Below are the answers to our most frequently asked questions. To the right are links to the questions below. If you have a question that is not answered on this page, please contact us directly at 888-664-8166 or email bestbook@colorwise.com.

PRICE QUOTES

Can you give me a custom quote? 

Yes! Colorwise Printing is a full service commercial printer that is able to handle all of your printing needs. If your printing requirements fall outside of the standard products that are offered on our book printing quote form, please contact us directly to discuss your project and to receive a timely quote.

What about cover design? 

We do that too. Contact us about your project and we will guide you through the process of getting a custom cover design based on your book. It's OK if someone judges a book by its cover when you've had it designed by Colorwise.

How do I decide which binding method to use? 

Here's a list of our standard binding methods and their intended use and any limitations. Our quote form will only give you options based on your books specs, so you may not see all of these listed.

Click on pictures below to enlarge.

Saddle Stitched

Suitable for books with 80 pages or less. The press sheets are folded in half and stapled on the spine.

Perfect Bound

Paperback books with more then 40 pages. This is the most common binding method for the self publisher. The pages are stacked and glued. They are then glued to the inside of the cover.

Case Bound

Hard cover books wrapped in cloth and foil stamped on the cover and spine. This method requires a minimum of 80 pages. This is more expensive but also more durable than perfect binding.

Case Bound with Dust Jacket

Same as standard case binding with the addition of a one sided loose color cover. This affords additional protection to the cloth cover and still allows for foil stamping on the cover and spine.

Case Wrapped

Mechanically the same as a case bound book, but instead of foil stamped cloth material, the cover wrap is printed in color on paper and applied to the outside boards with adhesive.

PlastiCoil

Much like metal spiral binding but made with a more durable plastic coil. This is suitable for books with up to 250 sheets and the coil is available in a number of standard colors.

Wire-O

A professional looking mechanical binding method that is available in 3 standard colors. This method uses a double loop of coated metal. Like PlastiCoil, it is suitable for books with up to 250 sheets.

ORDERS

How long does book printing take? 

The clock starts ticking only after we have a final approval. From there, soft cover books normally take between 5-10 business days. Hard cover books are a little more involved and will generally take 10-20 business days. In either case, we strive for the fastest turnaround possible while maintaining the highest quality.

How do I turn a quote into an order? 

Simply click here to submit your order and send us your files. At the top right hand side of every page on this website, you will see a submit order link. Just enter your job number and email address. You will then be able to use our file upload utility to send us your artwork and layout files. Once we have your files and quote information, we will contact you to finalize any details and begin to prepare your PDF proof.

What if I have special instructions or questions? 

While filling out the quote information, you will be able to enter notes about your project. If your project falls outside of what we consider a standard quote, you can select "Custom Quote" from within the quote form. Doing so will send your quote request directly to your customer service representative and they will contact you to gather the details. Of course, you can always contact us directly. Your customer service representative is always ready to accommodate your needs.

FILES

What programs or file formats do you accept? 

We work with all of the common design, layout and word processing applications and we do so on both Macintosh and Windows based PCs. The list of applications includes the latest versions of; Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop), Microsoft Office (Excel, Publisher, Word) and QuarkXPress. We support other applications as well, so if you don't see yours listed, please contact us.

Can I use the art on my website for my book cover? 

If there was a high resolution version of your artwork that was originally created for print and was later turned into web ready graphics, then there's a good chance that we can use the original art. However, if the only version of your art was originally created for your website, then it is less likely that we can use it for printed material. Unfortunately, web design requires only one fourth of the resolution required for high quality printing and as is often the case, no consideration is given to print design when a website is created.

Don't despair though. We will evaluate your original artwork and let you know if it can be used. If not, there's a very good chance that your artwork can be recreated for use in print at a small additional charge.

What is bleed? 

We do our best to hit it dead on, but the bindery process requires a little wiggle room. Since we print your product on oversized sheets that get trimmed down after binding, we require that the printed image extends beyond the edge of the trim size by 1/8". That extra 1/8" is what we refer to as bleed and is used to ensure that we don't have any unprinted portion of the sheet showing on the finished book. If nothing on your cover art comes close to touching the edge, then adding bleed is not necessary.

PRODUCTION

Digital printing vs. offset printing. What's the difference? 

In a nutshell, offset commercial printing uses ink instead of toner, allows for the use of a great number of different papers and offers the highest quality finished product. Digital printing uses toner that is fused to the paper with heat and has a more limited number of compatible paper options.

Digital printing still offers incredible quality and has the added advantage of almost no setup cost, making small quantities cost effective. By contrast, the traditional offset press has a much higher initial setup cost, but is more economical to run once setup is complete. This means that for runs of more than 500-1000, the price per book will go down as the quantity goes up.

What advantage does Hybrid Printing Offer? 

Digital printing is great for short run or on demand printing projects including your book. However, the weak link in digital printing is the cover. The dirty little secret about digital book printing is that covers printed on digital presses look great, but are prone to a host of problems in finishing. Cracking, peeling, delaminating and cross grain folding are always going to be issues when paper is subjected to the high temperatures required to fuse toner to paper. Hybrid printing allows Colorwise to avoid these problems. We print your covers on our commercial offset presses and do so at the same price as digital.

PUBLISHING

How do I get my book copyrighted? 

Your authorship is copyright protected from the moment you commit your thoughts to paper or keyboard. Copyright registration however will add another layer of protection at a very reasonable price. For the best information on official copyright protection, please refer to the United States Copyright Office.

What's an ISBN number and where can I get one? 

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. An ISBN number is assigned to your book by the publisher or in the case of the self-publisher, you can register your book directly with the US ISBN registration agency here.

If you don't intend to sell your book through major retailers or online services such as Amazon.com, you may not need an ISBN number. Many self-publishers intend to sell their books personally or give them away in which case an ISBN number is not necessary. However, for a title to be available in public libraries, an ISBN number will be required.