Manga Printing
After putting countless hours into creating your manga, the next step is to figure out how to get a high-quality print of your creation. You want to ensure you choose the best paper to fit the aesthetic of your design and utilize proper color settings for the best possible end result. Manga printing can be a nerve-racking process especially for first-time publishers, so here’s everything you need to know to fulfill your vision.
Manga Printing Costs
How much does it cost to print manga books? You may click the left online quote form to get your manga book costs. The price charts below provide typical manga book printing costs for your convenience.
Manga Book Printing Price Chart (6” x 9”)
Quantity | 100pcs | 500pcs | 1000pcs | 2000pcs | 5000pcs | 10000pcs |
16pp + 4pp | $186 | $281 | $340 | $469 | $937 | $1734 |
20pp + 4pp | $240 | $358 | $432 | $584 | $1169 | $2087 |
32pp + 4pp | $290 | $441 | $549 | $769 | $1548 | $2909 |
40pp + 4pp | $348 | $532 | $673 | $935 | $1925 | $3530 |
- Please note that all prices are EXW our facility and do not include shipping costs.
- Cover: 105gsm/40lb gloss art paper; interior: 105gsm/70lb gloss art paper, saddle stitch.
Manga Book Printing Price Chart (8.5” x 11”)
Quantity | 100pcs | 500pcs | 1000pcs | 2000pcs | 5000pcs | 10000pcs |
16pp + 4pp | $193 | $295 | $362 | $507 | $1038 | $1930 |
20pp + 4pp | $249 | $377 | $461 | $632 | $1292 | $2323 |
32pp + 4pp | $300 | $464 | $586 | $836 | $1726 | $3260 |
40pp + 4pp | $360 | $560 | $720 | $1019 | $2144 | $3958 |
- Please note that all prices are EXW our facility and do not include shipping costs.
- Cover: 105gsm/40lb gloss art paper; interior: 105gsm/70lb gloss art paper, saddle stitch.
Manga Printing Service
Generally, manga printing services utilize offset printing to bring your creation to life. This type of printing allows for your manga to utilize the full spectrum of colors at a relatively low cost, particularly for larger orders. It uses real ink to create colors for the genuine appearance of your manga. Offset printing can also print at a fast rate, so you can receive your finished manga in a short amount of time.
You also want to consider the binding used in your choice of manga printing service. Usually, mangas use saddle stitch, perfect binding, or hardcover binding.
- Saddle stitch, also known as stapled binding, uses staples to connect each of the pages together.
- Perfect binding uses an adhesive to join all of the pages together.
- Hardcover binding gives an extra level of stability to the manga and makes it look like a high-end product.
Mangas most frequently use perfect binding or hardcover binding.
We help you create the highest quality manga you can by providing free printing file checking, free artwork modifications, free cover templates, and free interior templates. With our extensive services, you can choose from a variety of cover enhancements including lamination, spot UV, foil stamping, embossing, and die-cutting.
An Example of Manga Printing Specifications
- Size: 5.5″ x 8.5″
- Cover paper: 200gsm matte art paper with matte lamination outside
- Interior paper: 105gsm matte art paper
- Printing: CMYK printing
- Interior page count: 32 pages
- Binding: Saddle stitch
Best Paper for Printing Manga
When choosing the best paper for printing manga, you must consider whether the paper is coated or uncoated, and the format of the paper. Choosing the right paper can help bring together the full aesthetic of your manga.
Uncoated paper and coated paper can both fit the needs of printing manga depending on the circumstances. For black and white prints, the uncoated paper generally provides a higher quality end result. This is due to the way uncoated paper provides more absorption of the ink giving the appearance of less saturation. For color printing, both coated paper and uncoated paper can work well depending on the aesthetic you want. Coated paper generally provides more saturation of the colors making them pop out more.
For choosing the format of your paper, you want to consider the size of the overall manga you want to produce. Most mangas use A4 or B4 sizes. In the US, A4 paper comes in a size of 8.5-inches by 11-inches which corresponds to a single page of your manga. This format is the most popular size for manga books. B4 comes in a size of 9.8-inches by 13.9-inches which is the traditional Japanese format for producing manga. For publishing your manga book, you need to ensure the format of the paper matches your manga. You can do this by shrinking or enlarging your manga to fit the format you desire. If these formats do not work well for your manga printing, you can also use custom sizes to achieve the exact results you want.
If you’re still unsure about which type of paper you want, you can always ask our printing experts to send you a paper sample manual and see which paper you like. Contact us now!
What Color Setting Is Good for Printing Manga?
To ensure your manga print accurately represents the colors of your digital files, you need to use the correct color settings. Computers show their colors in an RGB format while ink-based printers utilize a CMYK format. The RGB format utilizes additive primaries to create colors meaning they add a combination of the three primary colors to a black screen to produce the colors of your choosing. However, the CMYK format utilizes subtractive primaries taking color away from the white paper. Converting from RGB to CMYK can cause some color distortion that can result in your printed manga not accurately representing the digital version.
To ensure your printed manga looks the same as your digital manga, you need to convert all photos to the CMYK format before you do the design. This allows the printed colors and your original colors to match almost perfectly. Converting the artwork from RGB to CMYK after you finish designing your manga ends up altering the colors more because the printer will control the conversion from RGB to CMYK using a Raster Image Processor (RIP). After the printer converts the colors using a RIP, the printed colors and your digital manga colors end up looking different if the artwork is in an RGB format. This is because the RIP software controls the CMYK colors throughout the entire process to produce the CTP. Since the CTP is the most important factor in the printing process for accurate results, you end up with alterations caused by the transition from RGB to CMYK in the RIP software. That’s why converting all of your photos to the CMYK format before you do the design is so important to printing manga with the quality you desire.