A part of family Booklet on Sheets (digital / flatbed) or Offset is quoted as a booklet or book. The quote imposes its pages in signatures on the press sheet with the same engine as Booklets, then prices the text and cover press runs, the plates, the paper, folding, binding and trimming. Each booklet gets its own card on the Production tab.
Set it up#
- A press: a digital press for the Sheets route, an offset press for Offset (see Presses: offset, digital and label presses).
- The text stock with its sheet size and caliper, and a cover stock if the cover is separate (see Materials and stocks). Without a caliper, a leaf is taken as 0.1 mm thick and the card says so.
- In Equipment → Finishing (see Finishing machines): a Folder for saddle-stitched and perfect-bound books, the binder for the binding (Saddle stitcher, Perfect binder, Coil binder or Wire-O binder), and optionally a Three-knife trimmer. Each needs its speed and rates.
The Set up your shop wizard offers this bindery, and the Saddle-stitched booklet, Perfect-bound book and Coil-bound book starter products.
Quote a booklet#
Start from a booklet product, or open a sized part's drawer on Sheets or Offset and pick Make it a booklet. The part's size is the closed, trimmed page; its stock and inks are the text's; its quantity is the copies. Flat work instead turns it back into a flat part.
Booklet options#
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Binding | Saddle stitch: nested signatures, stapled through the fold. Perfect bound: gathered signatures glued into a wrapped cover. Coil (spiral) and Wire-O: loose leaves punched and bound. |
| Pages | Every page of a self-cover booklet; the text pages of one with a separate cover (default 16). A saddle-stitched booklet needs a multiple of 4. |
| Bound on | The long edge (a portrait book) or the short edge (a calendar or landscape book). |
| Cover | Self cover: the cover is the first and last pages of the text. Separate cover: 4 more pages on the cover stock (or the text stock), printed in Cover inks (default 4/0). A perfect-bound book always has a separate cover. |
| Three-knife trim | Trims the bound books on the three-knife trimmer (on by default for saddle stitching and perfect binding). |
How a booklet is planned#
- Signatures: the largest signature that fits the press sheet (the stock's sheet, or the card's sheet size), the paper weight and the folder, with smaller ones for the remainder. A digital press prints 4-page spreads. On offset a form prints sheetwise or work and turn, whichever fits.
- Blank pages fill the last signature, and the card says how many.
- Creep: a saddle-stitched booklet's inner pages push out at the face; the card shows the creep to compensate for in imposition.
- Spine and thickness: leaves × the caliper, plus the cover. The stitcher's or coil binder's Thickest book, and the perfect binder's spine range, are checked against them.
The plan reads like "16 pages · 4 × 4 pp sheetwise · 4 sheets a book · 2,060 sheets".
How it is priced#
Backwards through the bindery, so each step gets what the next one needs plus its waste:
- Trim the books on the three-knife trimmer.
- Bind them: saddle stitch (setup plus Extra setup per pocket for each signature and the cover), perfect bind, coil or Wire-O.
- Fold every signature of each book (not for coil and Wire-O: their leaves are flat).
- Print each text form: books ÷ the copies a sheet makes, then the card's makeready and spoilage, timed and charged on the press; the cover's form the same way for the covers the binder needs.
- Plates (offset): one line from the plate source, text and cover together.
- Paper: the printed text sheets and cover sheets, at the stocks' sheet prices; any finishing on the part, and the cover's finishing once per cover.
Example: 500 saddle-stitched booklets of 16 pages, 5.5 × 8.5 in, in 4/4 on a 12 × 18 in sheet on a digital press. One 11 × 8.5 in spread fits a side, so a book is four 4-page signatures on four sheets, nested and stapled with 4 pockets. The folder folds 4 signatures a book, and the press prints a little over 2,000 sheets with the spoilage.
When it can't be priced#
| Message | Fix |
|---|---|
| No press | Add a digital press (Sheets) or an offset press (Offset). |
| Pages not a multiple of 4 | Saddle stitching needs 4, 8, 12… pages: change Pages. |
| Spread doesn't fit the sheet | A page spread, or the cover with its spine, is larger than the sheet: use a larger stock or sheet size. |
| No binder | Add the folder, stitcher or binder the binding needs. |
| Too thick to bind | The book is thicker than the stitcher's or binder's Thickest book, or the perfect binder's Thickest spine. |
| Spine too thin | The spine is thinner than the perfect binder's Thinnest spine. |
A press, folder, binder or trimmer without speed or rates prices that step at $0 and is listed under missing rates.