Children’s Book Printing

Children’s Book Printing
children hardback book printing
saddle stitch children's books
print your hardcover children's book
children book printing and binding service
children book printing
softcover children book printing
Play Video about Children’s Book Printing
Children’s Book Printing
children hardback book printing
saddle stitch children's books
print your hardcover children's book
children book printing and binding service
children book printing
softcover children book printing
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Watch your story spring to life with our world-class children’s book printing services
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

–from I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! by Dr. Seuss

Books are vital in a child’s education, helping them to learn to read, explore ideas, use imagination, develop empathy and reasoning, and to find the courage to live their best lives.

At QinPrinting we believe children deserve the most beautiful books possible. That commitment — coupled with 25 years of success in the industry, an expert team, the latest technology, and unrivaled customer service — sustains our first-class reputation among self-publishers of children’s books around the globe.

Let the wild rumpus start!

–from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Instant Quote

Quantity
We are an offset printer, rather than a digital or print-on-demand service, so we must impose a minimum order quantity (MOQ). We’ve set ours as low as possible, at 100 units. But with offset printing, the higher the quantity you order in a single print run, the lower the cost-per-unit.
Size
Choose preset dimensions from the dropdown menu or click “CUSTOM SIZE” to enter your own custom dimensions.
Please use the format, width x height;
size
so, 5.5" x 8.5" would mean 5.5" wide and 8.5" high.
The possible size range is 3.74" to 11.69" in width or height, allowing for portrait or landscape orientation.
Cover
A hardcover book’s cover is printed on one side only; the outer-facing side. The inside front cover and inside back cover are glued to the end sheets.
Cover Paper
As standard, we wrap the grayboard casing in 157 gsm / 58 lb cover paper. If you need a special material or a solid color paper for the cover, please contact us first to discuss your options.
157 gsm

157 gsm ≈ 58.0 lb Cover Paper

Grey Board Thickness
Lamination
We laminate only the outside of the cover as the inside is glued to the end sheets.
Surface

We offer a comprehensive selection of special surface finishes which we can apply to most covers, with a few limitations. For example, spot UV can only be applied to matte laminated and soft-touch laminated covers.

These options are only suitable for gold or silver foil stamping up to a 5.9" x 1.18" area; and embossing, debossing, or spot UV up to a 7.87" x 1.96" area. If the special finish area you need is larger than this, please contact us to get a quote.

Besides gold and silver foil, we can foil stamp designs in a range of colors. If you need a special color foil stamp or have specific surface requests, please contact us. We’ll be happy to help.
End sheet
The end sheets connect the hardcover casing and the interior pages when binding the book. So, there are two end sheets, one at the front and one at the back and both glued to the grayboard cover.
blank end sheet option
color end sheet option
End Sheet Paper
If your book size is 8.5" x 11" or less with an interior page count of fewer than 320 pages, then a good option for the end sheets is 140 gsm / 95 lb offset paper.
If your book size is larger than 8.5" x 11", then 170 gsm / 115 lb offset paper would be better.
If your end sheets will be printed and your book’s interior uses gloss or matte art paper—say, for an art book or coffee table book—to make sure the colors match well, use 157gsm / 58 lb gloss or matte art paper for your end sheets.
1 gsm ≈ 0.68 lb Text Paper
Inner
Page Count
One sheet of paper is equal to two pages.
page-sheet
page-sheet
 
The total page count is a multiple of 4. When printing and binding your book, we fold sheets into “signatures”.
If your book is larger, say, 8.5" x 11" or A4 size, one signature will have 16 pages. So, the inner page amount should be divisible by 16. Making your page counts match signatures is the most economical solution.
The maximum page count for a hardback book is 800 pages. If your book is more than 800 pages, please contact us for a tailor-made quote.
Inner Paper
Please select your paper choice for your internal pages from the dropdown menu. If you have a special request not listed here, get in touch. We’ll do everything possible to satisfy your needs.
1 gsm ≈ 0.68 lb Text Paper
Binding
We use high-quality sewn hardcover binding which gives a “square” printable spine.
Sewing and hardcover
EXW Price 
Calculating
*The price doesn’t include shipping costs.
Estimated weight:
Quantity
We are an offset printer, rather than a digital or print-on-demand service, so we must impose a minimum order quantity (MOQ). We’ve set ours as low as possible, at 100 units. But with offset printing, the higher the quantity you order in a single print run, the lower the cost-per-unit.
Size
Choose preset dimensions from the dropdown menu or click “CUSTOM SIZE” to enter your own custom dimensions.
Please use the format, width x height;

size

so, 5.5" x 8.5" would mean 5.5" wide and 8.5" high. The possible size range is 3.74" to 11.69" in width or height, allowing for portrait or landscape orientation.
Cover
The cover is composed of four pages. They are the front cover, the inside front cover, the inside back cover, and the back cover.
Cover Paper
If you need special paper not shown in the dropdown menu, please contact us.

