Bindery spec
Ayaan will fold these. Mila will pull pages. You want pencil, a real eraser, and paper that does not tear like a worksheet from the copier. You do not want erasable laminate. Here is the spec I would send a printer for all 250 volumes.
Send to Mixam
Each PDF is US Letter plus Mixam’s 0.125 in bleed (8.75 × 11.25 in). Type sits inside the 0.6 in coil gutter. Download the zip, start a spiral Activity Book on Mixam, and attach the matching front and back. Interiors are your Word workbooks — export those to PDF in Word or Preview, then upload as the inside pages.
ALU-V001
The Journey To Genius Begins Here
ALU-V002
Times-Table Rookie
ALU-V003
Divide and Conquer
ALU-V004
The Eights & Nines Summit
ALU-V005
Full-Table Champion
1. On Mixam
Activity Book, US Letter (8.5 × 11), spiral / plastic coil, black, 100 inside pages plus cover. Uncoated 80 lb interiors if they offer it. Matte cover. Rounded corners if listed.
2. Covers
Upload the front PDF and the back PDF for that volume. If they want one cover file, use the “Front + back” PDF (page 1 front, page 2 back). There is no spine panel — it is a coil book.
3. Insides
Open each ALU-V00X Word file, export as PDF. That is the 100-page interior. Mixam will punch the coil; keep a 0.6 in inner margin so example boxes do not get hit.
The binding
10–16 mm plastic spiral, black, rounded corners on the book.
Lays completely flat so he can write. Folds 360° so the cover is out of the way. Plastic springs back when he pretzels it. Wire-O looks more bookstore and then gets crushed. Perfect-bound paperbacks will not open, and pages tear out.
The paper
About 118 gsm. Ask for Cougar Opaque, Finch Opaque, Accent Opaque, or Mixam/PrintNinja 80 lb uncoated.
Uncoated has tooth — a #2 pencil bites and a vinyl eraser lifts the mark. Coated and glossy smear. 50–60 lb school paper tears when Mila grabs it. 80 lb is the sweet spot: writable, opaque enough to print two-sided, thick enough to feel like a real book.
| Part | Spec | Do not |
|---|---|---|
| Trim | 8.5 × 11 in (your interiors are already this size at 1275 × 1651 px). | Don't shrink to 8 × 10 without reflowing the worksheets. |
| Interior stock | 80 lb uncoated opaque text, ~118 gsm, 94+ brightness, 96+ opacity. Long grain. | No coated, gloss, silk, or 20 lb copy paper. No dry-erase. |
| Printing | Color, two-sided. 100 pages = 50 sheets. Keeps the block from becoming a brick. | Single-sided only if you want a workspace on the back of every sheet — then use 70 lb and a thicker coil. |
| Cover | 16 pt C1S (coated outside). Matte or soft-touch scuff-free lamination. ⅜ in rounded corners. | No high-gloss lamination (fingerprints, cheap). No unlaminated 10 pt (will crease on day one). |
| Binding | Black plastic coil. ~14 mm for two-sided 80 lb. Punch 4:1 pitch. 0.6 in inner safe margin. | No perfect bind. No saddle stitch (too many pages). Avoid wire-O unless you want a prettier book that dents. |
| Inks on paper | Designed for #2 pencil and colored pencil. Vinyl eraser. | Don't market it for markers. Washable marker will ghost on even 80 lb. |
Erasable paper and laminated insides feel like a whiteboard. Marks smear, and nothing looks like schoolwork. Uncoated 80 lb is the opposite: graphite sits in the fiber, and an eraser lifts it without polishing the sheet shiny.
Mila grabbing a page is a peel force at the coil. Thin 50 lb fails there. 80 lb uncoated plus a plastic coil (which spreads the punch holes) is the usual kids-workbook answer. 100 lb uncoated is the upgrade. Teslin is the untearable option — it feels like a map, costs more, and still takes pencil.
Five-year-olds fold books backwards, sit on them, and hang them off the sofa. Plastic coil is a spring. Wire-O is a metal that takes a set. Perfect binding is glue that cracks on the first hard open. For a write-in book, coil is not the cheap option — it is the correct one.
Lock the spec now. Same trim, same stock, same coil, same cream jacket system, volume number changes. Printers like Mixam can run on-demand as he ages. PrintNinja is better when you print a handful of copies at offset quality. Do not rebuild the object every volume.
Pick this
Plastic coil (spiral)
360° fold, writes flat, survives being bent. The workbook standard at PrintNinja and Mixam.
Use this.
Option 2
Wire-O
Looks more like a planner. Lays flat. The loops crush when he sits on the book or stuffs it in a backpack.
Only for a display copy.
Option 3
Hidden / Canadian spiral
Coil with a cover that wraps the spine so it looks like a bound book on the shelf. Still lay-flat. More expensive.
Nice if you want bookstore clothes.
Option 4
Lay-flat PUR paperback
Opens better than a novel. Still not 360°. Spine still takes a beating. Pages can still pull.
No for writing.
Option 5
Saddle stitch
Staples. Fine under ~48 pages. 100 pages is too thick; it will not lie down.
No.
On-demand, spiral activity books
Best first call. They print spiral workbooks on uncoated 80 lb, short runs, upload-and-go. Use this for Ayaan's personal copies and for proofing jackets.
Offset, nicer unit cost
When you want a small edition that feels published — 50 to 500 copies, real offset, spiral or wire, uncoated 70–80 lb. Worth it if you start selling the series.
One-off, fastest coil
Any copy shop with a coil binder can punch and bind tomorrow. Use their 80 lb uncoated if they have it; otherwise bring the printed interiors and have only the coil done there.
Amazon KDP and IngramSpark are perfect-bound only. Fine for a novel. Wrong for a write-in book. If you later want a bookstore edition, keep the coil for Ayaan and add a separate lay-flat hardcover run — do not make him write in a glued paperback.
US Letter, 100 pages plus covers, printed two-sided in color on 80 lb uncoated opaque text. 16 pt C1S cover, matte scuff-resistant lamination, ⅜ in rounded corners. Black plastic coil, sized to the block (about 14 mm if two-sided 80 lb). 0.125 in bleed. 0.6 in inner margin so the coil punch never eats a gold example box. File names ALU-V001 through ALU-V005, then keep the same spec for the next 245.