Comic Book Printing
“Comics are fabulous. They’re a place you can do things that nobody has ever done before”
— Neil Gaiman, writer and comic book creator
In comic books, literature and art collide. Exciting, intriguing, emotive, funny. Between their pages, we find adventure, imagination, comedy and tragedy. If Shakespeare was still writing now, he’d write comic books!
At QinPrinting, we believe comics merit the same high-quality production values as any art or literature. Our passion-together with an exceptional team, technological wizardry, and personalized customer care position us among the most successful independent comic book printers anywhere in the world.
“I self-publish because it’s easiest. I want to make a book, I make the book, the book gets published.”
—Kyle Baker, award-winning comic creator
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QinPrinting Rated Excellent
Whenever I have a creative idea, their team goes above and beyond to help bring it to life. I’ve printed four comic books with them, and each time, they’ve exceeded my expectations. If you’re considering a printer, take a chance on these friendly, reliable folks—they truly value your business. - Chad Townsend, Creator of The Black Phantom.
But working with Nelson was an absolute pleasure. He patiently addressed all my concerns, and my final printed book was just as I would hope it would be.
Custom Comic Book Printing Costs
At QinPrinting, we work closely every day with self-published creators to print exceptionally beautiful comic books of outstanding calibre. But we fully understand that many talented independent creatives must still work within a restricted budget. That’s why we strive constantly to work as efficiently as we can to deliver comic books of unmatched quality at prices that you can’t beat.
Don’t take that on trust. You can get an idea of your comic book printing costs with the simple price chart below. The exact cost of printing your comic book with us will depend on the paper you choose, the coating and finish for the cover and interior pages, and other factors. To get a precise, project-specific quote, use our Online Printing Cost Calculator. Unlike other offset printers who have an MOQ (minimum order quantity) of 500 or more copies, we’re happy to print as few as 100 in a single run.
Softcover Comic Book Printing Price Chart (6.7" x 10.2")
All prices listed in CAD
| Quantity | 100pcs | 500pcs | 1000pcs | 2000pcs | 5000pcs | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Page count |
Unit |
Total |
Unit |
Total |
Unit |
Total |
Unit |
Total |
Unit |
Total |
|
48pp + 4pp |
$5.68
|
$568
|
$1.57
|
$783
|
$0.96
|
$962
|
$0.71
|
$1,421
|
$0.58
|
$2,920
|
|
64pp + 4pp |
$7.02
|
$702
|
$1.95
|
$974
|
$1.22
|
$1,216
|
$0.90
|
$1,799
|
$0.74
|
$3,683
|
|
96pp + 4pp |
$9.71
|
$971
|
$2.71
|
$1,355
|
$1.72
|
$1,723
|
$1.28
|
$2,557
|
$1.05
|
$5,250
|
|
128pp + 4pp |
$12.40
|
$1,240
|
$3.50
|
$1,750
|
$2.23
|
$2,229
|
$1.67
|
$3,348
|
$1.36
|
$6,778
|
- Please note that all prices are EXW our facility and do not include shipping costs.
- Cover: 200 gsm / 74 lb coated cover paper with gloss lamination
- Inner: 105 gsm / 71 lb coated text paper for interior
- Sewn and perfect binding
- Cover and inner: full colour printing
And don’t forget that we’re real people at QinPrinting and we’re always willing to answer questions you may have. Just get in touch by whichever means you prefer — email, telephone, Skype, or our handy online contact form. One of our expert team members will be delighted to assist.
Common Comic Book Sizes
We can print any size comic book you want, although unusual custom prints will cost a little more than standard sizes because of the extra work involved in preparing the plates and setting up the machines. The most common size for a comic book is 6.625″ by 10.25″. From a commercial perspective, it’s often in the self-publisher’s interest to stick to this format. It’s effective and inexpensive, meets customer expectations, and cuts down on set-up time, leading to a faster turnaround.
On the other hand, why not experiment? If you have good reason to innovate, you could try a larger 7.3″ by 11″ tabloid size comic, a smaller 5.5″ by 8.5″ pocket edition, or switch things up with a landscape rather than portrait orientation. It’s all possible. The only limits are your imagination and how the comic-buying public will respond. Check out this handy comic book print-size chart.
Common Comic Book Size Chart
| 6.625" x 10.25" | 7" x 10.375" | 5" x 7.5" | 6" x 9" |
|---|---|---|---|
|
7.3″ x 11″ |
5.5″ x 8.5″ |
8″ x 10″ |
8.5″ x 11″ |
Comic Book Paper Options
The paper on which you choose to print your comic book changes its appearance, durability, and cost. Many commercially produced comic books use lightweight, uncoated paper stock for black-and-white interiors and heavier, coated paper for colour interiors. These standards are fine for most comics.
But at QinPrinting we recommend 105 gsm / 71 lb, 128 gsm / 86 lb, 157 gsm / 106 lb coated paper or 80 gsm / 54 lb, 100 gsm / 68 lb, 120 gsm / 81 lb uncoated paper for comic book interiors as they give a lovely crisp, vibrant finish to the artwork and make the text easy to read. It will also stop the artwork “bleeding through” to the other side of the page.