1 gsm ≈ 0.68 lb Cover Paper

Lamination
We laminate only the outside of the cover.
Surface
We offer a comprehensive selection of special surface finishes which we can apply to most covers, with a few limitations. For example, spot UV can only be applied to matte laminated and soft-touch laminated covers.
These options are only suitable for gold or silver foil stamping up to a 5.9" x 1.18" area; and embossing, debossing, or spot UV up to a 7.87" x 1.96" area. If the special finish area you need is larger than this, please contact us to get a quote.
Besides gold and silver foil, we can foil stamp designs in a range of colors. If you need a special color foil stamp or have specific surface requests, please contact us. We’ll be happy to help.
Inner
Page Count
One sheet of paper is equal to two pages.

page-sheet

page-sheet

 

The total page count is a multiple of 4. When printing and binding your book, we fold sheets into “signatures”.
If your book is larger, say, 8.5" x 11" or A4 size, one signature will have 16 pages. So, the inner page amount should be divisible by 16. Making your page counts match signatures is the most economical solution.
Inner Paper
Please select your paper choice for your internal pages from the dropdown menu. If you have a special request not listed here, get in touch. We’ll do everything possible to satisfy your needs.
1 gsm ≈ 0.68 lb Text Paper
Binding
If your book has 48 pages or fewer, we recommend saddle stich as your binding option.
If you have more pages and choose fairly thin paper, such as 80 gsm /54 lb or 105 gsm / 71 lb text paper, we recommend perfect binding.
If your book has heavier interior paper or the page count exceeds 200 pages, sewn perfect binding will be your best choice.
Wire-O and spiral binding are other options and both of them open flat.
perfect binding
sewn perfect binding
wire-o binding
saddle stitch binding
spiral binding
EXW Price 
Calculating
*The price doesn’t include shipping costs.
Estimated weight:
Quantity
We are an offset printer, rather than a digital or print-on-demand service, so we must impose a minimum order quantity (MOQ). We’ve set ours as low as possible, at 100 units. But with offset printing, the higher the quantity you order in a single print run, the lower the cost-per-unit.
Size
Choose preset dimensions from the dropdown menu or click “CUSTOM SIZE” to enter your own custom dimensions.
Please use the format, width x height; so, 5.5" x 8.5" would mean 5.5" wide and 8.5" high.
size
The possible size range is 3.54" to 11.22" in width or 3.54" to 11.02" in height, allowing for portrait or landscape orientation.
Binding
Self-covered board books have two rounded corners.
Self-cover board book binding
Cover and Inner
Page Count
The covers are included in the page count.
page-sheetpage-sheet
Paper
Board books are made of the same paper throughout, so there’s no difference between the cover and the interior pages.
Lamination
We laminate all the pages. If you’d like different laminates for the interior and the cover, please get in touch.
EXW Price 
Calculating
*The price doesn’t include shipping costs.
Estimated weight: 
Quantity
We are an offset printer, rather than a digital or print-on-demand service, so we must impose a minimum order quantity (MOQ). We’ve set ours as low as possible, at 100 units. But with offset printing, the higher the quantity you order in a single print run, the lower the cost-per-unit.
Size
Choose preset dimensions from the dropdown menu or click “CUSTOM SIZE” to enter your own custom dimensions.
Please use the format, width x height; so, 5.5" x 8.5" would mean 5.5" wide and 8.5" high.
size
The possible size range is 3.54" to 11.22" in width or 3.54" to 11.02" in height, allowing for portrait or landscape orientation.
Cover
A hardcover board book’s cover is printed on one side only; the outer-facing side.
Cover Paper
As standard, we wrap the grayboard casing in 157 gsm / 58 lb cover paper. If you need a special paper or a solid color paper for the cover, please contact us first to discuss your options.
157 gsm

