While your books might look great digitally or for printing at home, physical books have certain layout requirements for printing. This guide will help you make sure you’re all set to set up print editions of your work on RPG Trader.
Once you have your files ready based on this guide, you can read more about the print setup here:
Overview
Note that RPG Trader uses Lulu for print-on-demand fulfilment. All books printed through RPG Trader are handled by Lulu for printing and shipping.
If you already print books through Lulu you can use the exact same PDFs on RPG Trader and they will work seamlessly. In that case you can skip this guide and jump straight into getting your work published on RPG Trader.
Files
All print books must be uploaded as PDFs in single pages, not spreads. That means, each page of the PDF will be a page of your book - double page spreads will not be accepted.
To submit your files for print, you need to decide on a few details (it may feel daunting, but don’t worry, it’s simpler than it looks):
- Book size (A5, US letter, etc.)
- Binding (hard cover, stapled, etc.)
- Colour or Black & white
- Print quality (Standard or Premium)
- Paper stock
- Cover finish (matte or gloss)
You can easily and quickly set all of this in the print setup page:
Quick guidelines
Here are some quick guidelines for formatting and exporting your PDFs for print:
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Flatten all transparent layers and vector objects. If you do not do this, some images or pages may not print at all, or you may see semitransparent boxes appear around some images. The best way to handle this is to choose the option to flatten your PDF when you export it, or use a free online tool to flatten your PDF after export - this is quick to do and it is a crucial step when preparing a PDF for print.
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Images should be 300 PPI resolution, not exceeding 600 PPI.
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All fonts should be embedded or converted to outlines.
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Your PDF should be a single-page layout.
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Ensure that your page spreads are lined up properly in your source file. The first page of your print-ready PDF will be on the right-hand side of your book, opposite the inside of the front cover. Accordingly, odd-numbered pages in your file will be printed on the right side of the book, and even-numbered pages on the left.
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Size your PDF pages to match the book you’re creating, including the bleed dimensions of 0.125" for your document (see below). For example, a 6" x 9" book requires a PDF with pages sized 6.25" x 9.25".
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Allow a 0.5" safety margin for all content (see below).
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You can allow a minimum 0.2" gutter margin for the inner edge of all pages, but retaining the 0.5" safety margin here is recommended.
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Do NOT include trim or bleed marks in your PDF.
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Do NOT use any security/password file protection.
Some of these are expanded upon below.
Book size
Also called ‘trim size’. There are a variety of sizes you can select, from traditional TTRPG book sizes like A5, A4, and US letter, to others like small landscape and square.
If you already have a digital product, you likely already know what size your book is, so this should be a simple decision. If in doubt, go with something traditional. A5 and US Trade are common for indie TTRPGs, while A4 and US letter are also widely used.
To ensure your files are laid out correctly, you can download our PDF templates for all trim sizes here:
Measurements
When laying out your book, you need to pay attention to a few key measurements, all clearly indicated in the template files:
- Bleed (or ‘wrap’ on case wrap book cover)
- Margin
All RPG Trader books require:
- A bleed area of 0.125" (3.18mm)
- A safety margin of 0.5" (12.7mm)
If you use the templates linked above, you don’t need to worry about the measurements - just make sure your work aligns with the layout, and you’ll be good to go.
Here are the measurements for each book/trim size, without the bleed (measurements are W x H):
| Trim Size | Inches | Millimetres |
|---|---|---|
| A5 | 5.83 × 8.27 in | 148 × 210 mm |
| A4 | 8.27 × 11.69 in | 210 × 297 mm |
| US Trade | 6 × 9 in | 152 × 229 mm |
| US Letter | 8.5 × 11 in | 216 × 279 mm |
| Pocketbook | 4.25 × 6.875 in | 108 × 175 mm |
| A4 Landscape | 11.69 × 8.27 in | 297 × 210 mm |
| US Letter Landscape | 11 × 8.5 in | 279 × 216 mm |
| Small Landscape | 9 × 7 in | 229 × 178 mm |
| Comic | 6.625 × 10.25 in | 168 × 260 mm |
| Square | 8.5 × 8.5 in | 216 × 216 mm |
| Small Square | 7.5 × 7.5 in | 190 × 190 mm |
| Digest | 5.5 × 8.5 in | 140 × 216 mm |
| Novella | 5 × 8 in | 127 × 203 mm |
| Royal | 6.14 × 9.21 in | 156 × 234 mm |
| Executive | 7 × 10 in | 178 × 254 mm |
| Crown Quarto | 7.44 × 9.68 in | 189 × 246 mm |
If you’re creating your own book layout in a layout editor like Affinity or Adobe InDesign, set up your single pages with the required trim size measurements with a bleed of 0.125"/3.18mm.
