A5 paperback files for print should be supplied as a PDF of single pages, not double page spreads.

It is important to note that we are a digital book printing company, meaning that our A5 paperback books are often a few millimetres smaller than true A5 size. Our A5 black and white paperback books are 202mm x 143mm in dimension, while our colour books are full size at 210mm x 148mm. The reason for this is that it is more cost effective to print this way, and the savings are passed on to you!

To supply your A5 document for print you can edit it in Microsoft Word:

• In Word, click ‘Page Layout’ and set your document size to A5 (148mm x 210mm).

• If you have colour images that run to the edge of your page you will need to add some page bleed to all edges. This prevents the images being cut off during printing. To add bleed to your document, go to ‘Page Layout’, ‘Size’ and click on ‘More Paper Sizes’. This will allow you to enter a custom size and you will need to set it as 153mm x 215mm.

• Next you will need to add margins to the page. This can be done in ‘Page Layout’ and ‘Margins’. Set the top and bottom margin to 15mm. Once this is done you will need to set your inside edge (binding edge during printing) to 18mm. The set the final edge to have a 15mm margin. 

• The final job is to set the margins to be mirrored. Select ‘Page Layout’ again, then ‘Margins’ and choose ‘Mirrored’

Now you pages will be all set up and ready for print.

If you need any further assistance, please contact us on 01733 898102 or you can download a preformatted template online.