157 gsm ≈ 58.0 lb Cover Paper

Grey Board Thickness
Lamination
We laminate only the outside of the cover.
Surface
We offer a comprehensive selection of special surface finishes which we can apply to most covers, with a few limitations. For example, spot UV can only be applied to matte laminated and soft-touch laminated covers.
These options are only suitable for gold or silver foil stamping up to a 5.9" x 1.18" area; and embossing, debossing, or spot UV up to a 7.87" x 1.96" area. If the special finish area you need is larger than this, please contact us to get a quote.
Besides gold and silver foil, we can foil stamp designs in a range of colors. If you need a special color foil stamp or have specific surface requests, please contact us. We’ll be happy to help.
Inner
Page Count
The page count does not include the covers.
page-sheet
page-sheet
Inner Paper
Please select your paper choice for your internal pages from the dropdown menu. If you have a special request not listed here, get in touch. We’ll do everything possible to satisfy your needs.
Lamination
We laminate all the interior pages.
Binding
The interior pages will have rounded outer corners. The corners of the cover are not normally rounded. If you need round corners for your cover, please contact us.
Hardcover board book binding
EXW Price 
Calculating
*The price doesn’t include shipping costs.
Estimated weight:

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Custom Children’s Book Printing Costs

At QinPrinting, we help self-published authors to print children’s books of unmatched quality every day. But we also understand the importance of fulfilling an order within your budget. That’s why we continually review our work processes to make sure we always deliver exceptional quality books at the most competitive prices you’ll find anywhere in the industry. And that’s a promise.

But don’t take our word for it. See for yourself! You can get an immediate estimate of how much it will cost to print your children’s book by checking out our at-a-glance pricing charts. Unlike most children’s book printing services — which have a minimum offset print order of 500 or even 1,000 books— we offer a minimum offset print run of just 100 units and still with a competitive price advantage. But as you’ll see from the charts, the more copies you order in a single run, the less you pay per copy.

Paperback Children’s Book Printing Price Chart (8.5” x 11” or 8.5” x 8.5”)

All prices listed in USD

Quantity 100pcs 500pcs 1000pcs 2000pcs 5000pcs
Page count
Unit
Total
Unit
Total
Unit
Total
Unit
Total
Unit
Total
32pp + 4pp
$3.36
$336
$0.97
$485
$0.62
$617
$0.47
$949
$0.41
$2,052
40pp + 4pp
$3.98
$398
$1.15
$576
$0.75
$750
$0.57
$1,142
$0.49
$2,465
48pp + 4pp
$4.44
$444
$1.29
$645
$0.84
$839
$0.65
$1,297
$0.56
$2,798
  • Please note that all prices are EXW our facility and do not include shipping costs.
  • Cover: 250 gsm / 92 lb coated cover paper with gloss lamination
  • Inner: 157 gsm / 106 lb coated text paper for interior
  • Cover and inner: full color printing
  • Binding: perfect binding

Hardcover Children’s Book Printing Price Chart (8.5” x 11” or 8.5” x 8.5”)

All prices listed in USD

Quantity 100pcs 500pcs 1000pcs 2000pcs 5000pcs
Page count
Unit
Total
Unit
Total
Unit
Total
Unit
Total
Unit
Total
32pp
$7.03
$703
$2.00
$998
$1.53
$1,530
$1.37
$2,736
$1.23
$6,147
40pp
$7.85
$785
$2.22
$1,108
$1.68
$1,684
$1.47
$2,949
$1.31
$6,543
48pp
$8.45
$845
$2.39
$1,193
$1.79
$1,788
$1.56
$3,119
$1.38
$6,890
  • Please note that all prices are EXW our facility and do not include shipping costs.
  • Cover: 157 gsm / 58 lb coated cover paper with matte lamination wrapped on 2.5 mm thickness greybeard
  • End sheets: 157 gsm / 106 lb coated text paper, blank
  • Inner: 157 gsm / 106 lb coated text paper for interior
  • Cover and inner: full color printing

For a more detailed quote, try our easy and convenient online Printing Cost Calculator. Just drop in your information, and get an instant quote! If you have any questions, get in touch and one of our enthusiastic, knowledgeable, expert team members will be delighted to help.

