Book Printing & Binding Options – Customize Your Book Format

InstantPublisher offers hundreds of custom book printing options to suit your unique needs. Whether you're printing novels, memoirs, workbooks, or full-color guides, our wide range of book binding formats ensures your project looks exactly how you envision it.

Below, you'll find an overview of our most popular book printing and binding methods. Looking for something unique? Contact us for a custom quote or free consultation.

Popular Book Binding Types

Book Binding Options

All of our custom book binding methods, except the 3-Ring and hard cover bindings, are what are sometimes referred to as "soft covers." The 3-Ring binding is laminated card stock with a padded core, which is formed around three metal rings, similar to a school notebook. We offer several book binding options (click for more information on each binding type)

		Perfect Binding, otherwise known as paperback binding, is the standard free option InstantPublisher offers. This book binding method is an excellent book printing option for many books, including novels, family history, poetry, corporate reports, manuals, brochures, annual reports and much more. One advantage of this type of book binding is that if your book has 80 pages or more, we can print the title information on the spine of the binding. Sewn Perfect binding is also offered for thicker color books. Sewing the perfect bound books allows the books to last much longer and is the preferred method for larger books or books that will be handled a lot.
		Hardcover/Casebound binding is the highest quality book binding method available. The 80# printed sheet is glued on heavy binder board to make a smooth outside cover. The cover can be printed in color or black and white. The book block is then sewn and glued to the inside of the board, making a very durable Hardback book cover. Standard turnaround time for hardcover books is 20-25 business days.
		Hardcover/Cloth binding is also an option that InstantPublisher offers where the binder board is covered with cloth and a dust jacket is used to identify the book. Foil Stamping in gold, silver or other colors can be added for book identification .
		Dust Jacket Option includes a 3-inch fold that wraps inside the book for additional printing space. The dustjacket option is also available with all hardcover selections.
		Hardcover Wire/Wire-O binding is the highest quality book binding that still allows a book to lay flat. The 80# printed sheet is glued on heavy binder board to make a smooth outside cover. The cover can be printed in color or black and white. The cover and book block are then punched and bound together with Wire-O. There are several different varaitains to this binding stile including concealed, the standard option that InstantPublisher offers is the non concealed version. For pricing on different versions please email for quote. Standard turnaround time for hardcover wire books is 20-25 business days.
		Wire-O Double Wire Binding uses a continuous hinge of double loops of wire to hold the book covers and leaves together. Wire-o double wire binding is recommended for: upscale brochures, reference manuals, cookbooks, and calendars. Advantages: lays flat and looks professional. Disadvantages: the wire is metal and can bend if enough pressure is applied, whereas the plastic wire will bounce back to its original form. The maximum number of pages for this binding style is 350.
		Plastic Wire Binding is a great binding for reports, brochures, children's books, high-tech manuals, cookbooks, and reference materials. The advantages to this binder are that it's durable, crushproof, clean, modern looking, and it allows your book to open flat. The maximum number of pages for this binding style is 350. The stock color for the plastic wire binding is white. Special colors can be ordered but may delay production time.
		Plastic Comb Binding is excellent for reports, reference materials, documents and cookbooks. The binders are offered in black, white, or red and can be special ordered in many colors. The advantages are: the greatest capacity of any mechanical binding, the ability to interleaf pages, pages can be changed and the book can be laid flat. Spine printing is also available with this binding style at special request.
		Saddle Stitch Binding is one of the simplest book binding styles. It is also the most widely used. Folded signatures are placed over a "saddle" and then stapled along the spine. This style of book binding method is excellent for booklets, brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, direct mailers and catalogs. Page numbers have to be in multiples of 4 to make the folded booklet. As few as 8 pages with cover can be used or up to 64 pages with self-cover.
		3-Ring Binders are custom printed and can be printed in full color. All covers have plastic lamination, for extra durability. Cover designs should be designed using the template for the binder size that will fit your book. If this type of book binder option is selected, along with printing the presentation material, 3-hole punching is free. If you prefer to have your material 3-hole punched without a binder, we also offer that option.

Paper Options

Color Book Printing Book manuscript format

We offer 80# Lustro High Gloss Enamel paper or 80# White Matte paper (dull, non-glossy). The high gloss paper is similar to school book text enamel used in yearbook printing. We also offer 100# Gloss Enamel as a thicker alternative to the 80# if you need additional thickness in your book. For extreme thickness, we offer a C2S card stock which can only be bound by one of the spiral methods. All our enamel paper is FSC certified recycled paper.

