Spine Width Calculation for Soft Cover Perfect Bound Books
When designing your cover for a perfect bound soft cover book, you’ll need to know the exact spine width, which is based on the page count (total pages in document, including blank pages) and the thickness of the type of paper chosen. The spine width calculator below will give you the measurement you need.
Note: Spines narrower than 0.20″ cannot have spine text printed on them. For soft cover binding, printing on 60lb paper, the page count needs to be around 100 pages or higher to have spine text.
For more information on how to set up your cover we have full details in our Publishing Guide which you can download here. It includes details on setting up the size of the entire cover, including front, back, spine and the bleed allowance, along with room for the ISBN barcode, and making PDFs for print.
Soft cover book spine width calculator
For specialized paper calculation, please contact us at graphics@firstchoicebooks.ca.
Hard cover books:
Hard cover set up is very different from soft cover, to allow for the book boards, wider spine and 1″ bleed allowance. Please download our Publishing Guide for full details, or contact the Graphics team graphics@firstchoicebooks.ca. We can send you exact measurements for your cover.