Choosing book interior paper depends on the book size and book thickness, too. As a general rule, we recommend thinner paper for the interior. Thinner paper can be opened flat easily which is best for a small size book. If the interior paper is too thick, smaller books can be harder to open.
If the book is 8.5″ x 11″ or larger, we recommend thicker paper for the interior. For example, 128 gsm / 86 lb, 157 gsm / 106 lb coated paper or 100 gsm / 68 lb uncoated paper.
If the book has 32 pages or less and you want to use perfect binding, we recommend 200 gsm / 135 lb coated paper to reach the required spine width.
Paperback Cover Paper
- 200 gsm / 74 lb gloss cover paper
- 250 gsm / 92 lb gloss cover paper
- 300 gsm / 111 lb gloss cover paper
- 350 gsm / 129 lb gloss cover paper
- 200 gsm / 74 lb matte cover paper
- 250 gsm / 92 lb matte cover paper
- 300 gsm / 111 lb matte cover paper
Hardcover Paper
- 157 gsm / 58 lb coated cover paper wrapped on 2 mm grey board
- 157 gsm / 58 lb coated cover paper wrapped on 2.5 mm grey board
- 157 gsm / 58 lb coated cover paper wrapped on 3 mm grey board
- Other paper wrapped on grey board
Interior Paper
- 105 gsm / 71 lb coated text paper
- 128 gsm / 86 lb coated text paper
- 157 gsm / 106 lb coated text paper
- 200 gsm / 135 lb coated text paper
- 80 gsm / 54 lb uncoated text paper
- 100 gsm / 68 lb uncoated text paper
- 120 gsm / 81 lb uncoated text paper
You can download a book cover template to check the book spine thickness according to different paper types and page amounts here.
Paper for the cover of your comic depends on your choice of bindings. Typically, we make comic book covers of heavier, gloss art paper. But you can also use the same paper as your interior, in which case we refer to this as “self-covered”. Saddle stitched, perfect bound, or hardcovers are the best options for comic books you want to last and look truly professional.
Bindings for Comic Books
While many comic books are “self-covered”, the style of binding you choose depends on the genre, length, reader expectations, and your budget. The most popular options for professional comic books are “saddle stitching” and “perfect binding”. Comic book creators may also choose hardcovers for special editions or series collections.
This means that we make the comic of folded sheets stacked inside each other, often with an added cover sheet of glossy art paper, and then stapled together down the curved edge. The name comes from the original process of sewing the pages together with binding thread. Saddle stitch is only possible with a page count divisible by four, up to a maximum of 64 pages. But to make sure the book is neat and lays flat, we recommend a limit of 48 pages or fewer for this style of binding.
This is the binding used for standard paperback books. We collate the interior pages into a block, glued together, and then glued into a wrap-around cover made of heavier art paper or lightweight card stock.
In this binding, we organize the interior pages in “signatures” which are then sewn and glued into a hard cardboard casing covered with a printed sheet to form the cover.
Self-covers are the most inexpensive option and hardcovers are the costliest, with perfect bound edition falling somewhere in-between. The final cost always depends on the materials, size, length, and number of copies printed in a single run.
Comic Book Design and Artwork Tips
The quality of your artwork reproduction is always important, but never more so than when printing a comic book. Whether your comic is a series of short cartoon strips designed to raise a laugh, an exciting story for children, or a complex narrative for adults, you want your artwork to “leap off the page” into the reader’s imagination. With that in mind, here are a few useful tips to help you when you’re preparing your files for the printer.
Export your files as vectors in PDF format for the best results. Our recommended software options for comic book design are Adobe InDesign or Adobe Illustrator. These will also allow you to convert your colour space from RGB to CMYK which you will need to do for offset printing
If you can’t deliver vectors — say, if you’re exporting bitmaps from Photoshop — then make sure the resolution is at least 300 DPI. With vectors, you needn’t worry about resolution, but all other images must have a high definition to tolerate resizing without becoming fuzzy and “pixilated”
You’ll need to add a “bleed zone” of 3 mm around all your pages. A bleed is an extended zone at the periphery of your artwork, which falls outside the area that your finished page will cover. Once we’ve printed your pages, we’ll cut them to the exact size needed for your comic book format. This “bit extra” gets cut off and makes sure that the finished image fills the page with none of it being lost. You should mark bleed zones as red lines
Inside your bleed zone, don’t forget to mark the “trim lines”. These will define the final dimensions of the finished page. Make sure that any necessary elements of your images stop at least 10 mm short of the trim line
If you’re working with a professional designer to create your files, they should understand what’s needed to make everything “print ready”. But if you’re working with design software yourself for the first time, these are the vital tips to remember before you submit your files. Still, our team of experts will always manually check all your files before we go to press. If we find any issues, we’ll let you know and help you resolve them. We won’t print your comic until we’re sure we’ll get a perfect result.
Have other questions? Contact us!
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If you’re an indie author or a small press wanting to print a comic book — and only the finest product and unbeatable customer service will do — we should talk. Get in touch today to chat through your needs or to ask for a no-obligation quote. We can’t wait to help you make your next comic the best!