We have seen a sharp uptick in custom coloring book printing requests at Bookmobile, and many are from folks printing a coloring book for the first time. This post covers how to design and print a coloring book, from interior art, to coloring book paper stock choices, to order fulfillment.



Designing a Coloring Book

Typically, a coloring book is anywhere from 16 to 60 pages, with black-and-white interior line art, like the page above from Joni McCracken’s Color Your Essence. When you’re preparing the art for the interior and cover, keep the following in mind:

  • Line art (as in a coloring book) should be at least 600 DPI (dots per inch).
  • If your interior is going to have bleeds, be sure your art is large enough to accommodate a 1/8″ bleed.
  • We assume your cover will print in color, so your cover artwork should be at least 300 DPI, and should also be able to accommodate 1/8″ bleed.
  • Your cover will consist of a front, spine, and back. Your quote will specify the spine width, and we can provide you with a cover template. (We do not provide templates for interior pages.)

Bookmobile’s expectation is that you will provide us with print-ready PDF files for printing. More file guidelines are available on our Resources page.

Coloring Book Printing at Bookmobile

At Bookmobile, we can print a coloring book that has as few as 16 pages, from a trim size of 3″ x 4″ (a pocket coloring book!) to 12″ x 12″ and anywhere in between, and we can perfect bind it, plastic spiral bind it, or wire-o bind it. And for a trim size of 8-1/4″ x 10-3/4″ or smaller, we can also offer perforated paper for easy tear out.

We offer a range of coloring book paper stock, available in white or natural, from 50- to 100-lb. Any of our uncoated paper stocks are a great fit for crayons, pencils, or markers. Send me an email if you’d like to receive our Paper Stock Sampler, and be sure to include your address.

All our print quotes include proofs. You’ll see a full set of printed proofs, and we need your okay to print before we proceed with printing and binding the full run. You can read more about the proofs we send here.

With clean, print-ready files and a quick okay to print on proofs, our turn is just over two weeks. Want to get started? The best way to start is to Get a Quote.

Coloring Book Fulfillment and Distribution

Bookmobile offers order fulfillment and distribution to the trade through our Itasca Books division. Itasca Books’s warehouse is adjacent to Bookmobile’s printing plant, for fast replenishment of stock and zero shipping costs for print clients.

Itasca will store your coloring books and pack your individual orders. Itasca can also distribute your books to retailers and wholesalers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Ingram, among others.

For more information about Itasca’s services, contact manager Mark Jung.

Ready to Print Your Coloring Book?

Contact me with any questions, and Get a Quote. I look forward to seeing what you’ve put together!