Journal Printing

We print clear, well-designed journals for scientific institutions, educational establishments, research organizations, businesses and others, using only the latest offset printing technology.

Journals play a vital role in the dissemination of important information, sharing research, ideas, and fresh developments for assessment, critique, and peer review by a body of professionals and academics with an interest in the field.

QinPrinting is your go-to printer for professional, scientific, and academic journals. We have over 25 years of experience working in the industry, an expert team with a deep understanding of your needs, state-of-the-art offset printing technology at our disposal, and a sincere commitment to customer service.

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Journal Printing Costs

At QinPrinting, we collaborate with a variety of academies, institutions, and other bodies to print high caliber journals of exceptional quality. But we realize that many educational and scientific institutions must work within a limited budget for publication of their journals. That’s why we have a policy of continuous monitoring, analysis, and streamlining of our work processes to ensure that we always deliver excellent journals at a sensible price point.

To obtain an estimate of the cost of printing your journal, check out the at-a-glance price charts. The exact cost of printing your journal with us depends on your paper choices, the cover and interior pages, the numbers you order in a single run, and other options. To get a precise quotation, use our helpful Online Printing Cost Calculator. Unlike most offset printers who impose a MOQ (minimum order quantity) of 1,000 or even more copies, we’ll print as few as 100 at a time. But the more you print in one go, the cheaper it is per journal.

Paperback Journal Printing Price Chart (8.5” x 11”)

All prices listed in USD

Quantity	100pcs		500pcs		1000pcs		2000pcs		5000pcs		10000pcs
Page count	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total
96pp + 4pp	$7.34	$734	$2.08	$1,038	$1.33	$1,333	$1.02	$2,034	$0.84	$4,191	$0.79	$7,850
128pp + 4pp	$9.36	$936	$2.68	$1,338	$1.72	$1,721	$1.31	$2,621	$1.08	$5,420	$1.02	$10,175
160pp + 4pp	$11.36	$1,136	$3.27	$1,637	$2.11	$2,108	$1.60	$3,207	$1.33	$6,649	$1.25	$12,473

Please note that all prices are EXW our facility and do not include shipping costs.
Cover: 250 gsm / 92 lb coated cover paper with matte lamination.
Interior: 100 gsm / 68 lb uncoated text paper, full color printing.
Sewing and perfect binding

Spiral Binding Journal Printing Price Chart (5.5" x 8.5”)

All prices listed in USD

Quantity	100pcs		500pcs		1000pcs		2000pcs		5000pcs		10000pcs
Page count	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total
80pp + 4pp	$3.95	$395	$1.24	$620	$0.88	$881	$0.72	$1,434	$0.67	$3,332	$0.62	$6,208
160pp + 4pp	$6.41	$641	$1.99	$993	$1.36	$1,361	$1.09	$2,182	$0.98	$4,916	$0.93	$9,275
240pp + 4pp	$8.98	$898	$2.76	$1,382	$1.88	$1,878	$1.49	$2,986	$1.31	$6,569	$1.23	$12,342

Please note that all prices are EXW our facility and do not include shipping costs
Cover: 300 gsm / 111 lb coated cover paper with matte lamination
Interior: 100 gsm / 68 lb uncoated text paper, full color printing

Hardcover Journal Printing Price Chart (8” x 10” )

All prices listed in USD

Quantity	100pcs		500pcs		1000pcs		2000pcs		5000pcs		10000pcs
Page count	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total	Unit	Total
96pp + 4pp	$12.10	$1,210	$3.31	$1,656	$2.37	$2,371	$1.95	$3,897	$1.63	$8,147	$1.55	$15,530
160pp + 4pp	$17.36	$1,736	$4.75	$2,377	$3.26	$3,260	$2.58	$5,164	$2.08	$10,424	$1.99	$19,858
240pp + 4pp	$23.93	$2,393	$6.56	$3,278	$4.37	$4,370	$3.39	$6,776	$2.66	$13,294	$2.53	$25,275

Please note that all prices are EXW our facility and do not include shipping costs.
Cover: 157 gsm / 58 lb coated cover paper with matte lamination wrapped on 2.5 mm thickness greybeard
End sheets: 140 gsm / 95 lb uncoated text paper, blank
Inner: 100 gsm / 68 lb uncoated text paper for interior
Full color printing

And don’t forget that we’re real people at QinPrinting—not robots or exhausted call center operatives—so, we’re always here to help you with questions. Just contact us by telephone, email, Skype, or our helpful online contact form. One of our printing experts will be happy to assist.

Common Journal Sizes

We can print your journal in any size or format you would like, but remember unusual custom prints are probably unnecessary for most purposes and will often cost more than standard sizes because of the extra pre-press work and setup.

The standard journal sizes in the US are 8.5″ by 11″ and 5.5″ by 8.5″.

In Europe and Australia, the standard sizes are 210 mm x 297 mm and 148 mm x 210 mm.

From a commercial perspective, it may be in your best interests to hold to these formats. They’re established, inexpensive, ideal for mailing, meet reader expectations, and reduce set-up time, leading to a faster turnaround.

Journal Paper Options

The paper you decide on for your journal printing affects its look, quality, and the price you’ll pay. If you print the inside pages of your journal in black-and-white you can opt for lightweight, uncoated paper while if you have a high number of photographs or other graphic elements—such as diagrams, charts and graphs—then heavier, coated paper will give the best results. We’ll be happy to guide and advise you on the most appropriate paper choices for your journal, keeping in mind your budget.

While the specifications depend on your journal’s design, normally we suggest 80 gsm / 54 lb, 105 gsm / 70 lb, 128 gsm / 86 lb, 157 gsm / 106 lb coated paper or 80 gsm / 54 lb, 100 gsm / 68 lb uncoated paper for the inside pages as they furnish a print that’s easy to read while also reproducing images, diagrams, graphs, and photos well.

Usually recommend thinner paper for the inside. But if you print your journal at 8.5” x 11” or larger, using thicker paper for the inside pages is better. For example, 128 gsm / 86 lb, 157 gsm / 106 lb coated paper or 100 gsm / 68 lb uncoated paper.

If it’s a slim journal with 32 pages or fewer and you want perfect binding, then 200 gsm / 135 lb coated paper will be needed to reach the required minimum 3 mm spine width.

Paperback Cover Paper

Hardcover Paper

Interior Paper

You can download a journal cover template to check the spine thickness according to different paper types and page amounts here.

The binding style influences your journal’s cover paper. We make journal covers from heavier, gloss cover paper. But a less expensive option is to use the same paper as your interior. We refer to this as “self-covered”. Saddle stitched or perfect bound bindings are the norm, however, and make your journal look very professional.

Bindings for Journals

The binding you choose reflects your industry or area of study and research, page count, reader expectations, and budget. The most popular choices for professional journals are “saddle stitching” and “perfect binding”.

Saddle-stitched

This means that we make your journal of folded sheets stacked inside each other, typically with a cover sheet of glossy art paper, and then stapled together down the curved edge. The name comes from the original process of sewing the pages together with binding thread, but this is rare and mostly unnecessary these days. Saddle stitch is only possible with a page count divisible by four, up to a maximum of 64 pages. But to make sure the journal is neat and lies flat, we recommend a limit of 48 pages or fewer for this style of binding.

Perfect bound

This means that we make your journal of folded sheets stacked inside each other, typically with a cover sheet of glossy art paper, and then stapled together down the spine. The name comes from the original process of sewing the pages together with binding thread, but this is rare and mostly unnecessary these days.

Self-covers are the cheapest choice if you’re really strapped. Saddle stitch is the next cheapest, but has limitations in terms of page counts. Perfect bound costs more in base price, but if your journal has lots of images—so that it needs thicker paper and more pages—it often works out better. The final price always depends on the materials, size, length, and number of copies printed in a single run.

Journal Design and Artwork Tips

Are you preparing the design and layout of your journal yourself or delegating it to a third-party graphic designer? Either way, you must understand how to prepare the files to get them “print-ready”. You’ll need to allow for bleed zones, safety areas, trim lines, and borders, for example, and make sure that the resolution and the color space are correct. With that in mind, please note several useful tips to help you prepare your files for printing.

Export your files as vectors in PDF format for the best results. Our recommended software options for journal design are Adobe Illustrator or Adobe InDesign. These will also allow you to convert your color space from RGB to CMYK which you will need to do for offset printing.

If you can’t deliver vectors — say, if you’re exporting bitmaps from Photoshop — then make sure the resolution is at least 300 DPI. With vectors, you needn’t worry about resolution, but all other images must have a high definition to tolerate resizing without becoming fuzzy and “pixilated”.

You’ll need to add a “bleed zone” of 3 mm around all your pages. A bleed is an extended zone at the periphery of your images, which falls outside the area that your finished page will cover. Once we’ve printed your pages, we’ll cut them to the exact size needed for your chosen journal format. This “bit extra” gets cut off and makes sure that the finished image fills the page with none of it being lost. You should mark bleed zones as red lines.

Inside your bleed zone, don’t forget to mark the “trim lines”. These will define the final dimensions of the finished page. Make sure that any necessary elements of your images stop at least 10 mm short of the trim line.

If an image, diagram, or photo crosses over two pages in a “spread” make sure that nothing essential lies along the center crease.

You can also spice up your journal’s cover surface with a range of special touches such as a glossy or matte finish, varnishing, soft touch lamination, die-cutting, spot UV, metallic foil stamping, and more. You can explore journal cover surface options here.

If you have a professional designer, they should understand what’s needed to make everything “print ready”. But if you’re choosing to take the “DIY” route, these are vital tips to remember before sending us your files. But our team of experts will always manually check all your files before we go to press. If we find any issues, we’ll let you know and help you resolve them. We won’t print your journal until we know you’ll get a perfect result. That’s our cast-iron guarantee.

To learn more about preparing your photographs, diagrams, text, and layout for printing, please check out our Pre-press Artwork information page.

Not seeing the option you’re looking for? Contact us!

Journal Dispatch and Delivery Services

Besides assisting with design and printing your journal, we also offer a comprehensive mailing service to handle the dispatch and delivery of your journal to the recipients. Using this service saves you time and costs in having journals delivered to your storage facility only to send them on. Why do that when we can deliver them direct?

After you’ve given the green light to the proof, the fastest standard delivery time we guarantee is 72 hours. If you have an urgent order, get in touch and we’ll do all we can to deliver your journals on time.

Let’s Talk!

If you’re ready to design and print your journal or you want to switch to a better printer who offers high-quality products and superb customer services at unbeatable prices — we should talk. Get in touch today to chat through your needs or to ask for a no-obligation quote. We can’t wait to help you make your professional journal!