprehensions.

DO YOUR RESEARCH!

After gathering all of your book content, you are sadly not done. Not at all. There are endless technical terms that go into getting your work prepared for book printing alone. Bleeds? Paper Weight? Saddle-Stitched? These are not exactly layman’s terms.

Our friend Markus Heinrich, author of a self-published children’s book Saving Like a Sloth, suggests that “when you need a break from writing, then do the research. There are tons of resources online for you to gather all the knowledge about printing and self-publishing that you could ever need."

Especially if this is a hobby that you’re trying to shift into your career, then buck up and start treating it like your job. And, with every job, there is a balance between fun vs. necessary. Here are a few of the maybe not-fun-things that you truly need to understand moving forward in preparing your print-ready PDF to self-publish.

• Bleeds: Get used to it! Every cover and every page with images or graphics that bleed off the edge of the page should take bleeds into account. Wikipedia defines a bleed as “printing that goes beyond the edge of where the sheet will be trimmed. In other words, the bleed is the area to be trimmed off.” PrintingCenterUSA has put together a file-checklist that will help you make sure you’ve done this right.
  
• Page Counts: When saving your PDF, it is important that you count all single pages including: front cover, inside front cover, inside back cover, and back cover. We do not accept spreads. Your file will always include four cover pages. If you only want to print on the outside of the cover page, you can leave the second and third cover pages empty—but those blank pages need to be included in your file.
  
  
  
• Binding Options: At PrintingCenterUSA, we do not publish hard cover books. We do offer multiple durable coverstock options that are bound (pun intended) to add the that professional finish (another printing pun) to your project. The binding types we offer are:
  
  

  Saddle-Stitch

  Perfect Bound

  Spiral

  Wire-O

  
  
  • Saddle Stitched: This is the most popular, inexpensive, yet professional form of binding. The pages lay flat and stay open when flipping through them. Saddle stitching can accommodate page counts from 8 to 92. Because saddle stitching is basically single sheets of paper printed on both sides, folded and stapled in the middle, the page count must be divisible by four.
  • Perfect Bound: Another one of our popular binding options, these are inexpensive and provide a durable, high quality, professional book. Perfect binding is the ideal choice for books with higher page counts (28 pages up to 2 inches thick). Perfect binding gives you a soft cover bound to the individual inside pages with strong, yet flexible PUR glue, creating a printable, square spine.
  • Spiral: can be up to 2 ¾ inches thick
  • Wire-O: can be up to 1 ¼ inches thick and may be more expensive.

• Paper & Ink Options: Know what your product needs. If it’s a picture book, consider a 100# Premium Gloss Cover Stock + a Lustrous UV Coating for your cover. For your inside pages, consider an 80# Premium Gloss Text. The combination of these options will make your photo appear sharp and vibrant. If you’re self-publishing a project that needs to be able to be written on, such as a coloring book, then make sure you choose an uncoated inside text paper.

ENLIST THE TROOPS

Since a print-ready PDF file is required to self-publish with PrintingCenterUSA, you need to do your editing prior to reaching our pricing tool. You don’t always see the errors when you are nose-deep in a project like this, so be fearless and just ask for help. Get as many eyes on your writing and page layout as possible. It can be intimidating to have everyone reviewing your work, but it’s worth it. Heinrich isn’t a grammatician by any means, but “with weeks of revisions and a ton of outside help, [he] was able to put something together.” Here are some tips for getting your PDF print-ready

• Befriend a printer: You will want to utilize a printer that specializes in book printing services.  PrintingCenterUSA has specialized in book printing services for over 45 years.  We have a team of very highly skilled specialists that can help you paper selection, pricing and production requirements.  We are a #1 nationwide supplier for all types of book & booklet products. All files provided undergo a 43 point inspection to ensure the best quality delivered back to you, our customer.  PrintingCenterUSA is Fast, Easy & Affordable and our mission is to deliver high quality printing on time every time.
  
