Manga Printing Guides: Self-Publishers Need To Know

In a recent year, manga is one of the most popular project in the book market. Which brings the manga printing hot in publish and printing industry. Because the manga are hot selling in the book market. More and more self-publishers join in the manga field. But how to print your own manga? Following are some guides for self-publishers.

Masaaki Shimizu, the general manager and publisher of Square Enix Manga & Books. She says “The manga market has grown so much in the last two years that it's now at its highest level by far, more than 2.5 times larger than the earlier sales peak back in 2007.”

Why is manga printing so hot in recent year?

According to a survey from Deb Aok. Due to COVID-19, with concerts, movies and sporting events and many other forms of entertainment are limited or closed. People of all ages are able to discover and read more manga than ever before. As demand for manga continues to grow, publishers who previously wouldn't consider selling large volumes are now queuing up for a piece of the action.

How to self print manga?

With more and more self-publishers are now lining up to get a piece of the action of the manga market. Most of manage makers need to face this problem: how to self print manga? Based on many years of printing manga experiences, I sum up three hot printing modes in the manga self-publish field.

1. Digital printing manga

Digital printing is suitable for short-run, less quantity, fast printing manga needs or proofing. Digital printing doesn't need to make a plate, it can save much time and cost. More important, digital printing without any quantity standard. Even, you own the digital printer, you can print manga at home.

But if you want to large print your manga or consider more high-quality printing. Offset printing is more suitable. Less than 100 copies, select digital printing will save more time and cost. Because less than 500 copies, if you choose offset printing, the printing cost is the same as 500 copies. And no matter how many copies you want to print, offset printing, all need to make a plate. It will need a lot of time.

2. Print-on demand manga

Print-on demand manga is hot in the recent year. Print-on demand means that you can print depend on your needs. Some self-publishers, if they don't have too much budget or want to do retail. They often choose print on demand mode. Because it can save much cost and time. Such as through Shopify, amazon, eBay, etc online channel to sell their manga. Choose print on demand. They can print and then directly ship to their customer's door. Not only can save much time, also can save much trouble.

But print on demand often uses digital printing, the printing quality is not good as offset printing. Such as the color will bright than offset printing, binding often with manual binding,etc.

3. Offset printing manga

Offset printing, also call traditional printing. Offset printing must make a plate. That means it needs more cost and time than digital printing. But if the quantity is over 500 copies, the cost will be cheaper. Since offset printing need to make a plate, after making a plate, it can perfect restore the artwork file. And the binding often uses machine binding. So if your manga quantity is over 500 copies or want to print high-quality manga. We often recommend offset printing.

Except for choosing the printing mode. When you custom manga printing service. The selection of printing paper, printing size, binding way, finishing, etc., is also very important.

Tips of custom manga printing services

1. Common manga printing paper

For comic manga books printing, most of the publishers often choose C2S, offset paper, matte art paper, etc. And the gram weight of printing paper for manga printing, often uses 80gsm,105gsm,128gsm,157gsm, etc.

Offset paper is suitable for the black and white manga printing. C2S and matte art paper are suitable for the color manga printing. If you want the book looks more glossy and attractive, often use C2S paper to print. If you want the book more texture and luxury, often use matte art paper to print.

2. Manga printing size

Print manga size often depends on your needs. The common standard sizes are 8.5 x 11 inch, 6 x 9 inch, 8 x 10 inch, 5.5 x 8.5 inch, etc. Different country, the size standard is different. When you print your own manga, you can refer to the hot selling manga size in your country. 

3. Manga printing artwork

When you prepare your manga printing artwork, to make sure print high quality manga. Below are something you need to know. 

1) Reserve 3mm bleeding for each side. If you don't reserve 3mm bleeding place. When cutting is not correct, the book edge will have four white side. 

2) In CMYK color mode,not RGB. Because RGB will be change when printing. To make sure print same color as artwork, please use CMYK color mode.

3) Black text, is better to design 100% black, not CMYK black. Because 100% black color will cheaper than CMYK black. 

4) Convert all text to outlines. 

4. Manga surface finishing

After printing manga books, often with finishing on the surface, to make it more texture and high-end or with waterproof function, etc. Common finishing we often see, like hot stamping, spot UV, deboss, emboss, lamination, die cut, etc. Different finishing, the book effect is different. Finishing is more complex; cost is more high. The choice of finishing craft is depend on your manga style and what effect you want to achieve.

Such as, the book with lamination, to make the book with waterproof, dust-proof, durable function and more bright. The book with hot stamping, make the book more high-end and special. The book with deboss and emboss, to make the book surface more texture and layer and increase the design able....

5. Manga binding way

Binding is an important part for the manga printing. Different binding, the cost is different. And bring different reading and using experience for readers. So choosing the suitable bind way for your book is very important. The common binding ways for custom print manga book are: saddle stitched, paperback (prefect binding), hardcover, etc.

Saddle stitched is suitable for print the manga less than 32 pages. It is the cheapest binding way. But saddle stitch is easy to rust.

Perfect binding is very popular in the manga printing industry. It is suitable for various types of manga printing. It can open flat and not easier to damage. Besides, it is cost is very economy.

Hardcover is also very popular for manga printing. Hardcover often with glue or sew, it is very durable and high-end. Especially for the round back hardcover, no matter the book how thick, it can open flat. Hardcover, because of more high-end, durable, and brings better reading and collecting experience for readers.

Though printing hardcover manga is expensive than paperback manga. But the profit of hardcover is very high. That's why most books are in print hardcover first. If your quantity is over 500 copies, your average printing cost per copy is cheaper. And your profit will be more.

How to select manga printer?

Before printing your manga, select a suitable manga printer is the key to your manga printing. There are many manga printing companies online and offline, how to choose?

1. Quotation screening

Quotation is one of the determining factors for us to select a manga printer. When we contact some manga printing companies to quote. The quotation is affordable, on time, professional, detail or not, it will affect us to enter the next step or not.

2. Sample screening

To test the printing quality, sometimes we will order some samples from different manga printing factories. And then select a satisfy sample to keep on our project.

3. Service screening

Service is also important for us to select a manga printer. Because the professional, on-time service and high-quality communication can help us save much trouble. Service includes Pre-sale, sale, after-sale these three stages. During the pre-sale service, we must select a factory whose services are satisfy us. So that when printing our manga, we don't need to worry about too more.

Choosing a suitable manga printer is influenced by many factors. When we do selection, we need to complex consider. So that we can do high quality comic manga printing.

If you are still seeking for the best manga printing company to print your manga. Why not select BookPrintingChina? We provide various of quality manga printing services for publishers. Such as saddle stitched manga printing, softcover manga printing, hardcover manga printing, slip case manga printing, etc. No matter what types of manga custom, we can do it high quality at economy price. BookPrintingChina always focuses on 100% customer satisfaction rate and we always try our best to do that. Until now, we won over 95% of excellent reviews from different country clients. Select us, means you can use affordable price to custom print high-quality manga.

Source:https://www.bookprintingchina.com/Blog/Manga-Printing-Guides-Self-Publishers-Need-To-Know