What to Prepare Before Printing a Book: Size, Binding, Bleed & PDF

When you're getting a book ready to print, the thing most likely to trip you up usually isn't whether the design looks good — it's a handful of decisions you haven't nailed down yet: what the book is for, which binding to use, whether the size fits, whether the page count is right, whether the file has bleed, whether the images are sharp enough, and whether the PDF is actually print-ready.

If this is your first time preparing your own book file — or you're laying out content in Illustrator, InDesign, Canva, or PowerPoint — treat this as a pre-print checklist. It won't go deep on every bookbinding craft; it's here to help you avoid the most common wrong turns first.

Step 1: Decide what the book is for

Before you print, don't open with "how much does it cost" or "which paper". The more practical first step is to be clear about where this book will be used.

• Company profile: the focus is brand image, content hierarchy, and how the cover reads.

• Product catalogue: the focus is sharp images, easy-to-find product details, and clear page numbers and contents.

• Course book / event handbook: the focus is comfortable reading, information that isn't too dense, and easy portability.

• Portfolio / photo book: the focus is image proportions, paper-stock feel, and where the spreads fall.

• Memory book: the focus is page order, photo sharpness, text proofreading, and a keepsake feel.

Different purposes call for different sizes, paper stocks, binding, and layout priorities. Decide the purpose first and you'll save a lot of back-and-forth revisions later.

Step 2: Tell the common binding methods apart

There's more than one way to make a book. Common directions include saddle stitch, perfect (glued) binding, hardcover books / photo books, and coil binding. Some more demanding books also use thread-sewn or lay-flat (butterfly) binding, but those usually need the structure and finished effect confirmed earlier.

If you haven't settled on a binding yet, you can decide from the purpose and page count first; if you've already chosen perfect (glued) binding, go a step further and check the spine glue edge and the inner-page safety margins.

Saddle-stitched booklets in particular: the page count usually has to fit the folding and stapling logic — you can't just use any number of pages you like. Before submitting, it's best to confirm the final page count meets the product's requirement.

Step 3: Don't pick the size on gut feel

The book size affects reading style, image size, portability, and the overall feel. A5 is easier to hold and hand out; A4 suits images, tables, portfolios, and product catalogues better; B5 sits in between.

If you're still torn between A5, B5, and A4, take a look at how to choose a perfect-bound book size first, then decide whether you need to adjust the layout proportions.

Step 4: Set up the file with the right size, bleed, and CMYK first

Build the book file to the finished size from the start — don't throw together a canvas and scale it at the end. If the finished product is A4, the design should be built to 210 x 297 mm; if you need a full-bleed background or image, the usual advice is to leave 3 mm of bleed on all four sides and extend the base image, colour blocks, or background into the bleed so you don't get a white edge after trimming.

For non-full-bleed content that matters — text, page numbers, logos, and QR codes — keep it at least 3 mm from the trim edge; and for perfect binding, coil, or any binding that eats into the inner edge, leave extra room for the binding and don't push content up against the inner margin.

• Finished size: set it to the final book size.

• Bleed: extend full-bleed backgrounds, base images, or colour blocks into the bleed.

• Colour: prepare print files in CMYK to avoid big colour shifts once RGB is converted.

• Safety margin: keep text, page numbers, logos, and QR codes at least 3 mm from the trim edge.

• Binding allowance: perfect binding, coil, and other methods can all eat into the inner space.

If you want to get to grips with bleed and colour settings first, see our print-file bleed guide and RGB, CMYK, and spot-colour explained.

If you've already decided on a perfect-bound book, go further and check the spine glue edge, page numbers, safety margins, spread images, and the cover spine. For the details, see the perfect-bound artwork checklist.

Step 5: Confirm the binding position before designing spreads

Plenty of books use spread (double-page) images — portfolios, photo books, product catalogues, and memory books especially. A spread can give a scene more impact, but the centre is affected by the binding, and the effect differs with each binding method.

Perfect-bound, hardcover, and coil-bound books have a spine, glued edge, or punch holes; saddle stitch and some books that lie flatter give a different spread effect again. So spreads aren't off-limits — you just need to know whether the centre will interfere with reading.

The safer approach is to treat a spread image as mood and background, and keep faces, product details, prices, tables, QR codes, and important text away from the centre line. Even if the PDF looks complete, the middle won't necessarily lie perfectly flat once it's a printed book.

Step 6: Make images, colour, and text print-ready

Books usually have lots of pages and lots of images, so once you've got a low-res image, a missing font, or the wrong colour mode, fixing it costs far more than on a single-sheet print job. Before submitting, check at least these:

• Whether images are sharp at their actual size — avoid low-res screenshots or social-media-compressed images.

• Whether the file is prepared in CMYK, so screen RGB colours don't diverge too far from the printed result.

• Whether text has been converted to outlines, or the PDF has fonts properly embedded.

• Whether images are embedded, or the linked files are supplied alongside.

• Whether QR codes are big enough with enough clear space — and test-scan them with a phone.

If you export your PDF from Canva, PowerPoint, Word, or another non-professional layout tool, it's especially worth reopening the PDF and checking once more. Don't just look at the thumbnail — zoom in on the text, images, page numbers, and QR codes.

Step 7: Run one final check before exporting the PDF

Once the design's done, don't rush to submit. Run through this quick checklist first:

• The page count is right, with no missing, duplicated, or blank pages.

• The cover, back cover, and inner pages are the right way up.

• The finished size matches the size you ordered.

• Full-bleed backgrounds have bleed.

• Text, page numbers, logos, and QR codes have safety margins.

• Images are sharp and haven't been enlarged into a blur.

• The file is in CMYK.

• Text is converted to outlines, or the PDF has embedded fonts.

• You've reopened and checked the PDF after exporting.

This step looks like a hassle, but it's a lot cheaper than discovering after printing that a page number sits too close to the edge, an image is blurry, or the spine position is wrong.

FAQ

First time printing a book — should I decide the size or the binding first?

Consider them together. Purpose, page count, and content format affect the size; page count and how long you need the book to last affect the binding. If you don't have a direction yet, pull together the purpose, page count, image proportions, and expected distribution method, then decide between A5, B5, A4, or another size.

Do I have to use InDesign to print a book?

Not necessarily, but InDesign handles multi-page book layout better. Illustrator also works for shorter page counts or single-page designs; Canva, PowerPoint, and Word can export a PDF too, but check the size, image sharpness, fonts, and bleed especially carefully before submitting.

Can I use spread images?

Yes, but keep important content away from the spine and the spread's centre line. Background and mood images are easier to handle; faces, QR codes, product details, and fine text should be moved clear.

What else should I check after exporting the PDF?

Reopen the PDF and check the page order, size, bleed, text, images, page numbers, and QR codes. Don't just trust the software saying the export succeeded — fonts, image links, and page size can still go wrong.

Ready to print your book?

Before printing, get your purpose, size, page count, binding method, paper direction, image files, and expected submission time in order. If you already have a draft PDF or design, run it through the checklist above — purpose, size, page count, binding, bleed, and image sharpness — then send it to Printing Banana so we can confirm together which book-printing method suits it best. We deliver across Hong Kong and Macau, and you're welcome to WhatsApp us at +852 3001 5678 (English is fine) if you'd like a hand before you submit.

If you're getting a perfect-bound book ready, take a look at Printing Banana's perfect-bound book printing (from a single copy); if you're still comparing sizes, start with how to choose a perfect-bound book size; and if you're ready to submit, check the perfect-bound artwork checklist.