  
• Befriend someone who has self-published a book: Whether it’s via online blogs or your neighbor down the street, you should get as many first-hand accounts of the self-publishing process as possible. They may have some crucial tips. For example, Joe Konrath, an author with a popular blog, elaborately explains tips and ideas in his blog. Take advantage of opportunities like this to learn from the mistakes of others, especially when it comes to self-publishing.
  
  

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JUDGE YOUR BOOK BY ITS COVER

If you aren’t visually gifted, then seek out help from your artist, designer, or photographer friend that you connect with. There are also very cheap options, such as Fiverr and 99 Designs for you to find the perfect visuals for your book (if you are lacking in creative friends). Heinrich believes “a well put together image can be just as descriptive as a page of text.” And he is absolutely right. Take your time and find the right solution.

Here are a few eye-catching examples to spark some ideas.

MARKET YOURSELF

Ugh, Yes. Yet another task to master: Marketing. Unless you are a major public figure, the general public won’t just stumble upon your book. Konrath set his own personal resolution to do something to self-promote at least once a day. With your eye-catching design and your own creative impulses, the opportunities are endless. If you’re serious about selling, here are some marketing suggestions:

• Build an online presence: Commit yourself to building a website and being a dedicated social media master. Share posts about your book across all platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It’d also be a great idea to start a GoodReads account. Read up on tips and tricks to gain a presence and see to it that it’s done—for your own sake.
  
  Great Website SEO Resource: Learn More
  
• Build a mailing list: It’s good to capture as many emails as possible and send out regular newsletters with updates on publishing, sequels, book tours, etc. This will be a great place for your close friends, family, and colleagues to get exclusives. Look into places like MailChimp or Constant Contact that make newsletters extremely simple.
  
  
• Build relationships: Get out there and network! Join book clubs, go to readings, and get on the radar of influencers. When the time comes, send your new friends in high places a copy of your book. Maybe you’ll get a shout out!
  
  
• Target your marketing: Whether it be Google Ads, Facebook Ads, GoodReads Ads, or good ol’ fashioned legwork: find your audience and market to them specifically. This takes trial and error, so get to it!
  
  
• Get Reviews: Who has read your book? Reach out to your readers regularly and get those reviews! This should be a constant effort.
  
  
• Maintain & Engage: It’s not enough just to be marketing yourself. Especially on social media, you have to keep it regular and engage your audience. Did someone comment on your post about your book? Reach out! Give them a follow! This increases your likelihood of getting seen now that algorithms (versus timelines) have taken over the world. Keeping your personality at the forefront with every response will definitely help keep your book in sight!

If reading these marketing tips just gave you a total anxiety attack, then maybe you should look into some online marketing templates. A safe place to start on this would definitely be Hubspot. Or if you have the budget, do some more research and find a marketing team that can help you out!

TRUST YOUR VISION

It is true that when working with an editor and publisher, your vision can become compromised. It’s a serious creative struggle. This is where self-publishing your book gives you endless flexibility. If you can stick to your gut, then then you will be rewarded. Heinrich describes the feeling of holding his first physical copy of his book as “pretty amazing.” I imagine that’s quite the understatement.

BOOK DESIGN RESOURCES

Free Online Book Designer

With our online design tool, it is easier than ever to design your saddle stitch, perfect bound, spiral, or wire-o book.

 Predesigned Book Template Downloads

If you have the Adobe design software (Photoshop, InDesign, or Illustrator) then you can choose between one of our many free book template grid downloads to help jump start your design!

If you are starting a calendar project and would like to speak with an expert, feel free to give us a call at 800-995-1555. Ready to place your next calendar order? Visit our website to get started!

Committed to making a difference in the lives of children with disabilities, PrintingCenterUSA is again leveraging the power of its national customer base to fundraise for Indianapolis-based Kids Dance Outreach’s (KDO) Adaptive Dance program. Beginning on April 30th, PrintingCenterUSA will donate a portion of proceeds from select products to a KDO program that supports child dancers with Down Syndrome through the month of May.

