The cover does two jobs the inner pages do not: it takes all the handling, and it is the only part visible when the book is on a shelf.
Ours are 300 GSM matte cardstock on a magazine, and hardcover on an album or a diary.
What 300 GSM cardstock is
About the weight of a postcard. Stiff enough to hold its shape when the book is picked up by one corner, thin enough to be part of a saddle-stitched magazine rather than a separate object.
What it survives: being handled, put in a bag, read repeatedly, left on a table.
What it does not: being stood upright on a shelf for years, having things stacked on it, or a decade of being taken out and put back. What GSM means →
What a hardcover is
A rigid board, wrapped and bound. It is not a heavier paper — it is a different construction, and that is why an album costs what it does.
It stands on a shelf. That single property is most of the case for an album, and it is the reason a hardcover is what gets inherited.
| 300 GSM cardstock | Hardcover | |
|---|---|---|
| Holds its shape | Yes, when handled | Yes, permanently |
| Stands on a shelf | Not for long | Indefinitely |
| Survives stacking | Corners go | Yes |
| Weight | Light | Real |
| On our products | Magazines | Albums and diaries |
Where a cover ages first
Every book, everywhere. The corners, then the spine, then the front face.
Corners go from being picked up. It is the first visible wear on any softcover.
The spine goes from being pulled off a shelf by the top edge. Pull from the middle.
The face picks up marks from whatever it sits under.
None of this is a defect. A book that shows handling has been handled, which is the point of it — but it is worth knowing which product survives which treatment before choosing.
The diary’s cover
The Photo Diary and the Persona Diary have a printed hard cover carrying a photograph and a name, bound with a golden spiral. The cover is designed with the rest of the diary and is part of the digital preview you approve before anything prints.
The spiral changes how the cover behaves. It lets the diary lie flat when open, so it can be written in on a desk without holding it down — which is the whole reason a diary is bound that way. The cost is that there is no spine to print on: on a shelf, a spiral diary shows only its coil, and it is happier kept flat in a drawer or on a desk than filed upright with books.
A diary is also the cover most likely to be carried every day, in a bag with keys and a phone. Its corners will wear first, exactly as the section above describes; that is a diary being used. What goes in a photo diary →
The card deck’s box
A card deck has no cover in the book sense. Its protection is the printed box the cards live in, and the box is what sits on a desk or a bedside table between uses. The cards themselves are 300 GSM card stock with rounded corners — and a rounded corner has no point to catch and fray when a deck is shuffled over and over.
Choosing a cover by where it will live
A format is usually chosen for what goes inside it. The cover should be chosen for where the object will spend the next ten years:
| Where it will live | The cover that suits it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Upright on a sitting-room shelf | Hardcover album | The only one built to stand indefinitely |
| On a coffee table, opened by guests | Album, or a magazine lying flat | Both survive being picked up by strangers |
| In a bag, every day | Diary | Hard cover, and made to be written in on the move |
| In a drawer, brought out on occasions | Card deck in its box | The box does the protecting |
| A hostel room or a first flat | Magazine | Light, and lives flat on a desk or a bed |
| Handed round at a party, then kept | Magazine | Nobody hesitates to pass it on |
If the honest answer is “on a shelf, for decades”, the cover is the reason to choose an album over a magazine, whatever the page count.
If you designed the cover yourself
A magazine you design and send us to print goes on the same 300 GSM matte cardstock cover as ours, and the cover counts in the page total. Three things to design for:
- There is no spine. A stapled magazine folds at the back, so a title set on a spine in your file has nowhere to go. Put everything on the front and back faces.
- Keep text and faces at least 5 mm inside the trim, and carry anything meant to run to the edge 3 mm past it.
- Decide on the cover lamination early. Laminating just the cover — front and back outside, counted as two pages — is ₹20 a copy, matte or gloss. It suits a magazine that will be carried, posted or handed along a row; a copy that stays at home rarely needs it. Get your magazine printed →
What goes on it
A separate decision from what it is made of, and the one people spend longer on. Choosing an album cover →
What we do not offer
Foil, embossing or spot finishes. Genuinely not available, and worth saying plainly rather than leaving it to be discovered — a foiled title is a different production process and it is not one we run.
Leather, cloth or specialty wraps. Same.
⚠️ If a foiled or embossed cover is the point of the object, we are not the right supplier and you should look for a bindery that specialises in it.
Protecting a softcover
Two things that cost nothing:
Store it flat, not upright, if it is a magazine. Standing on a shelf is what bends a cardstock cover over time.
Do not stack heavy things on it in a humid month. Damp cardstock takes an impression and keeps it. Paper and humidity in India →
Frequently asked
What is a photo magazine cover made of? 300 GSM matte cardstock — about the weight of a postcard.
What is the difference between that and a hardcover? A hardcover is a rigid board rather than a heavier paper. It stands on a shelf indefinitely; a cardstock cover does not.
Do you offer foil or embossing? No. That is a different production process and we do not run it.
Which part of a cover wears first? The corners, then the spine, then the face. Pull a book off a shelf from the middle, not the top edge.
How should I store a softcover magazine? Flat rather than upright, and with nothing heavy on top of it.
Part of our guide to paper and printing. See also: album paper and magazine paper and choosing an album cover.
Cardstock or hardcover: Photo magazines from ₹499 · Hardcover albums from ₹1,299