Interior book files must be saved and uploaded as single pages, not spreads.
Print preview
Once you have uploaded your interior and cover PDFs, you can page through a preview of what your book will look like with the bleed, margin, trim, and fold lines all overlaid on your content:
Binding
Binding is the format your book takes - common options are case wrap (traditional hardback), perfect bound (traditional paperback), and saddle stitched (stapled zines and booklets).
Other options are coil bound and linen wrap (hardback linen cover with a dust jacket).
This is a personal choice and depends on your content. As a general guide:
- If you are printing a zine or booklet that is less than 48 pages, saddle stitch is a good option.
- If you have a higher page count and want an affordable high-quality option, perfect bound will work well.
- If you want something durable that can lie flat on the table while open, case wrap is a solid choice.
Each binding type allows for a different number of pages:
| Binding | Page range |
|---|---|
| Perfect bound | 32-800 |
| Coil bound | 2-470 |
| Saddle stitch | 4-48 |
| Case wrap | 24-800 |
| Linen wrap (with dust jacket) | 24-800 |
If you select linen wrap, you will also be required to set the linen colour and foil colour, along with the book title and author for the foil stamp. The title and author will be stamped in foil on the spine of the book (not the cover). The two fields combined cannot be longer than 42 characters. You can leave them blank to have nothing stamped on the spine if you wish.
Colour & quality
While covers are always full colour, you can choose colour or black & white printing for your interior pages. This will depend on your preference, but keep in mind that colour printing will have a higher print cost compared to black & white.
Similarly, you can select standard or premium print quality. If your book relies heavily on images and artwork, then premium would be a good choice. On the other hand, if your images are more explanatory or decorative, then standard print quality will be just fine.
For covers and colour interiors, our printing uses the sRGB colour space. If you use something else (such as RGB or CMYK), colours may change during the printing process.
For black & white interiors, it’s best to upload a greyscale PDF to avoid unexpected printing issues.
Paper stock
Your choices here are 60# uncoated white or cream, and 80# coated white. White is most common, but if you want a traditional paperback novel feel, then cream is what you’re looking for.
80# is slightly thicker and more robust than 60#, and is the best choice if your book contains a lot of artwork. Coated means the pages are a little more glossy than uncoated.
Generally speaking, unless you know you need something different, 80# coated will be your best option, especially if you have chosen premium quality printing.
Cover finish
You have two choices of cover finish - gloss or matte. Gloss is shinier and less prone to showing fingerprints after handling, while matte has a more natural feel to it. This will depend on what you feel is best for your book.
Images
Images in your PDFs should ideally be set to 300 PPI (pixels per inch), anything lower than that may reduce the image quality. Anything up to 600 PPI will be accepted, but there won’t be any noticeable difference above 300 PPI, and going higher can massively increase your file size.
If you’re not sure what that means, then look for the settings in whatever application you use for image editing.
Page setup
As mentioned above, PDFs must be uploaded as single pages and not double page spreads. Covers must be in a separate file to interior pages, as they have different dimensions (see the templates linked above).
We don’t print on the inside front and back covers (known as endsheets or endpapers). The first page of your PDF will be on the right of the inside front cover. As a result your odd-numbered pages will be on the right and your even-numbered pages will be on the left.
The layout with the bleed and margins will be the toughest part of this process if this is your first time preparing a book for print, but with the provided templates and measurements, you should have everything you need.
Once you have your PDF files ready, you can start setting up your print editions:
And setting up pricing tiers for your work:
You can also check the global printing locations for all book types here - this won’t affect what you can publish, but it’s a helpful reference to know how your chosen book type may impact shipping costs: