Whether you’re planning a small print run for your comic or looking into other printed projects, learning how to work with printers is an amazing skill. Though many book printers do have online tools to calculate pricing (Mixam, Greko, RA Comics Direct, and Keness being a few), reaching out to a sales rep at the printer is always an option too!

Information a printer needs to give you a quote (and Delphina’s recommendations):

Paper quality (interior) - For North American printers, the thinnest option you would want is about 50lb text for your interior paper. The higher the number, the thicker the paper. 70 or 80lbs is about the top range. Other countries use gsm instead of lbs, so this range is about 90gsm - 150gsm. This paper will be called either “text” or “book” paperstock. It is often available in matte (normal) or gloss (shiny), whichever is your preference.

Paper quality (cover) - If you want your cover to be a thicker paper stock than your inner pages, look for cardstock around100lbs/270gsm. This thicker paper will be in the cover stock category.

For both paper categories, printers are often 100% okay with mailing you some sample sheets of paper of various weights so you can compare them, so don’t be afraid to ask!

Binding type - Your most common options here are case binding (hardcover), perfect binding (softcover), or saddlestitched (staple in the middle, the number of pages has to be a multiple of four).

Size - Some printers have specific sizes they print at (6.625x10.25 is a standard North American graphic novel size, but Europe uses A4-A6 sizes). Many will offer some variant of a “manga” size or do custom sizes. Measure your favorite books to see what size they are and find something similar!

Bleed - If you want any of your art to run all the way to the edge of the page, you should make a larger version of your page size with 3mm or 0.125 inches of extra art on the top, bottom, left and right sides. This is called bleed.

Colors - Your options here are one-color (black and white) or CMYK (full color). Sometimes this is called 4/4 (4 over 4) to indicate the four colors of toner (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) or 1/1 (1 over 1) to indicate K only (black)

Pro tip: If you CAN print black and white only, it’s usually gonna be cheaper!

Number of pages: Make sure you count the title page too!

Spine: Once you know the number of pages and the thickness of your paper, you can use a spine calculator to figure out how much extra you need to add to the middle of your front/back cover design (or just ask the printer in your email!)

Special fancy things: Gold foil, spot UV gloss, lamination, and dust covers for case bound books are some common ones.

Quantity: All right, so this one’s a big pain because HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO KNOW? I will say that comic books are hard to sell in an online store, but easier if you’re doing a crowdfunding campaign. Ask your printer what their minimum run is (note that setting up to print books takes a lot of time, so most printers will want you to print a lot and give you price breaks accordingly). I recommend printing a run of at least 100 if you’re considering stocking these in a store or for conventions, though there are print-on-demand places that will print fewer.

I usually print in conjunction with a crowdfund with the idea of having some left over for my online store and conventions. I ask for quotes of 100, 200, and 500, but you can adjust these depending on your needs.

Let’s put it all together!

Once I find 2-3 printers I am interested in using, I email them all at the same time to ask for pricing. That way I can compare how fast they respond to me and if any of them are clearly better priced than the others.

Here’s what a email I might send to a printer would look like. Feel free to copy and change the numbers for your own purposes!

Hello, I’d like to request a quote for an upcoming comic printing project. Please find the specs below:

Size: 6.625" x 10.25"
Pages: 104 (cover + 100 inner pages)
Bleed: None
Binding: Perfect binding
Inside Paper: 75lb Gloss, Text Stock
Inside Printing: Black and White 1/1
Cover: 140lb Cover Stock
Cover Printing: CMYK, 4/0

Quantity: I would like a quote for 100, 200 and 300 copies

Please let me know if you need any other information from me to put together a quote, and what the spine width would be for this. Thank you for your help!

Name
Email
Phone

Happy book printing, everyone!