Setting up artwork for a board book (and print quality issues)

Setting up the artwork for a board book is slightly different to artwork for other kinds of books.

If all this becomes a little confusing, simply send us your Adobe Indesign files (or any other files) and we can advise on how to make your project print ready.

Alternatively, if the alterations are simple, we can even do it for you!

Two main types of board books

You can print either a hardback board book or a self-covering board book.

The hardback will have a case that extends out beyond the size of the internal pages, offering extra protection for your book’s interior. The cover and internal pages of a self-covering board book will all be the same size, making your book easy to handle.

The main elements of a self-covering board book

1. Quality board book production is characterised as having a hinged spine and a score on the back cover. This technique ensures your book will hold up against regular wear and tear, and stand the test of time. Beware of printers who won’t do this – they most likely don’t have the proper machinery or expertise. The book should ‘hinge’ at the score, as shown in the image at right.
2. A feature of quality board books is perfectly rounded corners. By ’rounded’, we mean neat, smoothly-cut curves. If your ’rounded corners’ are crudely done it usually means the printer’s cutting dies were too small or even blunt. This is common with Australian printers that try to do an occasional board book. If the corners have burs it can mean a poorly maintained or blunt cutting die or the printer is trying to cut too many pages at once. Australian printers might be trying to beat a low China print price without the scale of machinery or expert dextorous labour where the components need to be hand assembled. And because board books are read by children, pages should be gloss laminated to avoid scuffing and deterioration over time. Our Chinese board book printer is also very good at adding ‘spacers’ cheaply to each page spread so little kids with little fingers, can actually open the book easily. 

Guide to setting up artwork for a self-covering board book

Get the Indesign templates for a self-covering board book

Here we’ve provided a zip file with two Indesign templates – one for the cover and one for the interior.

You can use these to prepare artwork for your print project.

When using the templates, you’ll need to resize them so they are suitable for your design.