Signature and Page Count Savings

PRC Book Printing is an overseas printing company. Our client range from Publishers, Independent authors, brokers, and Businesses printing Hard cover books, Soft cover books, perfect bound books, Children’s books, Board Books, Cook books, Coffee table books, Photo books and much more. They come to us for our great quality, but most important to save money.

As they explain their project, we help them or recommend ways to save money on printing. One way is to customize their book size by the most efficient signature size for their project. By changing the size of the book; sometimes a half inch could save them hundreds to thousands of dollars. Changing the signatures size, you are utilizing paper more efficiently, less signatures are produced and less labor needed. Below we explain how signatures work and page count should be considered.

What is a page? Let’s take a sheet of standard copy paper used in everyday printers at home and or work. On the Front side (page 1) you begin to read “PRC Book Printing”. Then you turn the page over to the back side (page 2) to read “Overseas Printing”. Both front and back pages are part of a single sheet or part of a “signature”.

A signature is made up of pages which are positioned so they can be printed, folded, and bound into a finished book. Commonly used signatures can be made up of 8, 12, 16, 24, 32 and 64 pages. This means the press sheet has 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, and / or 64 pages will be printed on it.

One of the most common book/signature size is 8.5” x 11”, which is made up of a 16 page signature. As you can see in the diagram, 8 pages on the top side and 8 pages on the back side make up this signature and fit paper sizes 23 x 35” and 25 x 38”.

Using a full press sheet, ½ or ¼ of the sheet saves money by reducing the number of steps required to complete the job. A page size being 5.5” x 8.5” or 6×9”, this size would run as a 32 page signature, 16 pages on the front of the sheet and 16 pages on the back, which is an efficient and economical savings.

Here is a guide for economical page counts:

Page Size Economical Page Counts 8.5 X 11 16, 20, 24, 32, 36, 48, 52, 56, 64, 68, 72, 80, 84, 88, 96 5.5 X 8.5 8, 16, 32, 36, 40, 48, 64, 68, 72, 80, 96 6 X 9 8, 16, 32, 36, 40, 48, 64, 68, 72, 80, 96

This information is prevalent for pretty much all books that are hard cover and soft cover.

If you need help with creating an economical book or if you have any questions or comments about what was mentioned above, please contact PRC Book Printing through our website or Call us at toll Free: 888.659.8320.