When printing hardback books you'll need to account for the additional 4mm trim that is added to the top and bottom margins to ensure your pages sit within the hardback casing comfortably. 

To format your files for hardback book printing you need to:

• Select ‘Page Layout’ in Word and set your document size to A4 (297mm x 210mm) or A5 (148mm x 210mm). If your files contain colour images or backgrounds, you will need to add some page bleed to your files. You can add the necessary 2.5mm bleed by going to ‘Page Layout’ and ‘Size’, then changing your paper size to 302mm x 215mm for A4 or 153mm x 215mm for A5 books. You can see an example for A4 below:

• Setting your margins is the next step and as mentioned, you need to add an extra 4mm to the top and bottom. Your top and bottom margins will need to be 19mm. Your inside edge or binding edge will need to be set to 18mm with your outside edge being 15mm. 

To set this on every page, you will need to set your margins to ‘Mirrored’. 

Your files will now be set-up and ready for hardback book printing! You can always contact one of our experts on 01733 898102 if you need any help formatting your book printing files. 

You can download our hardback book printing page template to help you!