Common Children’s Book Sizes

The size of a children’s book typically depends on the target age group. Booksellers, teachers, and librarians divide juvenile readers’ book types into the following categories:

  • Board Books for preschoolers from 0 to 4 years old
  • Picture Books for 4- to 8-year-olds reading with support
  • Early Readers for 4- to 8-year-olds reading alone
  • Chapter Books for 6- to 9-year-olds
  • Middle Grade fiction for 9- to 12-year-olds
  • Smaller sizes are great for preschoolers and toddlers — think of a 6″ x 6″ board book — who respond to a book they can hold and whose pages they can enjoy turning even with tiny hands.
  • Picture books are often printed in landscape up to 12″ x 9″ to accommodate full page illustrations and more text.
  • Early readers are more popular in portrait sizes, ranging from 5.5″ x 8.5″ up to 9″ x 12″.
  • Most chapter books and middle grade fiction books are the same sizes as a standard paperback, so usually 5.5″ x 8.5″ to 8″ x 10″.
Square children book printing
Square
Portrait children book printing
Portrait
Landscape children book printing
Landscape

Check out our handy children’s book size chart to explore the possibilities and help you to decide which size would best suit your children’s book.

Common Children's Book Size Chart

Square 6” x 6” 7” x 7” 8” x 8” 8.5” x 8.5” 9” x 9” 10” x 10”

Portrait

5.5” x 8.5”
6” x 9”
8” x 10”
8.5” x 10”
8.5” x 11”
9” x 12”

Landscape

8.5” x 5.5”
9” x 6”
10” x 8”
10” x 8.5”
11” x 8.5”
12” x 9”

Children’s Book Paper Options

Most children’s books feature colorful illustrations, cartoons, or other artwork. So, we recommend printing on gloss or matte art paper to get the best results. Gloss and matte both have ideal surfaces for vibrant color printing that will make your children’s book illustrations really ‘pop’. Gloss paper is often best for books with full-color spreads and less text, whereas books with more text and fewer illustrations may benefit from matte paper. Matte paper will still give gorgeous color reproduction while making the text easier to read.

For drawing, coloring, or activity books, we suggest an uncoated paper stock. On uncoated stock, the kids can scribble away to their hearts’ content with pencils, pens, felt tips, Sharpies, crayons, and paint. Gloss and matte papers are not absorbent enough to work for these “interactive” book styles. So, if the children need to write on the book or color-in or paint the pages, uncoated paper is the best choice.

gloss art paper children book printing
Gloss Art Paper Book
matte art paper children book printing
Matte Art Paper Book
offset paper children book printing
Uncoated Paper Book

Interior Paper Stock for Children’s Paperbacks

Paperback — also known as “perfect bound” — is a popular choice for chapter books and middle grade fiction. This binding style needs the spine to be at least 3 mm thick. With middle grade fiction, that shouldn’t be a problem. But to meet that threshold with the shorter books, if the interior page count is 32 or less, we recommend 200 gsm / 135 lb coated paper for the interior pages. Generally, 128 gsm / 86 lb, 157 gsm / 106 lb, or 200 gsm / 135 lb coated paper is ideal for children’s books. And remember that books for kids take a lot of knocks, so to resist the worst wear-and-tear, it’s a good idea to use sturdier, thicker paper that’s more durable and less easily damaged.

Children's Book Paper List

Paperback Cover Paper

Hardcover Paper

Interior Paper

Bindings for Children’s Books

Several binding styles may suit your children’s book project. While each binding has its particular qualities, which may make it suited to one kind of book rather than another, they are all viable options and the choice in the end is a personal one. These are the best bindings for children’s books:

To make a hardcover, we prepare the pages in “signatures” which we then stitch together, collate, and fix into a hard outer casing or cover board, wrapped with a printed cover sheet. The hard case overhangs the interior pages slightly.

Perfect binding: For children’s books, we also prepare the pages in “signatures” which we then collate, stitch and sewn together signature by signature. Glue the signatures and a flexible printed cover at the binding edge. Then cut so that all the pages and the cover are “perfect”. We also call them sewn and perfect binding. This binding is sturdy.

It includes self-covered board book binding and hardcover board book binding. Self-covered board book binding is with the front and back faces wrapped with a printed sheet which also covers the spine. Hardcover board book binding is with a hardcover added after interior front and back faces wrapped together.

With saddle stitching, we fold the pages and stack them inside each other, often with a separate cover sheet on the outside, and then staple or stitch them together.

In this binding method, we perforate the pages by drilling holes down one side and then bind them together using a colored plastic coil. We might also add cover sheets or even soft vinyl covers.

While children’s books come in all shapes and sizes, the choice of binding is very important for reasons of appearance, durability, and even safety. Let’s look at the different kinds of children’s books and the binding styles which are most popular and suitable for each.

Board Book Printing

Board Books 

Board books are in a category of their own because they are not bound at all. The “pages” are glued together and a final sheet of printed paper is wrapped and glued around the faces of the first and last boards and over the “spine” to form the cover. That said, it’s possible to add a hardcover to a board book, which is another popular choice. Find out more about our board book printing services here.

