Book Printing in Sivakasi — Bulk Offset Books, Textbooks, Exam Material and Magazines
Paperback, case-bound, children's, textbook and competitive-exam printing from 500 copies — with the per-copy price by extent and quantity, and an honest line on where digital beats us.
In short
Offset book printing in Sivakasi starts at 500 copies. A 200-page mono paperback on 70 GSM maplitho with a laminated 4-colour cover runs ₹60–₹92 per copy at 5,000 — about ₹0.30–₹0.46 a page. A 96-page full-colour children's book on 130 GSM art paper runs ₹98–₹175 at the same quantity.
Reviewed 20 September 2026 · text and cover paper rates re-checked quarterly; per-page bands re-based each August
Mono text book rates by extent and quantity
Novels, textbooks, competitive-exam material, manuals — anything whose interior is black text on maplitho. Perfect-bound, 70 GSM maplitho text, 300 GSM art card cover printed 4-colour and gloss laminated.
| Extent | 500 copies | 1,000 copies | 2,000 copies | 5,000 copies | 10,000 copies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64 pagesDemy 1/8, perfect bound | ₹52 – 84 | ₹38 – 60 | ₹29 – 46 | ₹24 – 36 | ₹21 – 32 |
| 128 pagesDemy 1/8, perfect bound | ₹84 – 136 | ₹63 – 102 | ₹50 – 80 | ₹41 – 63 | ₹37 – 56 |
| 200 pagesDemy 1/8, perfect bound | ₹120 – 195 | ₹92 – 148 | ₹74 – 118 | ₹60 – 92 | ₹54 – 83 |
| 320 pagesDemy 1/8, perfect bound | ₹180 – 292 | ₹138 – 222 | ₹111 – 177 | ₹90 – 138 | ₹81 – 124 |
| 500 pagesDemy 1/8, sectional-sewn | ₹272 – 440 | ₹209 – 336 | ₹168 – 268 | ₹137 – 210 | ₹123 – 189 |
Full-colour book rates by extent and quantity
Children's books, picture books, coffee-table books, illustrated textbooks — 4-colour throughout on 130 GSM art paper with a 300 GSM laminated cover.
| Extent | 500 copies | 1,000 copies | 2,000 copies | 5,000 copies | 10,000 copies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 pagesSaddle-stitched or perfect bound | ₹58 – 105 | ₹42 – 76 | ₹33 – 60 | ₹27 – 48 | ₹24 – 43 |
| 48 pagesPerfect bound | ₹105 – 190 | ₹78 – 140 | ₹62 – 112 | ₹51 – 92 | ₹46 – 82 |
| 96 pagesPerfect bound or sewn | ₹198 – 355 | ₹148 – 265 | ₹118 – 212 | ₹98 – 175 | ₹88 – 158 |
| Board book, 12 pagesMounted board, rounded corners, six spreads | ₹92 – 165 | ₹70 – 125 | ₹56 – 100 | ₹46 – 82 | ₹41 – 74 |
| Case-bound, 96 pagesSewn, hard cover with printed wrap | ₹255 – 440 | ₹192 – 330 | ₹154 – 264 | ₹126 – 216 | ₹114 – 195 |
Below 500 copies, print digitally. We will not take the order.
A 300-copy reprint of a competitive-exam title is a digital job, not an offset one. Plates, make-ready and the paper minimum do not amortise, and the copy you get back from a good digital printer is indistinguishable to a reader. We have turned away reprint orders on exactly this basis and won the next six titles from the same publisher because of it. If you are printing 200 copies of a first novel, use a print-on-demand or digital press and spend the saving on the cover design.
Binding compared for books
The binding decides how long the book survives, what it costs and whether it will lie open on a desk — which for a textbook or an exam guide is not a cosmetic question.
| Binding | Extent range | Lays flat | Life | Cost effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saddle-stitch | 8 – 48 pages | Yes | Adequate for a thin book | Cheapest available |
| Perfect bound | 64 – 600 pages | No, and forcing it cracks the spine | Moderate; pages release after heavy use or in heat | The default; baseline cost |
| Sectional-sewn then glued | 96 – 800 pages | Better than perfect bound | High; the standard for textbooks | Adds roughly 12–22% |
| Case bound (hardback) | 96 pages and up | Yes if sewn | Highest | Adds roughly 55–110% over perfect bound |
| Wiro / spiral | Any | Yes, folds back completely | Block survives; punched holes tear on thin paper | Comparable to perfect binding |
| Board book | 8 – 16 pages | Yes | Very high — designed for a toddler | Priced per spread, not per page |
Text paper, bulk and why a book's thickness is a specification
Two books with the same page count can have visibly different spines, and publishers notice. The variable is bulk — how thick a paper is for its weight. A 70 GSM high-bulk maplitho gives a fatter spine than a 70 GSM machine-finished sheet, which matters because a thin-looking book at a given price point sells worse and because the spine width has to be right on the cover artwork before the cover is printed. Ask for the bulk figure, not just the GSM, and confirm the spine width against a paper dummy before the cover goes to plate.
For mono text, 70 GSM maplitho is the Indian standard and 60 GSM is used for high-extent exam material where the book would otherwise be unwieldy. Cream wove is easier to read for long-form text and is what most fiction uses; white wove is brighter and is what most textbooks use because diagrams read better on it. For full-colour interiors, 130 GSM art paper is standard and 100 GSM is used where weight or cost matters more than opacity — below 100 GSM, images show through from the reverse and the book feels cheap in the hand.
Cover stock is almost always 300 GSM art card with a gloss or matt lamination. Matt with a spot UV on the title is the most common Indian trade cover and it costs very little more than gloss. For a case-bound book the printed wrap is 130–150 GSM art paper laminated over board, and the board thickness — usually 2 mm — is what makes it feel like a hardback rather than a thick paperback.
For self-publishing authors and small presses
What we need
- Interior as a single print-ready PDF with pages in reading order, not as separate files
- Cover as a flat spread: back, spine, front, with the spine width confirmed against a paper dummy
- ISBN and barcode placed on the back cover, or tell us and we will position the block
- Trim size in millimetres — demy 1/8 and crown 1/8 are the usual Indian trade sizes
- Quantity, and honestly: if it is under 500, say so and we will point you to digital
What to expect
- A digital proof of the full interior and the cover within 1 working day of a clean file
- A physical paper dummy — unprinted, correct paper, correct extent — before the cover is plated
- 15 to 25 days production from approval, plus 2–7 days transport within India
- Fifty per cent advance with the order, balance before dispatch, GST invoice under HSN chapter 49
- Storage of the printed stock is not something a press does well; arrange a warehouse before you print
Textbooks, competitive-exam material and magazines
Educational publishing is the largest single book category out of Sivakasi and it runs to a different clock from trade publishing. School textbooks print between December and March for a June academic year. Competitive-exam material prints against exam notification dates, which move, which means the realistic conversation is about how fast a reprint can be turned rather than how cheap the first run is. Coaching-institute material is the most schedule-sensitive of all — it is often printed in batches of 2,000 to 5,000 against enrolment, with a standing plate set kept for repeat runs.
Magazines are a different product again: saddle-stitched or perfect-bound, printed on a fixed monthly or quarterly cycle, usually on 60–80 GSM maplitho text with a 170–250 GSM cover. What matters for a magazine is not unit price but reliability of date — a monthly that arrives late twice loses subscribers. We schedule periodicals as standing slots rather than as individual orders, which means the press time is held whether or not the file arrives on time, and the deadline discipline moves to your side of the table.
Across all three, the common failure is the reprint. A publisher prints 5,000, sells 4,200, and needs 800 more. That 800 is a digital job, not an offset one, and saying so has cost us small orders and won large accounts. It is also the single most useful thing an offset press can tell an educational publisher, because the alternative — reprinting 3,000 to make the economics work and warehousing 2,200 of them — is how publishers lose money quietly.
Questions we answer daily
What is the minimum order for book printing?
500 copies for offset. Below that, plates, make-ready and the paper minimum do not amortise and a digital press is genuinely cheaper — for a 200-copy run, substantially cheaper. We will tell you that rather than quote, and we have turned down reprints on exactly that basis.
How much does it cost to print a book in India?
A 200-page mono paperback on 70 GSM maplitho with a laminated cover runs ₹120–₹195 a copy at 500, ₹60–₹92 at 5,000 and ₹54–₹83 at 10,000. That is roughly ₹0.30–₹0.46 per page at 5,000 copies, which sits at the bottom of the ₹0.30–₹2.00 per-page range normally quoted for Indian offset.
What does a full-colour children's book cost?
A 96-page full-colour book on 130 GSM art paper with a perfect-bound laminated cover runs ₹198–₹355 a copy at 500, ₹98–₹175 at 5,000 and ₹88–₹158 at 10,000. A 12-page mounted board book with rounded corners runs ₹46–₹82 at 5,000. Both need a physical dummy before the cover is plated.
Where is the break-even between offset and digital for books?
Between roughly 500 and 1,500 copies, depending on extent and whether the interior is mono or colour. A high-extent mono book crosses lower because the per-page offset cost is so small; a 24-page colour book crosses higher because the binding setup dominates. Under 500 copies, digital wins clearly.
Should a 400-page book be perfect bound or sewn?
Sewn. Perfect binding holds reliably up to about 400 pages on 70 GSM; beyond that the glue has too much page weight to carry and the block releases at the spine, particularly in Indian summer heat. Sectional sewing adds roughly 12–22% and is the standard for textbooks for exactly this reason.
Can you print question papers and confidential material?
Yes, with a controlled press room, numbered and reconciled sheet counts, waste destruction under supervision and sealed tamper-evident packing. There is a separate page covering question papers, OMR sheets and exam forms, including the protocols and what we require from the institution before we accept the job.
What trim sizes do you print?
Demy 1/8 (about 140 × 216 mm) and crown 1/8 (about 127 × 191 mm) are the Indian trade standards and impose most efficiently on our sheet. A4 and B5 are common for textbooks and manuals. Non-standard sizes are possible but cost more, because the waste on a 20 × 30 in press sheet is what you end up paying for.
Do you handle ISBN and barcode?
You obtain the ISBN; we place the barcode block on the back cover, generate a scannable barcode at the correct magnification and check the quiet zone. If you send a cover with no barcode area planned, we will tell you where it needs to go before the cover is plated rather than after.
Related pages
- Brochure & catalogue printing The hub: formats, folds, paper and rates
- Question paper & OMR printing Confidential exam printing with sheet reconciliation
- Annual report printing Statutory deadlines and financial-table proofing
- Notebook manufacturers The other half of an education supply order
- Offset vs digital printing Where the book break-even actually falls
- Paper & GSM guide Maplitho bulk, cream vs white wove, cover board
- Get a quote Extent, trim size, paper, binding, quantity
Send the spec. Get a per-piece band.
Product, quantity, size and GSM. A person who has stood at the press replies within 1 working day — WhatsApp or email, in Tamil, English or Hindi.