Custom Story Books.

A board book is printed on thick laminated board pages instead of paper, and it is the format we use for infant and toddler titles. The pages wipe clean and cannot be torn, which is what a book for under-threes has to survive. Older readers get paper text pages inside a laminated card cover.

We do not print paper pages for infant books. Small fingers cannot turn them cleanly and they do not last a week of real use.

Rounded corners take the sharp point off a board edge that sits at a child's eye height. Every infant book we produce gets them as standard, and we will not run a board book with square corners. The rounding also stops the corners crushing and delaminating when the book is dropped.

On picture books for older children the rounding is optional, though it still helps the cover survive a school bag.

Sewn binding holds pages in through years of being pulled open flat, where a glued spine eventually cracks. Children read the same book many times and often hold it at odd angles, so we sew the signatures on picture books instead of relying on adhesive alone.

Board books are built differently, with the thick pages bonded as a block, and that construction does not need stitching.

Gloss lamination is the usual choice on board books because it wipes clean and keeps the illustration bright. Picture books for older children more often take matt lamination for a softer look. Spot UV picks out a cover detail on retail titles, and foil suits gift editions.

Inks on infant titles are run on a child-safe system, since those books get mouthed as a matter of course.

Square 8 by 8 inch and 8.5 by 11 inch are the two sizes we print most often. Square suits board books for small hands, and the larger portrait size gives illustrations room on a picture book page. Wide horizontal and custom trims are available as well.

Size is measured on the closed trimmed page, not the cover, which overhangs slightly on a hardcover.

The minimum run on a custom story book is 500 copies. Pricing steps down at 1,000 and again at higher volumes, so a print run pitched at a school year or a retail season usually lands in a better tier. We can take the order up to 100,000 copies on the same specification.

Standard production runs 7 to 10 business days once the artwork is approved. If the book is needed sooner, a rush slot finishes it in 5 to 7 business days. A printed and bound sample takes 5 to 7 business days, and the sample charge is credited back when the full run is placed.

Design and dieline help is free, including a check that the text sits clear of the gutter.

We keep type clear of the gutter, because children's books are held up and open at an angle instead of laid flat. Anything set too close to the spine disappears into the fold, especially on a sewn picture book with a lot of pages. Our layout check flags this before plates are made.

Illustrations can run across the spread, but faces and key detail should stay out of the centre.