Saddle-stitch book printing

Picture Books

These may be larger-sized board books. Another popular choice is a saddle-stitched binding with a glossy cover. This only works if the book has few pages. Saddle-stitched picture books must have pages in multiples of 4. Most have 12 to 32 pages with full-page artwork. But we recommend that the saddle-stitching is sewn rather than stapled. This avoids the potential danger if a staple comes loose through rough use. Sewn bindings are also very attractive and more durable. Top-of-the-range picture books are often bound in sewn hardcovers, too.

Early Readers Children Book 

Early Readers

Early readers may be bound in the same way as picture books. But the longer style with more text and fewer pictures may also be comfortably “perfect bound” as a paperback book.

Chapter Books  Children Book

Chapter Books

Given their length (typically 10,00 to 20,000 words), chapter books are almost always produced as paperbacks. On rare occasions, an author may choose a hardcover binding; for example, if it’s to be a “special edition” or a compendium of shorter stories.

Children’s Book Printing

Middle Grade 

Fiction for this age group can be unillustrated and up to 45,000 words long. For this reason, middle grade books are usually treated in the same way as paperbacks intended for adults. So, you would choose a perfect binding in most cases. Hardcover binding is also an option.

Other bindings — such as sewn hardcover and sewn perfect bound or spiral bound — may interest you, but the options above are the most common for children’s books.

Children’s Book Design and Artwork Tips

Artwork is a vital component of most children’s books. Even for a middle grade novel with a text-only interior, you’ll want a colorful, attention-grabbing cover. Whether you’re preparing your own artwork or commissioning a professional artist or graphic designer, it’s important to understand how to prepare the artwork for printing. You’ll need to allow for bleed zones, safety areas, trim lines, and borders, for example, and make sure that the resolution and the color space are correct. With that in mind, here are a few useful tips to help you when you’re preparing your files for the printer.

PDF

Export your files as vectors in PDF format for the best results. Our recommended software options for children’s book design are Adobe InDesign or Adobe Illustrator. These will also allow you to convert your color space from RGB to CMYK which you will need to do for offset printing.

300dpi

If you can’t deliver vectors — say, if you’re exporting bitmaps from Photoshop — then make sure the resolution is 300 DPI. With vectors, you needn’t worry about resolution, but all other images must have a high definition to tolerate resizing without becoming fuzzy and “pixilated”.

3 mm bleed zone

You’ll need to add a “bleed zone” of 3 mm around all your pages. A bleed is an extended zone at the periphery of your artwork, which falls outside the area that your finished page will cover. Once we’ve printed your pages, we’ll cut them to the exact size needed for your children book format. This “bit extra” gets cut off and makes sure that the finished image fills the page with none of it being lost. You should mark bleed zones as red lines.

trim line 10mm

Inside your bleed zone, don’t forget to mark the “trim lines”. These will define the final dimensions of the finished page. Make sure that any necessary elements of your images stop at least 10 mm short of the trim line.

A competent book designer should understand the technical details — including how to digitize any traditional artwork — and we’ll always manually check your files before going to press. However, the responsibility for sending “print ready” files is yours. But please don’t worry! We’ll be happy to “hold your hand” through the process, explain what’s needed, and liaise with your designer to make sure everything goes smoothly and you end up with a perfect print.

To learn more about preparing your art for printing, please check out our Prepress Artwork information page.

Have other questions for us? Contact!

The QinPrinting Eco-Friendly Promise

At QinPrinting, we are very conscious of our responsibility to develop our industry in a sustainable way that respects the life of the planet and of future generations. For that reason, we use paper stock that’s sourced from FSC-certified sustainable forestry whenever possible. We can provide recycled paper material on request. We also use environmentally-friendly soy inks—based on harmless, biodegradable vegetable products—rather than toxic resins and solvents. Getting your book printed in batches with an offset printer — rather than one at a time with a print-on-demand service — is also significantly more energy efficient, saving both water and electricity.

When you order from us, we can include the FSC-certified logo and an environmental guarantee from the manufacturer of the soy inks.

FSC Marks

Let’s Talk!

If you’re an indie author or a small press wanting to print a children’s book — and only the finest product and unbeatable customer service will do — we should talk. Get in touch today to chat through your needs or to ask for a no-obligation quote. We can’t wait to help you make your next book the best ever!

Get in touch