PRINT an A4 PERFECT BOUND GRAPHIC NOVEL at EX WHY ZED

A4 Perfect Bound Books
4­ page cover onto 300gsm Uncoated
Gloss Lamination to outer
40 inside pages onto 170gsm Silk
Four colour print throughout
Trimmed, collated and perfect bound

In this showcase snippet video, we enjoy looking through The Lost Adventures of Baron Buckman, an A4 perfect bound graphic novel with a front cover that ticks the number one pre-requisite of a book front cover: it entices the reader in and makes them want to read more.

We have a 3 or 4mm spine which is just about deep enough to add the title and press information. You can see one of the perils of a spine this small, however, with the tiniest bit of a movement, the purple colour bar has ever so slightly slid round to the front cover. A better solution would have been to continue the cover image onto the spine so any movement would have been less obvious.

Opening the book, we see that the reader has to press the papers down maybe a little bit more than they’d like to see the full width of the page in the spine gutter. This is because of how tight that skinny spine is having to hold the pages in.

It’s actually visually a really nice print spec though and the combination of finishes works well.

The 40 inside pages are printed onto 170gsm Silk to make the colours super bright and the novel’s story engaging.

The front cover is onto 300gsm Uncoated with a Gloss Lamination to the outside creating a shiny outer but a matt inside.

Perfect binding gives this a substantial aesthetic, so would we switch to stapling instead to get around the spine gutter issues? Hmm, it’s tough but probably not. Reducing the inside pages to 130gsm and making the cover 250gm would have helped.