Currently in the middle of recital season, we are printing countless dance recital programs for our clients. That’s why the launch of our fundraising campaign coincides with KDO’s Event of the Year. Scheduled for April 30th in Indianapolis, the event brings children of all abilities together for a performance featuring original choreography and live music. Starting in June, however, KDO will host summer programs to include a course specifically for dancers with Down Syndrome under its Adaptive Dance program — which is what the proceeds from the fundraising campaign will go towards.

Last December, we broke a record in rallying our customer base to make the largest donation ever by a company to the Special Olympics of Montana. The success of that campaign inspired us to continue to make a difference in the lives of children with disabilities across the nation.

By using the promo codes below when ordering select products online, we will donate up to $100 per order to Kids Dance Outreach.

Dance25 — $25 donation to KDO on Select Orders Over $250

Dance50 — $50 donation to KDO on Select Orders Over $500

Dance75 — $75 donation to KDO on Select Orders Over $1,000

Dance100 — $100 donation to KDO on Select Orders Over $2,500

Founded in 2012, Kids Dance Outreach was created to give children of all backgrounds, abilities, and socio-economic status the opportunity to experience the power of dance. To date, the nonprofit has served over 9,000 children in the Indianapolis area at no cost to the children or their families.

If you’re a fan of giving or receiving custom calendars, then now is the time for you to think ahead­­ to your calendar design for 2020! Whether you are a photographer trying to showcase your work, a nonprofit raising money, or a business promoting your services, it is important to jump into the calendar design with a strategic plan.

When you create an aesthetic calendar, you are utilizing the custom calendar as a rare opportunity to have your brand in front of someone for an entire year. So how do you ensure you are seizing this opportunity? To get you started in the right direction, we have compiled some tips that will guide you through planning, designing, and ordering your custom online calendar. 

Tips for Planning Your Calendar Design

1. Choose a Theme and Stick to it

Consistency is key to a successful calendar. Think about your stand-out calendars from the past. Was it a nature photography calendar? A calendar full of cute puppies? Did it include business promotions?

Be sure to keep your audience in mind when selecting your theme as well. What type of photos will they want to look at for a whole year?

2. Photos are Key

If you are a photographer, then you have the advantage of showcasing your own work without having to search and pay for stock images. But plan ahead! If you’re going on a trip, come up with ideas beforehand for different photos and layouts that can be used as the monthly images in your 2020 calendar printing.

For the rest of us non-photographers, it is still crucial that your calendar includes vibrant, high resolution images. This will probably mean that you will have to search online and potentially buy the perfect image. Here are some valuable resources that will ensure you have sharp pictures.

• Unsplash: These are free, breathtaking images that are free to download at hi-res. However, it is recommended that you give due credit to the photographer if possible.
• Flickr: If you are using your calendar for promotional purposes, you must be sure to choose “All Creative Commons” under the “Any License” dropdown.
• Fotolia: You’ll have to buy your images from here, but they have tons of options for you to sift through (especially for puppies).
• Shutterstock: Whether you’re looking for landscapes, cities or animals, this site has a variety of images available for you to purchase.

Really, there are tons of websites out there, both paid and unpaid, that will have exactly what you need. For a more definitive list of these sites, click here.

3. Keep it Functional. 

For your business/promotional calendar, be sure to include which days your business will be closed or have obscure hours. For example, if your business will be closed on Labor Day, make note of that on the calendar grid.

Another useful element to add into your calendar are deadlines for your most popular seasonal products. For example, if you’re a clothing store that designs custom ugly sweaters for Christmas, you’ll want to put a reminder on your November grid for your customers to put in their custom order by a certain date to ensure they get their item by the holiday.

4. Include Promotions

A nice way to thank your customers is to utilize any extra space in the monthly grids by filling it with a promo code. This gives your customers more incentive to purchase from you and puts a positive light on your company.

