Art Book Printing

Whether you’re looking to organize your child’s artwork all one place, collect the artwork of a class of students, or compile your best artistic works or fine arts in a professional portfolio—you can easily and cost-effectively publish art book printing projects.

We especially like the idea of using an art book printing to organize all your child’s artwork in one place. During their school years, children come home with so many pieces of art. If you’re like most parents, you throw out the old art when the new art arrives. Or perhaps you gather all the artwork in a box in the basement.

But taking pictures of all that art and organizing it in an art book printing project is a beautiful way to showcase that art. Don’t let our minimum print quantity of 25 books keep you from printing your child’s art. You’ll want one; your child will want one; grandparents, aunts, and uncles will want one. Before you know it, all 25 copies will be distributed.

At Publishing Xpress, we consider publishing books, well…an art! We provide all the tools you need to create a custom art book printing that showcases your masterpieces exactly the way you want. We offer a range of art book printing services—choose your own unique size, binding, and paper. Our online calculators can give you an instant quote on your printing project:

Before you publish your art book printing, there are many decisions you need to make in the design of the book. Check out this e-how article on publishing an art book for details. Or for inspiration, check out these 10 Art Books That Will Nourish Your Soul. You might also want to download our Ultimate Guide to Printing Your Book, Booklet, Catalog, or Magazine. It’s free and contains lots of helpful tips when designing your art book.

You may also want to check out one of our client spotlights: Tails from the Lonely Side of Rainbow Bridge.

Tips for printing your art book

The focus of your art book printing should be — the Art! That typically means that there will be large colorful images throughout the book. You’ll want to make sure that the book is set up to showcase that art. Here are some tips you should consider to do that:

• Since an art book printing is all about the art, make sure that all of the images in the book are of the highest quality. You want to make sure each image is at least 300 dpi and and the color profile is set to CMYK. Often photos are set in an RGB color profile, but since we are printing with CMYK colors, the photo colors can shift during printing until they have already been converted to CMYK.
• Be careful of using a spread across two pages to display your artwork. With perfect binding, about 1/8 of an inch will get buried in the spine. This typically is not a problem if a person’s face is not in the center of the spread. Make sure to offset the person’s face to the left or right of the center.
  A reader typically won’t notice if a portion of a landscape is buried in the spine of the book. If you really want to use spreads but aren’t sure how much will get buried in the spine, order a hard copy press proof. The press proof will be printed on the same paper and binding, so you will know exactly how your finished books will look.
• Leave lots of white space in the book. Large margins look good in all books (it’s an amateur’s mistake to pack a page with type and graphics), but large margins in an art book really showcases the art. Remember, the focus in an art book should be the art itself, not the words on the page. We recommend at least 1/2 inch margin on all sides of the page, with an additional 1/8 on the bound side of the book.
• Decide on the binding style to use. Most art books are printed with perfect binding to give the book a professional look. For art shows, you might want to use saddle stitch binding. Or if the book is more like a workbook for the user to try their hand at the art, you might want to consider a wire-o or plastic coil binding. The decision will depend on the ultimate use for your art book.
• Since most art books are designed to show the artwork in a luxurious manner, be sure to use the best quality paper. For the inside pages, use 100# text stock, which is our heaviest text weight paper stock. Not only does that weight give a nice hefty feel in the reader’s hands, but it is thick enough that images with heavy color coverage won’t show through the page.
• Make sure your cover pops with a sample of the art that is within the book. This will make the reader want to open the book and see what is inside. Consider using lamination on the cover — gloss lamination will really make the colors pop, while soft-touch lamination has a very velvety feel.

Get printing quotes for art book printing

Once you’re ready to publish your art books, you’ll find that Publishing Xpress has lots of great options for you—including four different binding styles, lots of paper options, lamination of covers, quick turnaround, and outstanding customer service. Plus, we always stand behind our 100% satisfaction guarantee, so you never have to worry whether you’ll be happy with your printed product.

When you’re looking for art book printing companies, it’s always a good idea to do your homework. Be sure to request a free sample package and printing quote for your project. The plastic coil book in the sample package has a sample of all our paper options as well as gloss and soft-touch lamination. We’re happy to provide everything you need to make the right print decision.

Contact us today!

With Publishing Xpress as your art book printing partner, you’ll have access to quality services at affordable prices. Have questions about the art book printing online process? Our client service representatives are here to help. You can chat online (our chat feature is in the right hand corner on every page of our website), call us at 1-877-977-3779, or email us at help@publishingxpress.com. You may also want to check out our other book printing ideas!