The question we are asked most often about book printing is “Who is the best POD printer?” POD or Print on Demand is a very misunderstood term. Dozens of companies refer to themselves as POD printers, but there are only two true POD options. Read our white paper on Print on Demand to learn more.

A bigger misconception is that you must use a POD printer if you are self-publishing your book. While it is often a good choice, there are many times that it is impractical or impossible to use POD for your book. We explore those reasons more in our POD White Paper, but some of the reasons include trim sizes, quality of printing, specialty bindings, and cost. When POD is not the best option, you will probably be considering the printers listed below.

Not every printer can print a book. It requires specialized equipment to properly print and bind a book.  We only include true book printers in our evaluations and they must offer binding services as well as printing.

The book printers covered on this page are all U.S. printers. We will cover off-shore printers in a separate review, since their primary expertise is long-run color work which has a much different customer base than traditional book printers.

The book printers listed here are presented in alphabetical order for your convenience.  If there is a printer that you don’t see listed and have questions about, please ask us to review them.