Also, boldly mark the days you have big sales, such as Black Friday, Valentine’s Day, Labor Day, etc. so you can drive traffic to your store during those peak times.

To learn more about how you can get the most out of your fundraising calendar, click here.

Calendar Design Resources

Okay, now that you have your plan, how on earth do you execute the design? Luckily, we have a few design resources that will help you create the perfect calendar.

Free Online Photo Calendar Designer

We recently upgraded our online calendar designer, making it easier to design your calendar than ever! Our new design tool offers 3 binding types (saddle stitch, spiral & wire-o), 3 sizes to choose from (11” x 8.5”, 8.5” x 5.5” and 12” x 12”), as well as 2 grid options (Advertising vs. Generic).

Predesigned Calendar Grid Template Downloads

Have the Adobe design software (Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator)? Choose between one of our many free calendar template grid downloads to help jump start your design!

If you are starting a calendar project and would like to speak with an expert, feel free to give us a call at 800-995-1555. Ready to place your next calendar order? Visit our website to get started!

When it comes to printing, most people turn to what is familiar – their local Kinkos®, now called FedEx Office®. And when they search online, they are trying to find out some specific information on how much their printing needs will cost. But have you ever wondered why Kinkos® printing costs are SO expensive if you want more than one copy of that flyer your boss needs? This article helps you understand why they are so pricey and how you can save money on your printing needs!

What are Kinkos® Printing Costs?

Before we jump into pricing, have you decided which product you need printed? Some of our top products are Brochures and Flyers so for arguments sake, we want to show you our Brochure and Flyer prices vs FedEx Office®, so you can really understand their pricing.

Brochure Printing - Kinkos® vs. PrintingCenterUSA

After visiting the Kinkos® Brochure Printing page, you will see that their print specification options are very minimal. They only offer one size (8.5” x 11”) whereas other online printers, such as PrintingCenterUSA, have a number of available sizes ranging from 3.5” x 8.5” to 11” x 25.5”. After uploading your artwork and choosing the specs, you’ll see that the prices are ridiculous and border into crazy. (Don’t believe us? See the image on the right for a brochure printing price comparison). As you can see, even with the same specs selected, Kinkos® printing costs for 100 brochures is over 3 times higher than printing prices at PrintingCenterUSA!

Instant Brochure Pricing: 

Flyer Printing - Kinkos® vs. PrintingCenterUSA

Now say you’re on the market for some new flyers – again, online printers beat out Kinkos® Flyer Printing prices by a landslide. As shown in the image on the right, after uploading your artwork and choosing the product specifications, FedEx Kinkos® is not an affordable flyer printer choice. Even with the same product specifications selected at both printers, Kinkos® flyer printing costs are far higher than those of an online printing company. At PrintingCenterUSA, you can get 1,900 flyers for the same price as 100 flyers from Kinkos® (WOW!). Instant Flyer Pricing:

Why are Kinkos® Prices So Expensive?

The reason FedEx Office® is so expensive is because instead of existing as a trusted online printing company with a single location like us, they have about 2,000 locations nationwide. So basically, you pay extra to keep all those stores in business. You pay to stock those stores, you pay the staff, and you pay for all the equipment to keep each and every store running. Why not choose the #1 Rated Printing Company for your printing needs? Our single location means we have access to getting you the lowest price because we don’t overcharge you for operating costs.

We have hundreds of great reviews from our loyal customers, and we want to give you a great experience too!

Don’t Overpay, Order with Us Today!

Let us prove to you why our slogan is Fast, Easy and Affordable. Contact us today via email or call us at  for a custom quote. If you aren’t quite sure what you need, order a free sample packet of all our products so you can view all our high quality products. We also have online design tools and FREE templates to help you get started!

*Note: Our prices DO fluctuate throughout the year. This pricing is accurate for the time this article was posted.