Creating the Perfect Bind Cover

You can design and create the cover for a perfect bound job using Cover Builder.
To design and create the perfect bind cover:
  1. In the Covers panel, specify the settings required for the perfect bind cover.
    For details about a specific setting, click the Help button to display the on-screen field help.
  2. Make sure that you set the outside, the inside, or both sides of the cover to be printed with job content.
    Depending on the printing option selected for the cover, you can edit the outside cover, the inside cover, or both covers in the Cover Builder view. This procedure provides the steps required for editing both covers.
  3. Click Cover Builder.
    The Cover Builder view is displayed in the workspace. The areas available for the cover pages and the spine are marked on the cover sheet. The spine area can only be edited for the outside cover.
      Important:
    • When you select a cover printing option, the first or last pages in the job are placed on the cover sheet by default, depending on the printer. If the PDF page that is placed on the cover sheet by default is twice the size of the job paper, Cover Builder recognizes it as a cover. To start designing a new cover, you must first click Delete cover. The corresponding PDF pages are also removed from the job.
  4. Click Spine position button, the Spine position button, at the bottom of the workspace and adjust the settings configured for the spine as required.
    The spine settings determine the location of the spine on the cover sheet and the size of the front and back cover spaces. Make sure that you configure these settings correctly before you start designing the cover.
  5. Select the page that you want to place on the cover in the page list and drag it to one of the cover areas or to the spine area.
    You can also enter the number of the page in the Outside cover settings menu.
    Cover Builder — Outside cover

    After you place pages on the cover, you can use the buttons at the bottom of the workspace or the right-click menu to set the page position, order, size, and rotation.

      Note:
    • The pages placed on the cover are the original document pages and do not include inserted objects, such as masks, text, or images. If you want the cover pages to include inserted objects, you must first save the objects in the input document by saving the job as a PDF file. Then, you can use the resulting PDF file to create the perfect bound job.

      The same applies for page content settings, such as page numbers, headers and footers, page stamps, or bleed edge tabs.

  6. To change the page order when the pages placed on the cover overlap each other, select a page, click Order button, the Order button, and select an order option.
  7. To position a page, select it and click Align button, the Align button.
    Select a reference point to align the page based on that reference point. You can enter offset values in the input fields to shift the page horizontally or vertically from the selected reference point.

    You can also click the page and drag it to a new position.

  8. To crop a page, select it, click Crop button, the Crop button, and select a cropping option.
    You can use the Crop to fit option to crop the page so that it fits in the available cover or spine area.
  9. To scale a page, select it, click Scale button, the Scale button, and select a scaling option.
  10. To rotate a page, select it, click Rotate button, the Rotate button, and select a rotation option.
  11. To center a page, right-click it and select Center, then Vertically, Horizontally, Both, or To spine.
    The To spine option centers the page on the spine area.
  12. To remove a page, right-click it and select Remove.
  13. Click Outside cover settings button, the Outside cover settings button, at the bottom of the workspace, and then click Create cover.
  14. Click Delete source pages.
    Once you remove the source pages from the job, you can no longer edit them. Before you delete the pages, make sure that the final output is correct by printing a test copy.

    If you want to remove the created cover, click Delete cover.

  15. Click Flip Cover and repeat the steps to design the inside cover.
    You cannot print in the spine area on the inside cover.
    Cover Builder — Inside cover
  16. Click Inside cover settings button, the Inside cover settings button, at the bottom of the workspace, and then click Create cover.
  17. Click Delete source pages.
    Once you remove the source pages from the job, you can no longer edit them. Before you delete the pages, make sure that the final output is correct by printing a test copy.

    If you want to remove the created cover, click Delete cover.

Parent topic: Adding a Cover to a Perfect Bound Job