Printing a book at Lulu

A top-to-bottom walk from the two files press builds to a copy in your hands. Lulu is press’s primary print route: you upload an interior PDF and a cover PDF, order one copy, and inspect it. This page is the exact click path, the Lulu settings that must match your config, and the file notes Lulu shows (all handled or harmless).

Build the two files

From inside the book, one command builds the interior and the cover wrap and verifies both:

press verify-print

It writes:

• dist/<slug>-interior.pdf — the typeset interior (at your print.profile trim; 6×9 by default).
• dist/<slug>-coverwrap.pdf — the full cover: back, spine, and front in one page, with 0.125in bleed. Built only when assets/cover.jpg exists.

The spine width is computed from the page count and the paper you set, not typed by hand. Set the paper first so the spine math is right:

press config set print.paper cream    # or: white

Choose the right Lulu product

This is the step that trips people up. Lulu’s cover templates differ by product, and press builds a flat wrap sized for one of them:

press config set print.provider lulu && \
press config set print.binding casewrap    # or dust-jacket

On the first screen, choose Print Your Book (upload and buy copies). Publish Your Book is for listing in Lulu’s retail and distribution channels — a later step, and a separate decision.

The Lulu settings that must match your config

Lulu asks for the book’s physical spec before you upload. Each must match what press built, or the files will not fit:

If you pick a different paper at Lulu than the print.paper in your config, the real spine will differ from the one press drew, and the spine text will sit off-center. Keep them the same.

Upload, in order

1. Interior. Upload dist/<slug>-interior.pdf. Lulu renders a preview and runs its file checks (see the warnings below).
2. Cover. Choose to upload a one-piece PDF cover and upload dist/<slug>-coverwrap.pdf. Lulu overlays its safety and barcode guides; confirm the spine text sits within the spine and nothing important falls in the 0.5in safety margin.
3. Barcode. If you have a print ISBN in registrations.isbn.print, press draws a real EAN-13 on the back; leave Lulu’s own barcode off. With no ISBN, press draws an honest placeholder — let Lulu add its barcode, or add your own later. If you own an ISBN prefix (bought once from your agency), press isbn assign print mints and records the next one for you.

File warnings — press handles these for you

Lulu used to flag two things on a press interior: transparency (the press logomark is stored as ink on a transparent background) and images over 600 PPI (that 1024px logo at 1.7in was ~602 PPI). The print build now runs a print-safe pass (press.print_safe) that flattens every image onto white and caps resolution, so a current press verify-print interior triggers neither warning — nothing to do.

You may also see an informational “a white bleed margin was added” note if your interior has no full-bleed images — that is expected and harmless; press interiors keep their art inside the margins.

Order one copy — the golden copy

Choose Print Your Book, set the quantity to 1, ship it to yourself, and place the order. This is the capped, real spend that proves paper, trim, spine, binding, barcode, and color on a physical object — the qualification step in print ordering. When it arrives, inspect it against the eleven-point checklist in provider qualification and record the result in config/qualification.yaml.

Troubleshooting