Paper size is a critical issue in book printing. This is because a book design must fit economically on the paper size being used. The economics of printing a book depends on the ratios between the size of the trimmed book, the size capability of the print machine and the size of the paper. The key to economic print is to find and economical print provider and then determine what paper size fits on their machine. For example a printer’s machinery may only be able to fit or utilise SRA3 (Supplementary Raw Format A) sized paper – sized paper is 450 x 320mm. Economic print can be achieved by fitting as many printed pages on to that sheet as possible. A SRA sheet can only fit two A4 sized pages. If your book is to be sized A6 the printer can fit 6 page impressions on the SRA3 sheet.
This explains why just a small change to the size of you book upwards – a change to a larger size – might significantly change the printer’s price. Why? Because printed pages that do not snugly fit on the sheet size introduces wastage. This is illustrated in diagrams below.
An A5 sized book will fit well on a SRA3 sized sheet of paper. Note the pages will need space to be cropped and the print sheet might need a small area to grip the paper.
Eight A6 sized pages fit snugly of the SRA3 paper sheet. Note the ‘green borders’ are necessary for the printer to allow space to cleanly trim the final book to size. In the diagram below 8 A6 pages sit nicely onto the SRA3 sheet size.
SRA3 Sheet size 450 x 320mm to accommodate A6 pages sized 105 x 148mm
If you are wanting a book at a slightly larger size e.g. 112 x 148mm – just 7mm taller, this will create a problem because the pages won’t fit, in fact they will “overflow” the SRA3 sheet.
SRA3 Sheet size 450 x 320mm to accommodate pages sized 112 x 148mm
Because the artwork won’t fit, a larger sheet size is required i.e. greater than SRA3. The artwork will now fit but notice the paper wastage. This adds significant cost to the price of printing each book.
Larger SRA Sheet size to accommodate pages sized 112 x 148mm showing paper wastage in green section.
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