Printing a Corporate History Book: Formats, Quantities and Budget

What should a company buy when printing a history book? Most corporate history books are produced as hardcovers with full-color interiors, printed in a short run sized to the number of employees, clients and partners who will receive one, plus extras for the archive and future hires. The right choice depends on purpose, audience and budget.

Start with purpose

• Anniversary gift for employees and clients: a premium hardcover makes the right impression.
• Recruiting and onboarding material: a smaller, cheaper edition, possibly paperback, may be better.
• Archive and legacy: durability and archival paper matter.
• Public sale or marketing: an ISBN and retail distribution are required.

Format

• Hardcover case binding for coffee-table and gift editions.
• Larger trim sizes suit photo-heavy books.
• Full-color interiors for archival photos and documents.
• Finishes such as foil-stamped logos, embossing or a slipcase signal a premium gift.

Print method

• Offset printing: most economical per copy for large runs, typically several hundred or more, with the best color control. Higher setup costs.
• Short-run digital printing: good for runs of dozens to a few hundred. Lower setup, higher unit cost.
• Print on demand: no inventory; useful for keeping the book available for future employees or public sale, with limited finish options.

Many companies combine methods: an offset run for the anniversary launch and a print on demand edition for ongoing needs.

How many copies

Every recipient group should be counted, with a buffer of ten to twenty percent added for new hires, events and archive copies. Price breaks at different quantities should be compared. Unit costs often fall significantly at higher quantities, but unused stock requires storage.

Budget beyond printing

Printing is often not the biggest cost. Planning should include:

• Research and writing, often by a professional historian or writer.
• Interviews with founders and long-serving staff.
• Archive work and image scanning, plus permissions for photos not owned by the company.
• Editing, fact-checking and legal review.
• Design and layout by a book designer.
• Proofs, shipping and distribution to offices and recipients.

Timeline

Projects commonly take many months from research to delivery. Scheduling should work backward from the anniversary date and allow time for approvals, which often take longer than expected in large organizations.

Practical tips

Physical samples from printers should be requested, a hard proof obtained before the full run, and the final print files and image archive retained so future editions are easy to produce.