Book Weight Calculator

This page displays the approximate weight and thickness of a book, given its specs. It has specific details on the paper used for many types of books at Lulu, but can report on any book when given enough information.

This is a work in progress. Please provide feedback by weighing or measuring your actual book, and let me know if the calculations here are off.

Also available: A calculator that figures royalty amounts for Lulu, and one that compares Lulu pricing with CreateSpace pricing.

Step 1. Select the dimensions of your book from this list, or type in the dimensions.

Step 2. Are the interior pages of your book black and white, or full color?

Step 3. Will the book be
Perfect bound (like a typical paperback)
Saddle-stitched (stapled)
PlastiCoil bound
Hardcover

Step 4. Will the book be
Ordered on lulu.com and printed in the US (by ColorCentric or Berryville),
Ordered on lulu.com and printed outside the US (by Publidisa in Spain or Antony Rowe in the UK), or
Ordered via a retail site like amazon.com (printed by LSI)?

Step 5. Your previous selections should have automatically filled in these paper weight values. If not, you can manually enter them, if you know them. (You can skip steps 2 and 4 if you manually enter values here.)

Paper weight of body: # (lbs.) Text
# (lbs.) Cover
gsm (grams per square meter)

Paper weight of cover: # (lbs.) Text
# (lbs.) Cover
gsm (grams per square meter)

Step 6. How many pages are in your book?

Step 7. Press


My Calculations

Credits

This calculator was created by Steven Doerfler of Lugaru Software Ltd, makers of the Epsilon Programmer's Editor.

Version 1 of 3 June 2008.