What is a Printed Case Book? Well, it’s like a hardcover book, but without the dust jacket. Instead, the dust jacket is printed right onto the hard covers of the book. Here’s an example of what a printed case book looks like:
We recently had to updgrade the book design for the 3rd Revised Edition of my bestseller, Listen To Your Gut. As it is 520 pages long (number of pages determines spine width), this is what our printer, Sheridan Books, sent us to use as a design guideline for our new cover:
My designer and I found this SO confusing! So in case you find yourself in a similar haze, here’s the list of ‘what everything means’ that I wish we’d had!
Printed Case Glossary of Terms
Boards – the hardboard physical cover (including front cover, spine and back cover) that you see when you’re holding the book in your hands and looking at it.
Board Wrap – the amount of your pdf file that will wrap around the boards (on all 4 sides) from your front and back cover, to be glued onto the inside of the covers. So whatever color or image in your pdf is present in the wrap zone will be bent around the board edges and glued to the inside of the cover boards. If you don’t want a color or image to wrap, then make sure it ends at the edge of your boards.
Wrap/Hinge – this is the area on either side of your spine, that will be visible when looking at both the front and back cover of your book. It is where the book ‘hinges’ or bends when you open or close the covers. But when your book is on the shelf, spine facing outwards, the wrap/hinge is not visible.
Note: If you don’t want your text/images to go edge-to-edge on your Boards (physical front and back cover), then make sure you inset your text/images a certain amount from the board width and height. The amount you inset, will depend on how much ‘white space’ you want around your cover text/images. For example, if your board width/height is: 7.8125″ x 9.25″ then you may want to inset your text/images a further 1/4″ or 1/2″ from there, to ensure your design has room to breathe. It’s a matter of personal or design preference.
Here’s what our final design looked like (with bleeds):
TIP: When working with a design like this, create a black outline box that is the same size as your Boards – in this case, 7.8125 x 9.25″ and place it around both your front and back cover, so you can see what your actual book covers will look like. And how far from the book edges your design and text will appear. Do the same to check your spine art.
Hope that helps you out!
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