Print Beta Finally Released 🎉

The moment you've been asking for is here. We're officially starting our journey into print formatting.

Starting today, we're rolling out print features throughout October, with the full print experience launching on November 1st. Think of it as our race to print - we're moving fast to get you the tools you need to create beautiful print books.

This is just the beginning. Over the next month, you'll see new print capabilities being introduced regularly as we build toward the November 1st finish line.

What's Already Working

Let me be upfront: the hardest part of implementing print is ensuring the previewer is pixel-perfect across all trim sizes. We're rolling that out carefully throughout October, so you'll see improvements landing regularly. We don't want to promise something that's not quite there yet.

But here's what you can already do today:

12 Industry-Standard Trim Sizes

We chose the most common trim sizes from IngramSpark and KDP. These are the trim sizes that will work for most books. If you need a different trim size, let us know and we'll add it.

Smart Margin Handling

Your gutters alternate automatically - inner margins on the spine side, outer margins on the page edge. We made some sensible choices for the margins that work for most books. We'll be adding configuration options for margins in the near future.

Professional Page Layout

• Chapters start on the right page (recto), like they should in a real book.
• Book parts start on recto, too.
• Front matter uses lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii...) while your main content gets standard page numbers.
• Table of contents with accurate page numbers that actually match where things are

Design Your Headers & Footers

This is where it gets fun. Drag and drop elements to build custom headers and footers for left and right pages. Want the page number on the outside corner and chapter title in the center? Done. Want to bundle them together with custom text like "Chapter 3 - Page 47"? You can do that too.

Image Quality Checks

Here's something that'll save you headaches: we now calculate effective PPI for your chapter header images and full-page images. Most print-on-demand services (IngramSpark, KDP, etc.) require a minimum of 300 PPI. We have added alerts throughout the app that will suggest image sizes if they don’t meet the criteria.

We added a separate PDF pre-flight checklist specifically for print. It will catch the issues that could cause problems with print services, so you can resolve them before uploading. These will mostly be reserved for images, but let us know if you have any suggestions.

What's Coming Throughout October

We're not done yet. Here's what's landing between now and November 1st:

• The full previewer - Pixel-perfect preview across all trim sizes
• Image bleeds - Multiple bleed options for images that extend to the page edge
• More customization options - We're listening to what you need and building it

Try It Out (And Tell Us What You Think)

This is a beta, so it's not as polished as the rest of Lacuna yet. We've been testing hard for the past couple of weeks, and we're confident it's ready for you to start using - but we know there's more work to do.

That's where you come in. Use it. Break it. Tell us what's missing. Found a bug? Have a feature request? Just want to tell us how it's working for you?

Email us at [email protected] - we read every message and your feedback directly shapes what we build next.