Proper formatting is important for your book, manual, or publication. Today we will discuss one aspect of format: size, or width x length.
As you can see in the photo below, size can vary greatly depending upon purpose. Steve is holding a 10½”x 14” calendar and 3½”x 5” labor agreement.
The large size of the former makes it stand out on the wall and shows off the photography. The latter’s tiny size fits neatly in a tradesman’s pocket.
Copresco President Steve Johnson demonstrates the high and low end of the range of sizes available to suit every project.
Unlike many printers, Copresco can print and bind just about any size.
For various reasons, certain sizes are fairly common. Let’s review some of them, their characteristics, and potential reasons for choosing each format.
5” x 8” or 5½”x 8½” This size is typical of mass market paperbacks. If you’ve picked up a book to read on the beach or on a plane it is probably this size since it doesn’t take up much space.
Popular fiction is often this size, but so is anything that benefits from being compact. Because of its small dimensions, it is less suitable for longer manuscripts as it may become too bulky.
This size also fits nicely on the racks found in bookstores.
6” x 9” This size is more common for histories, nonfiction, and especially business books. It allows a paperback to emulate the look of a hardcover book.
Back when computer software was sold with disks, this size was used for the manuals that were included. This size is still commonly used for computer hardware and software instruction and reference guides.
7” x 10” Literary publications sometimes use this size as the slightly larger format allows more room for art-work and creative spacing for poetry.
Self-help books, diet and exercise guides, and smaller cookbooks are also common uses for this size.
8½” x 11” This full page format is the go-to size for workbooks because it is large enough to easily write in. It works well for technical manuals since it leaves plenty of room for complex charts and diagrams. For the same reason it makes a good size for catalogs.
It is also a common size for periodicals such as magazines and scientific journals.
The above sizes are most common, but only suggestions. The most important factor in determining finished size is final use. For example, an automobile owner’s manual should be sized to fit in the glove box.
Many printers are locked into certain sizes by their particular presses and/or binders. Not so at Copresco. You may choose any size you like, but choose wisely. As always, common sense should be used in your formatting decisions.
You might be surprised to discover that minor adjustments to the finished dimensions could have a significant impact on cost.
For example, reducing an 8½” x 11” finished trim size of a perfect bound book or manual down by just 1/8” to 8 3/8” x 10 7/8” will often yield a huge reduction in price, yet this change in size will be unnoticeable to the end user and in no way affect the book’s usability.
Remember, the larger the format, the more material fits on a page. Too small may mean too thick. After all, there is a reason encyclopedias use a large format.
If you are committed to a smaller size Copresco can help you choose a paper that will help to mitigate thickness.
So when you need a book, manual, or publication; in fact, anything with more than four pages, call the company that accommodates all sizes. Call Copresco.
For certain applications, especially those technical in nature, even the largest page size isn’t big enough.
Examples are schematic diagrams, exploded views, assembly instructions, and complex charts, graphs, and tables.
What to do? Reducing the size of illustrations or using a smaller font size are terrible ideas.
Today’s graying workforce needs larger, not smaller, type and graphics, and the potential for misreading an electrical value or part number invites disaster.
The answer may be a fold-in page. Fold-ins can double, triple, or even quadruple the size of a page without enlarg-ing the finished size of the manual.
Form should follow function, and fold-ins fit the page to the information instead of squeezing too much important information into a page.