Here are three tips to make your Couture Book the most beautiful book it can be.
1. Preparing Your Files for Upload
When exporting your page files from your design software, make sure they are 300 dpi, sRGB JPG files sized to the exact size of your book (e.g., 12″x15″). They should be sequentially numbered individual sides. If you have spreads, you will need to split them before uploading them to your Couture Book account. We can provide a Photoshop action that splits spreads upon request. Finally, if any of your files are CMYK or grayscale, you’ll get an error message when you try to upload them.
2. Spreads
When designing spreads, avoid putting important features, like faces or text, in the exact center. The reason for this is most Couture Books are Smyth-sewn, which means we print on sheets, fold the sheets into signatures, and then sew the signatures together. With Smyth-sewn binding, there will be slight image loss on some pages once the book is bound. If you want a list of pages that lay flat, please let us know.
3. Vellum Page Inserts
If your book has printed vellum pages, please email them to us separately (don’t include them as pages in your project). Your vellum pages should be the same size as the book and be 300 dpi, sRGB JPG files. Please include the page number that the vellum page will be placed on in the file name (for example: Vellum1-Page3.jpg).
You can place your vellum pages on left or right-side pages but we recommend right-side pages (odd-numbered pages) because the vellum will lay flat as you flip through the book.
If you have any questions or need assistance, please call us at 877-472-1710 or email us at support@couturebook.com.
Best regards,
The Couture Book Team