InDesign book cover with hardcover set-up
InDesign book cover with material hardcover set-up.
InDesign book cover with material hardcover set-up. Hardcover book cover dimensions may differ among printers. You will be needing a measurement template to use for book cover wrap dimensions for any hardcover book. Ask for measurements or a template from the printer.
The cover wrap file is a separate InDesign file from the actual text pages. See the example in the feature image on this post. The material could be cloth, linen, bonded leather or a faux substitute. see examples at Star Print Brokers.
Very important
The printing file will be black and white with no background color or images. That is because you are creating the InDesign file for a die to create a foil stamp. You are not printing ink on the cover of a book with a material cover wrap. Select the foil with the printing representative.
The cover wrap is not the same as a dust jacket
The choice is between a cloth cover wrap or a paper cover wrap that will print with your design. Any cover wrap will glue to the boards. A dust jacket never glues. Instead, it is a loose paper that folds around the book. The dust jacket flaps will tuck around the front and inside back covers. We manufacture standard as well as French fold styles.
Hardcover books can bind with a printed paper cover wrap, cloth, or other materials. There is extra margin that extends beyond the cover, but only for covers that are printing. The extra margin is not applicable in the design set-up for material covers.
This margin wraps over the top, bottom, and outside edges of the book. When designing for a material cover wrap, you do not need to set up the InDesign book cover file with any extra wrapping margins.
Working with hardcover dimensions for the cover
When a hardcover book is 7″ x 10″, we are stating the dimensions of the page. The boards extend out farther than the pages. But if asking for a quote, we still say the book is 7″ x 10″.
In the USA, book designers typically work in units of inches or picas. However, in Europe and Asia, they work in millimeters. In Preferences, toggle between millimeters, inches, or picas as you need to do so.
Either right click on the rulers to change to millimeters, for instance, or go to Edit > Preferences > Units & Increments. Change the horizontal and vertical to millimeters. Click OK.
Open a new document for a hardcover set up. For now, we will assume the book is 7 inches wide x 10 inches tall. The spine width is 0.5 inch.
Note: The dimensions below are the example text page dimensions. However, all hardcover dimensions will be larger than the page size. This is because the boards are larger. Board dimensions and thickness varies among printers.
- Go to File > New > Document.
- Number of Pages: 1
Here is how we got to the measurements:
Width: 7 in back cover + 0.5 in spine + 7 in front cover = 14.5 in.
- Width: 14.5 in Height: 10 in
Under File > Document Setup, set the width to 14.5″, and the height to 10″. Ignore the Bleed and Slug settings for material cover wrap files.
The barcode and cover wrap
A material cover wrap usually does not have a barcode on the back cover. That is because it most often has a dust jacket is printed with the barcode. If you do not want the hardcover book with a material cover wrap to have a dust jacket. A barcode sticker must be printed separately to be applied to the back cover of the book. It can also be applied to a shrink-wrapped book or a poly bag especially for that book.
However, do not bag or shrink-wrap books if they are to be sold in bookstores. Book buyers like to browse books before buying and this feature may discourage sales.
See the set-up for a cover wrap that is paper that we will print with your design. It is the least costly cover wrap material.
