Why soft touch works well on covers
Soft touch laminate gives a smooth, premium feel that works especially well on perfect bound book covers, catalogs, sales books, lookbooks, and presentation pieces.
It is not something to add blindly. The cover stock, print coverage, lamination schedule, and binding timeline all matter.
Good uses for soft touch covers
- Premium sales catalogs
- Product lookbooks
- Annual reports
- Client presentation books
- Conference guidebooks
- Training manuals with a polished cover
- Books paired with gold foil or specialty business cards
What has to be checked
For a perfect bound book, the cover is not just front and back. It includes the front cover, spine, and back cover as one wraparound file. If soft touch is added, Brandon needs to make sure the cover size, spine, bleed, and finishing path are all lined up.
- Cover spread size
- Spine width
- Bleed on all sides
- Safe area near the trim
- Paper and cover stock
- Quantity and deadline
- Whether the cover finish affects the rush schedule
Rush timing
Soft touch laminate can be fast on qualifying jobs, but adding it to a perfect bound book still has to fit the full book schedule. The cover needs to be printed, laminated, bound with the interior, dried, trimmed, and checked.
Brandon can tell you whether soft touch fits the timing or whether a simpler cover finish is smarter for the deadline.
What to send first
- Interior PDF
- Cover file or design file
- Finished book size
- Final page count
- Quantity
- Desired cover stock or finish
- Deadline and pickup/delivery needs
Get with Brandon before the book goes to print
Perfect bound books look simple after they are finished, but the details matter before production starts. Send Brandon the interior PDF, cover file, finished size, page count, quantity, paper preference, finishing, and deadline. He can help flag setup problems early or confirm the job is ready to move.