Hey there!
Looking for a simple DIY guide on how to print and bind your custom coloring book in booklet form?
You've come to the right place! Below I have outlined a few simple steps on how to DIY bind a booklet! A booklet is essentially a standard 8.5" x 11" piece of paper folded in half. One sheet of standard paper makes 4 "booklet" pages, so the number of pages in your booklet should be divisible by 4!
For the sake of the example below, I've printed my cover page on it's own heavier card stock page (gray), and printed 8 "interior" pages on standard printer paper (2 standard sheets of paper folded in half to make 8 pages). It's perfectly fine to use standard printer paper, but many people like a thicker stock paper for coloring. Try 70lb or 80lb paper for the interior, and 100lb paper for the cover. Matte is generally better than gloss, since gloss can be difficult to color on.
When printing your booklet, you should print each page double sided, and try to print "full bleed," so that your art extends all the way to the edge of the printer. To do that, follow these steps:
Printing Step 1
Double-click the PDF document to open it in the default program, usually Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat Pro. Open the “File” menu and click “Print” to open the Print dialog box.
Printing Step 2
Select your printer from the “Printer” drop-down menu and select “Actual size” under “Size Options.” Click the “Page Setup” button. If your printer supports borderless printing, the Margins section of the dialog box will be editable; change each margin setting to “0” and click “OK.”
Printing Step 3
Change any additional settings, such as number of copies and which pages of the PDF to print. When ready, click the “Print” button to print your PDF document without margins.
Now that you have your printed pages, let's move on to binding!
For binding you will need:
Cover Paper
Interior Paper (if different)
Ribbon/Twine
Scissors
Hole Punch
Step 1:
Fold all your pages in half, then insert the interior pages inside the cover page!
*You can stop at this step if you like! But, if you prefer a sturdier bind, move on to step 2 below!
Step 2:
On the folded line, punch 2 holes!
Step 3:
Insert the ribbon through the holes. Then tie the ribbon in a bow!
And that's it! Easy peasy!