This article covers everything you need to design a hardcover casewrap, from cover anatomy to centering your artwork and handling trim variance.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Anatomy of a Hardcover

Diagram of the components of a hardcover book. The image shows the layers separated and labeled: a printed paper cover wraps around a board, a liner sits between the board and the book block, end sheets glue to the inside front and back covers, flyleaves sit next to the end sheets, and the book block contains the pages of the book.

Bookboards and Spine Stick

The bookboards and spine stick are the thick cardboard base that form your hardcover. Your covers are printed on our cover stock and then wrapped and glued around these boards.


Image showing the book board laid on top of the cover stock during creation.

Wrap Area

A hardcover is printed 0.75" larger than your front cover trim size, with extra artwork wrapped around the cover board and glued to the inside cover. The inside cover is finished by attaching an endpaper to seal it. If you do not extend your cover image into the wrap area, the outside edge may be visible at the edges of your finished cover.


Incorrect wrap with color or white filling the wrap area:

Incorrect wrap with color or white filling the wrap area


Correct wrap with artwork extending all the way to the edge:

Correct wrap with artwork extending all the way to the edge


You can see the cyan blue wrap area in the letter-size hardcover template. If you are hiring a professional illustrator or photographer to create your artwork, it is very important to share with them the required artwork size, including the wrap area. 


Your image needs to fill the Total Document Size area in the template below. The critical part of your illustration or artwork must fall within the Book Cover Size area since the printed cover will wrap around the bookboard and be finished with the glued endpaper on the inside cover.


Photo of Lulu's hardcover casewrap template.


This image displays the printed covers, including the wrap area, prepared for gluing around the bookboard.

Photo of printed covers, including the wrap area, ready for gluing around the bookboard.


These wrapped bookboards are now prepared for attaching endsheets and binding to your bookblock.
Photo of wrapped bookboards, ready for endsheets and binding to the bookblock.

Overhang

Overhang is the difference between the trim size of your pages and the excess part of the cover that extends past the pages when the book is closed. Our expected overhang for all hardcovers is .125” (3mm). Since the top and bottom of your book both have an overhang, this adds .25” (6mm) to your vertical measurement and .125” (3mm) to your horizontal measurement.


There is no overhang on the spine side. The final cover size is shown on the front cover page of the template.

 

Photo of Lulu's Front Cover template with the Book Cover Size circled.

Hinge

The assembled hardcover has a fold about 0.25" (6mm) from the spine on both front and back covers. This is called the "hinge." The indent between the bookboard and the spine stick creates it. There is mild variance from printer to printer in the prominence of this hinge.


Spines

The spine is the area where the front and back covers meet at the bound side of your book. It is on the right side for books created in languages that print right-to-left. In books with higher page counts, the spine is wide enough to accommodate type or images. 


Once you have uploaded your interior file, the system creates your custom template, which includes the necessary spine width. Since variance can cause cover elements to move up to 0.125”, be sure there is 0.125” blank space on both sides of your type. This will prevent your type from moving onto the front or back cover.

Flyleaves and Endsheets

Endsheets are the pages at the beginning and end of hardcover books that are used to glue the inside pages (the book block) to the hardcover. 


To learn more about this, see our Hardcover Endsheets article. 

Hardcover Templates

Custom Templates

As you create your hardcover, the most accurate template is the one available for download after you have uploaded your interior file into the Project Creation Tool. Scrolling down to the Cover section in the Design step, you will see a Download Template button. Since your interior page count is available to the system at this stage, a new custom template has been generated with the proper spine width to bind your project’s pages.


Downloaded Template Packages

If you prefer to create your cover before uploading your interior file, you must determine the spine width based on your page count and adjust the cover templates we provide in our design bundles. Use this table to adjust for your custom spine.


Creating Your Spine

Spine Width Considerations

There is some minor variation in the width of the “spine stick,” or cardboard spine base,  used across our global network. As long as you have filled your wrap area with content, you should not see much variance caused by the slightly larger spines. 

Adding an ISBN Barcode

In your template, there is a yellow area on the back cover for your ISBN barcode. If your book will be enrolled in our Global Distribution program, you will need an ISBN. 


On the Copyright step, you can obtain a free ISBN for your project.


Note: Any future changes to your book's metadata will require a new ISBN number.



Once you click on the blue Get a Free ISBN button, a number will be assigned, and a barcode will be made available for your use. How you add your barcode to your cover depends on the method you choose to create your cover.



Create Your Cover Tool

If you have already set up your ISBN in the Copyright step of the creation tool, when you open the Create Your Cover tool, the ISBN will already be placed for you.



Upload Your Cover

If you are uploading your cover PDF created outside of Lulu’s platform, you must add the barcode yourself. You can download the barcode files on the Copyright step and insert them onto your cover PDF externally. 

Centering Your Hardcover Design

As you create your hardcover artwork, it is important to understand the elements involved in centering it. To be clear, we will never be able to guarantee perfect centering because of trim variance and the effects of cover processing and materials. You can, however, expect your artwork to be within 0.25 inches of its designed position.

 

To get the best printed result from your final hardcover PDF, you will need to consider:

  • Trim Variance
  • Wrap Area
  • Overhang
  • Hinge


Your decision is how best to design with these factors in mind to create the cover that you will be pleased with, regardless of the possible combined effects of 0.125" trim variance, 0.125" overhang variance (0.25" combined), and the effect of the hinge.


Trim Variance

Ideally, when the cover of your book is bound, the printed cover is bound at exactly 0.75 in from each edge (the "wrap" area of the template). Because binding is a mechanical process and the cover can shift slightly during the process, you may see variance in this amount. Some printers call this manufacturing variance. Your book will still be the same finished size, but the images on your cover can shift up to 0.125 inches in any direction.


Wrap Area

A hardcover is printed 0.75 in larger than your front cover trim size, and the extension of the image is wrapped around the cover board and then glued to the inside cover. 


Overhang

With an expected overhang of 0.125 inches on three sides (all but the spine edge), the finished cover size is expected to be 0.125 inches wider and 0.25 inches taller than your chosen trim size. The finished cover size, including the 0.125" overhang, is indicated on the front cover page of the template. However, overhang can range from 0.125 inches to 0.25 inches on different orders. The larger the overhang, the more left-centered your content will appear. Overhang should never exceed 0.25 inches, so the visual difference should remain relatively small.



Hinge

You can center your cover artwork on the entire cover or visually on the area to the right of the hinge. 


If you choose to center "on the hinge," you can move your content over to the right by 0.25 inches, and it will be centered more on the panel that is to the right of the hinge. 


Or, you can choose to center on the entire cover. It is important to understand that if you choose to center on the hinge, some printers' hinges are not as prominent as others.

 

Interior Rules or Borders on Covers

Avoid designing with borders placed close to your book's edge, as the artwork will never be perfectly centered. Trim variance can have the effect of making the margins around the border uneven. In casewrap covers, this is especially important because of the overhang.

Why Doesn’t My Printed Cover Look Exactly Like My Preview?

The Book Preview on the Design step is a close representation (but not an exact one) of your cover placement. As in the interior pages, it cannot account for any variance in trim. It also cannot show the effect of the overhang or the hardcover hinge. It should be used in conjunction with our hardcover templates to get a good idea of how your cover design will be positioned on the printed book; however, it cannot be used to confirm exact measurements, as variance can cause small shifts from this representation.

What Should I Do if My Cover Prints Off-Center?

If you receive a copy in which the artwork has moved by more than 0.25", please create a support ticket including an image of the cover with a ruler held to the area that has shifted, and our Print Team will help evaluate that with you.