Readers are often surprised to learn that a book is "designed". For every book that attracts you in the bookstore, someone took the time and effort to make the book design as beautiful and readable as possible. These days, many people own software that is capable of laying out book text or designing a book cover. At Gorham Printing, we want self publishers to have the option to do your own book design if you'd like. Our Design Studio can also provide great book design at low prices!

As a writer, you might have already designed your text during the writing process. Or you may have a friend or relative willing to help you with design. If you design yourself, you must provide us with a trouble-free PDF for printing. There are many ways to make a PDF file. Depending on the book design software you started with, it can be easy or difficult.

Things to Consider

Submitting a PDF for your text and cover may save you money on design costs. However, you risk losing what you saved, in time and money, if they are not created correctly. When reviewing your files, we may note potential problems, and request a new file, or offer to fix the problem for a fee. You can avoid any additional charges by following our clear instructions in Text Setup, Cover Setup, and How to Make a PDF.

Your text files will not incur any extra charges, when:

Your complete text is in one PDF file, first page to last, in single-page format.

The pages are all the same, correct size. This should match your final trim size, or one standard size up if bleeds occur. (See What size book should I get? in our FAQs)

The margins are at least .5 inch around text blocks (.75 inch is recommended).

Margins and page number positions match up front-to-back.

The text is solid black (0% gray or 100% K), rather than an RGB or CMYK build.

Images do not extend off the edge of the page, unless bleeds are indicated in your quote (see our Instructions for Text Bleeds).

All fonts are properly embedded.

No additional printer's marks are visible, as we have to remove these in order to process for printing.

The text contains the correct number of color photos or images (when applicable), matching your quote. Beware of photos or images that appear black and white, but are saved in RGB or CMYK color spaces.

Your cover files will not incur any extra charges, when:

The front cover, spine, and back cover are one piece, in a single PDF file (see our Cover Layout guides).

The front and back cover elements are centered along the width.

The cover is measured to the book trim size, with the correct spine width, and 1/8" bleed on all 4 sides.

The barcode is a vector image on a white background (when applicable).

The spine text is centered within the spine width (use the Spine Width Calculator on our Cover Setup guides).

There is 1/16 inch space on either side of spine type.

If your PDF is missing any of these features, we will request a new file, or offer to fix the problem for a charge, when possible.