Preparing the Cover for Submission to Pothi.com

Instructions for the cover

  1. Cover has to be submitted as a single file in one of the following formats:
    • jpg/jpeg, tiff, PDF
  2. Cover should be a single page with back cover on the left, spine in the middle and front cover on the right. DO NOT submit SEPARATE front and back covers.
  3. All the images should be flattened.
  4. The images used should be of at least 300 DPI/PPI.
  5. Cover can be coloured or black & white.
  6. You can use photoshop, coreldraw etc. to create the images. Covert them to tiff/PDF/jpg before submitting on Pothi.com. If you want to avoid proprietary tools for image editing, you can use open source alternatives like GIMP and Inkspace. You can also design a generic cover with our Cover Design Wizard or get our Cover Design Service.
  7. Important terms used in describing cover
    • Spine:
      • Spine is the part of the cover that covers the thickness of the book. It falls between the front and the back cover. Spine is applicable only to the perfect bound and hard bound books. There is no spine in the saddle stitched books.
    • Bleed:
      • The covers for saddle-stitched and perfect bound books should have bleed around them. Bleed is not the part of the final cover when the book is ready. It is an extra area that gets cut-off. Bleed should have an extension of the background of the cover, but no text or graphics that are supposed to appear in the final book. The reason for putting bleed on the cover is that trimming of the book can never be exact. There will always be slight variation. So, if the background of the cover is not extended, you may see a think white strip on the edges of the cover.
    • Flap:
      • The covers for hard bound books need to have flaps. When the cover is pasted on the board, part of it is folded inside to give a smooth look to the book and to completely hide the board. This folded part is referred to as flap. Like bleed this part should have an extension of the background of the cover, but no real text of graphics as it will be covered by the end paper of the book.

    For a visual representation of these parts, please refer to this blog post on Pothi.com's official blog. It does not mention flap, but flap for hard bound books is similar to the bleed for perfect bound books. Flap is typically bigger than the bleed and while the bleed is cutoff, flap is folded inside and covered with the end paper.

  8. There should be no extra white space around the actual cover with bleed/flap. The cover should be submitted in the exact size as described next. There should be no crop marks in the cover either.
  9. Bleed/flap must be equal on all the sides.
  10. The size of the image or Page size of the PDF document should calculated as below


    Size of Book Binding Type Dimensions
    5" x 7" Saddle Stitched(Center Stapled) Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on left) + 5 (back) + 5 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on top) + 7 + 0.2 (bleed on bottom)

    5" x 7" Softcover Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on Left) + 5 (back) + 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file (Spine) + 5 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (bleed on top)+ 7 + 0.2(bleed on bottom)
    5" x 7" Hardcover (Case Binding) Width (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on Left) + 5.276 (back) + [0.157+ 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file] (Spine) + 5.276 (front) + 0.787 (Flap on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on top)+ 7.394 + 0.787(flap on bottom)

    5" x 8" Saddle Stitched(Center Stapled) Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on left) + 5 (back) + 5 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on top) + 8 + 0.2 (bleed on bottom)

    5" x 8" Softcover Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on Left) + 5 (back) + 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file (Spine) + 5 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (bleed on top)+ 8 + 0.2(bleed on bottom)

    5"x8" Hardcover (Case Binding) Width (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on Left) + 5.276 (back) + [0.157+ 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file (Spine)] + 5.276 (front) + 0.787 (Flap on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on top)+ 8.394 + 0.787(flap on bottom)
    A5 Saddle Stitched(Center Stapled) Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on left) + 5.83 (back) + 5.83 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on top) + 8.27 + 0.2 (bleed on bottom)
    A5 Softcover Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on Left) + 5.83 (back) + 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file (Spine) + 5.83 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (bleed on top)+ 8.27 + 0.2(bleed on bottom)
    A5 Hardcover (Case Binding) Width (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on Left) + 6.106 (back) + [0.157+ 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file] (Spine) + 6.106 (front) + 0.787 (Flap on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on top)+ 8.664 + 0.787(flap on bottom)
    5.5"x8.5" Saddle Stitched(Center Stapled) Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on left) + 5.5 (back) + 5.5 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on top) + 8.5 + 0.2 (bleed on bottom)
    5.5"x8.5" Softcover Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on Left) + 5.5 (back) + 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file (Spine) + 5.5 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (bleed on top)+ 8.5 + 0.2(bleed on bottom)
    5.5"x8.5" Hardcover (Case Binding) Width (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on Left) + 5.776 (back) + [0.157+ 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file] (Spine) + 5.776 (front) + 0.787 (Flap on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on top)+ 8.894 + 0.787(flap on bottom)
    6" x 9" Saddle Stitched(Center Stapled) Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on left) + 6 (back) + 6 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on top) + 9 + 0.2 (bleed on bottom)
    6" x 9" Softcover Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on Left) + 6 (back) + 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file (Spine) + 6 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (bleed on top)+ 9 + 0.2(bleed on bottom)
    6"x9" Hardcover (Case Binding) Width (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on Left) + 6.276 (back) + [0.157+ 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file] (Spine) + 6.276 (front) + 0.787 (Flap on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on top)+ 9.394 + 0.787(flap on bottom)
    7"x9" Saddle Stitched(Center Stapled) Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on left) + 7 (back) + 7 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on top) + 9 + 0.2 (bleed on bottom)
    7"x9" Softcover Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on Left) + 7 (back) + 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file (Spine) + 7 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (bleed on top)+ 9 + 0.2(bleed on bottom)
    7"x9" Hardcover (Case Binding) Width (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on Left) + 7.276 (back) + [0.157+ 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file] (Spine) + 7.276 (front) + 0.787 (Flap on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on top)+ 9.394 + 0.787(flap on bottom)
    A4 Saddle Stitched(Center Stapled) Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on left) + 8.27 (back) + 8.27 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on top) + 11.69 + 0.2 (bleed on bottom)
    A4 Softcover Width (in inches) = 0.2 (Bleed on Left) + 8.27 (back) + 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file (Spine) + 8.27 (front) + 0.2 (bleed on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.2 (bleed on top)+ 11.69 + 0.2(bleed on bottom)
    A4 Hardcover (Case Binding) Width (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on Left) + 8.546 (back) + [0.157+ 0.001968 xNumber of pages in your file] (Spine) + 8.546 (front) + 0.787 (Flap on right)
    Height (in inches) = 0.787 (Flap on top)+ 12.084 + 0.787(flap on bottom)