Publishing Jargon Glossary
Every publishing term explained in one place, collected from across our guides.
Terms & Definitions
Plain-English explanations of the publishing terms used throughout our guides.
Perfect Bound
Pages glued flat to the spine cover — the standard softback paperback binding.
Hardcover
A rigid board cover glued and stitched to the pages, also called case-bound.
K-ink
The black ink channel in CMYK printing — K stands for Key/Black.
Bookwove
A cream-toned uncoated paper stock commonly used for novel interiors.
ISBN
A 13-digit code that uniquely identifies a book edition or format.
Imprint
The publisher name under which a book is registered — can be your own name or a chosen business name.
Publisher of Record
The name officially listed as the book's publisher in ISBN and library databases.
Print-on-Demand
A model where books are printed individually as orders come in, rather than in a bulk print run.
DPI
Dots per inch. A measure of image sharpness for print, minimum 300.
RGB
The colour format screens use. Printers need CMYK instead.
CMYK
The colour format printers use, made of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink.
Spine Width
The thickness of your book's spine, based on page count and paper weight.
Trim Size
The final cut size of your printed book after trimming.
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