Black and White Book Printing

Our standard text paper is 60# acid-free Smooth White. Most bookstore quality non-color books are printed on this type of paper. We do offer, however, the 60# Smooth Opaque Off-White for black printing as an option at no additional cost. The 60# paper is only 10% post recycled product, so it is not FSC certified recycled paper, but does contain some recycled content.

Color & Black and White Book Printing

Cover stock is 10pt C1S (coated one side). Covers with inside print are printed on C2S (coated two sides). Cover coating consists of either a UV liquid coating that is no additional cost or plastic lamination coating for $.25 additional. Both the UV and plastic lamination look the same with a very high gloss. However, the plastic lamination provides a little extra protection. The cover stock used contains only 20% post recycled product, so it is FSC certified recycled.

Note: Paper types cannot be mixed within a book. The type you select will be used for all content pages of your book.

Printing in Color

During the order process, if your book contains color photos, all you do is select color printing and tell us how many pages are in color. Please remember that with color you will generate a very large file. A broadband internet connection (fast connection) is necessary due to the size of the file.

Color book printing is a little more difficult in setting up your book files, as you will need to make sure the images you will be using are 300 dpi in resolution.

Keep in mind that printing in color has some inherent differences from black and white printing.

Color Book Printing from Black and White—

First... The color files you will be uploading will contain much more information and will be much larger. A fast Internet connection is absolutely essential for the successful implementation of this process. A broadband internet connection, such as DSL, cable or satellite is required. [256 kbit/s or higher]
Second... Although you will find that our process is very economical when compared with other printers, color printing is still more expensive than black and white. You can use the handy pricing calculator on our site to give you an exact estimate of your publishing costs.
Third... Although it is possible to compose effective documents containing color images with a standard word processing program such as Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect, use of a higher end layout software such as Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress will produce higher quality results.

Publishing a Book with Some Color Pages—

*If you want to publish a book with some color pages, please make sure all grey images in your book are true grayscale images. Otherwise, an additional charge will occur. Use our handy pricing calculator for an exact estimate, before book printing begins.

Proof Copies

If you do want a printed hard copy proof of your book before printing, there will be a flat charge of $50.00 for any color book order and any black & white book order that is under 200 copies. For a black & white book order that is over 200 copies, the proof copy cost is $30.00. With the proof copy option, you will be mailed an unbound proof of your book and cover. Bound proofs are available for an additional $25 for all binding styles but hardback, which will be an additional $45. The proof will be mailed within 3 days after the order is received and production will continue when your approval is received to complete the book printing process. Please keep in mind [to publish books] that the pages are going to appear exactly as submitted, but we are happy to provide the proof feature. Proof copies are necessary for color matching purposes. Proofs are sent via FedEx Ground or can be sent overnight via FedEx for an additional $35 inside the USA and $55 outside.

Rush Services

Rush printing service is available for certain orders, during certain times of the year. Rush service is a minimum charge of $120 or 12% of the order total, whichever is more. Rush service will bring the turnaround time down to 3 business days for black and white books and 5 business days for color books. Rush service is not always available for hardback books, call for availability.

*Note, turnaround time does not include shipping time.

Please contact us for availability and dates if you need this service in the self publishing process. This service is intended for emergencies only. Please try to plan ahead and avoid using our rush printing service. [Contact us for any questions or concerns about how to self publish or self publishing].

Book Sizes

We offer four standard page book sizes:

4¼" x 7"

5½" x 8½"

6" x 9"

8½" x 11"

8" x 10.75" Hardcover/ Casebound*

And just about any custom size you can think of for any non-standard size, select the next size larger and enter your custom size in the final trim size box. For sizes smaller than 4x5 and larger than 8.5x11, call for a custom quote. Full bleeds are also offered but are priced as a custom size.

Book Cover

InstantPublisher offers both black and white and color cover options for our book binding services. You can choose from our stock artwork, submit your own or choose from various levels of design service for complete customization.

Covers can be UV coated or plastic laminated for a gloss effect or linen laminated for a textured feel. Foil stamping is also offered at an additional charge.

Cover Options & Finishing Touches

Choose from matte or glossy covers, UV coating, foil stamping, embossing, and more. Our high-quality finishing options add professionalism and visual appeal to every project.

Need Something Custom? Let's Talk

If you're not seeing the exact printing or binding combination you need, we’re here to help. Call us at 1-800-259-2592 or reach out online for personalized recommendations.