Cover, jacket and PPC file preparation guidelines

When designing book covers and jackets there are a number of points to take into consideration and we have produced some guidelines to assist you in the design process.

There are three types of book covering:

Paperbacks which have a thin card cover, drawn and glued onto the spine of the book block.

Printed Paper Cases (PPC's) which consist of a paper cover, wrapped around and glued to pieces of grey board to create a case which is bound to the book block.

And finally the Book Jacket which is a paper cover wrapped around a plain material covered case.

In order to create a document of the correct dimensions the designer needs to know the following, the binding style of the publication, the correct trim size of the publication and the spine bulk plus any allowances for boards and bleeds.

In order to calculate the correct spine allowance the designer needs to know the final page extent, the volume of the paper stock to be used and its grammage. If using one of MPG Books stock papers this information is available from the stock lines page.

Below are example layouts showing allowances for bleeds, case sizes and wraparounds.


Our spine width calculators:

Spine Bulk Calculator (if using MPG Books paper)
 
Paper
No. of Pages
Spine Bulk =  mm
 
For Paperbacks this figure is the final spine size.

For Jackets & PPC's a further allowance is required for the boards.
For bulks less than 30mm add 5mm
For bulks over 30mm add 6mm
For bulks over 40mm add 7mm
For bulks over 55mm add 8mm

If you are still in any doubt then contact your customer service representative for a layout.

Due to variations in the manufacture of paper the figures are accurate to a tolerance of + or - 5%

Spine Bulk Calculator (if supplying own paper)
Once you know the page extent, volume and grammage enter the figures in the appropriate boxes of the calculator and click on the 'calculate' button to find the bulk of the finished book block.
Page Extent
Paper Volume
Grammage
Spine Bulk = mm