Use this article when your shop perfect-binds inner blocks with PUR or EVA glue and wraps a softback cover — paperbacks, manuals, annual reports, photo books — and you need Estimator to price both the gluing pass and the gutter grind-off on every quote. After this you will have a perfect bound book category that appears in the create-estimate product picker, prices the inner and cover separately on the price breakdown, and ties the bind step to your perfect binder.
Steps
1. Create the category
Open Estimate Setup → Products → Categories, then select + Add New. Fill in the fields below.
Identification
Name — the customer-facing product family (e.g., "PUR Softback Books", "Paperback"). This is the label that appears in the create-estimate product picker.
Display Name — leave the same as Name unless you need a separate internal name.
Category Type — choose Perfect Binding. This unlocks the cover/wraps fields on parts, the gutter grind-off pricing input, and the cover-block pricing split.
Calculation and imposition
Price Model — set to paper_calc for sheet-fed perfect binding. Estimator prices by parent sheet, signature count, and run length.
Price Adjustment Model — pick VA per Press Hour for higher-volume runs where margin is read against press hour throughput. Switch to Gross Profit% if your account managers prefer a percentage view.
Bleed — default bleed in millimetres applied to each page (e.g., 3 mm).
Flags
Allow Same Size Sheet — leave No. The cover wraps the trimmed inner block and needs a slightly larger sheet plus spine bleed. Switch to Yes only for a no-bleed economy variant.
Mixed Production Enabled — leave No unless your binder runs inner and cover on a combined sheet.
Markups
Labor / Machine / Delivery / Outwork — default markup percentages (e.g., 20% each). These are starting values; customer-specific overrides live in pricing rules.
Spine grind-off — particular to perfect binding
Gutter Grind Off — millimetres ground off the spine edge before glue is applied (e.g., 3 mm). Estimator subtracts this from each inner sheet's gutter margin when calculating the working signature, so your spread-across-fold designs do not lose copy at the spine.
Save the row. The Pending Changes count increments by one in the sidebar.
2. Define the parts
Open Category Parts for the new category. Perfect bound books carry two parts that price independently: the inner block and the wrap-around cover.
Add an inner part row first:
Name —
inner.Is Cover — No. The inner is the glued block.
Is Wraps Preceding — No.
Production Steps — list the ordered operations: typically print → cut → bind. Inner pages usually skip folding because perfect binding takes flat sheets gathered into a block.
Tags — pair the inner with compatible substrates and presses (e.g.,
uncoated-text,offset).
Add a cover part row second:
Name —
cover.Is Cover — Yes. Estimator prices the cover on a single sheet, with spine width derived from the inner page count and substrate weight.
Is Wraps Preceding — Yes. The cover wraps the trimmed inner block.
Production Steps — typically print → cut → laminate → bind. Most paperbacks pick up a gloss or matt laminate on the cover.
Tags — pair with the cover-grade substrate (e.g.,
coated-cover-300,offset).
Save each part row. Pending Changes increments again.
3. Configure the quote inputs
Open Finish Sizes, Page Limits, Page Colors, and Field Rules under Products.
Finish Sizes — add common book trim sizes (e.g., 152 × 229 mm or 6 × 9 in, 129 × 198 mm or 5 × 8 in) and select Custom Size if needed.
Page Limits — perfect binding needs a minimum block thickness to glue cleanly. Set a minimum of around 32–48 pages and a maximum your binder can handle (commonly 800 pages). Use multiples of 2 or 4 depending on your signature folding.
Page Colors — most softbacks run a full-colour cover and a black-only or full-colour inner; list the combinations your shop accepts.
Field Rules — surface lamination and cover finish choices conditionally so estimators only see options that apply to this category.
4. Apply the changes
Open the Pending Changes panel in the sidebar and review the staged category, parts, and quote inputs. Select Apply Changes to publish to live setup.
The Pending Changes count returns to zero, and the perfect bound category appears in the create-estimate product picker with the inner/cover parts routed through your perfect binder.
Things to know
Gutter Grind Off is specific to glued bindings. If your shop uses both PUR and EVA, the grind-off value is usually the same — it is a geometry input, not a glue-chemistry one. Adjust it only when your binder operator changes the spine prep.
The Is Cover and Is Wraps Preceding fields disappear if you change the Category Type away from Perfect Binding (or any of the other book types). Re-check the parts after any category-type change.
If a softback quote prices the bind step at zero, the most common cause is that this category is not assigned to the perfect binder under Perfect Bind Categories on the binder editor. Open the binder and add the category to its accepted list.