Perfect Bound Booklet Printing
Perfect bound booklets offer a fast, affordable and professional binding solution for self publishing. Covers are created with a heavy cardstock sheet and allow printing on the spine, which makes this binding perfect for retail uses. Perfect bound books are the binding method of choice for novels, anthologies, family histories, textbooks and more.
What is a Perfect Bound Book?
Perfect binding uses strong, durable glue to bond pages into the spine:
- Cardstock covers and inside pages are printed on a digital press.
- Printed sheets are loaded into the perfect binding machine.
- Covers are scored and folded to create the spine, and the inside pages are bonded firmly with a heavy-duty, fast-hardening binding glue to create your perfect bound books.
- The perfect binder trims the edges of your books as they come off the conveyor, creating perfect 90° square corners.
Perfect bound books print with very little setup and material cost compared to hardcover binding. This means you get way more book for your buck and a wider margin to markup your product for resale. DocuCopies can even ship your perfect bound booklets directly to Amazon or other retailers and distribution companies. Contact us for information on arranging this.
Mail Books in Padded Envelopes
- Price out the printing as normal
- Select Bulk Mailing - Ship in Padded Envelopes
- Upload your Excel or CSV file with your artwork
Perfect Bound Books: How They're Made
Watch a short video on how we assemble perfect bound books:
"The perfect bound books look great and I appreciate how easy it is to do business with Docucopies. I like being able to make an order in the middle of the night and not have to talk to anyone, or wait for the business to open in the morning. The shipping feature on the website is also clear about when I can expect to receive the books. You are my favorite printing company!"Sarai J. - CA
"I have been using DocuCopies for almost a year now. Love it...this last project was a book for my church. They could not believe the sharpness of the colors and the pictures. All the members loved it. It was for the 75th Church Anniversary and it was certainly a HIT! Kudos to you all. This has made publishing so much easier for JCB Printing and Design. Glad I found you."Daisy W. - NC
"Recently, I submitted a huge order for "perfect binding" books to you all after having a bad experience with my normal printer. I was extremely nervous having never used Docucopies before but I took a HUGE gamble and went for it. I'm so glad I did. From start to finish, I was beyond pleased with the service. My customer service rep, Annie, went above and beyond to make sure my book was perfect. She even noticed some subtle mistakes, made sure I was aware of them and directed me in correcting them. The digital booklet is what really won me over. Being able to see the book exactly as it would be printed put my mind at ease. You all have a new, faithful customer. Thanks for making my experience and my order pleasant and perfect."Kimberly W. - LA
"Being in charge of the yearbook each year is very stressful because I want them to be perfect for everyone. Your staff is always patient with my hysteria and I am always pleased with the end result. I appreciate talking to live support staff with any questions or concerns that I have. Thank you again!"Kim F. - ME
"My friend Carolyn (owns MATINE) referred me to you. I trust her completely, so I didn't really shop around! My catalog came out better than I thought and I look forward to using you every year when I need a new catalog."Meredith A. - DC
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Perfect Bound Booklets FAQ
Why print perfect bound booklets?
There are many benefits to choosing perfect binding for book projects. They look incredibly professional yet cost a fraction of hardcover binding. If you want to sell your books retail, this is usually the best option since you can print on the spine (if it's wide enough), which makes it easy to index and display your perfect bound books on shelves.
Perfect binding creates a professional, softcover-style book, which is ideal for books which are read for pleasure (novels, memoirs, etc.). Hobby readers don't need to worry about books laying flat on a surface or being resistant to water and grease.
However if you're publishing technical training books, yearbooks, cookbooks, or any project that requires flat-surface reading or additional protection (laminated covers, vinyl backings, etc.), you should consider one of our other book binding options:
View All Book Types
How do I design covers and spines for perfect binding?
Perfect bound books require special setup for the covers, since the front and back cover (and spine, when applicable) are all part of the same sheet.
Please refer to this page to get more information about calculating your spine width and setting up perfect bound booklet covers:
Perfect Bound Cover Setup
How many pages can a perfect bound booklet contain?
In our experience, very thin perfect bound books may not look or feel as good, or be as durable, as thicker books because there is not enough of a surface area to glue the pages into the spine. Our order form will allow perfect bound booklets as small as 10 sheets, but we recommend you consider other binding options first if you're in that range.
On the other end, 446 is the maximum number of 20/50# Bond sheets we can fit into a perfect book. As you go up in paper thickness, that threshold will go down incrementally. The cost calculator will let you know if your book is too thick.
How do I avoid show-through to the backside of my pages?
For 100% opacity and virtually no show-through, we recommend the 32/80# Text Smooth/Gloss or higher.
For books where most of the content is text, most people are happy with 28/70# Text Smooth. This is a mid-weight paper and has minimal show-through, which is much less noticeable with text-oriented pages where the text is more or less aligned back-to-back.
Will I receive a digital proof before you print my perfect booklets?
In most cases, we do not automatically send a digital proof, so make sure to request this in the notes if you want one.
But there are some cases in which we must send a proof and receive approval before we can print:
- Files which are not JPG, PNG or PDF
- Any time you request file edits
- If we happen to notice something that doesn't look right
Can you mail my perfect bound books?
Yes we can. On the order form, click Bulk Mailing and choose "Mail in Padded Envelopes." Upload your mailing list (Excel or CSV) with your print files at checkout. We will print and bind each book, insert them individually in protective envelopes and mail them out typically in 3-5 business days. The exact USPS service used will depend on each book's weight. Please note that this service may not include tracking information.
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