To print a family history book, choose the size, paper and binding, save the pages and the cover as print-ready files, order one proof copy, then order the copies. Print on demand suits a few copies, and a short run suits 25 or more. In October 2026 a 200-page hardcover printed on demand cost about $26 a copy in black and white.
A family history book is printed in small numbers, often one copy for each household and a few more. A printer that makes each copy to order suits a few copies and a cousin who wants one years later, while a short run of 25 or more costs less a copy and is quoted for each job.
Key points
- Print on demand makes each copy when it is ordered and suits a few copies; a short run prints 25 or more at once, at a lower price a copy.
- In October 2026 one printer that publishes its prices listed a 6 by 9 inch hardcover of 200 pages at about $26 a copy in black and white and about $49 in full color, before volume discounts.
- A sewn binding is the most durable, and it costs more and takes longer than a glued one.
- Paper that meets the standard for permanence, ANSI/NISO Z39.48 or ISO 9706, is acid-free and made to last.
- A family book given to relatives needs no ISBN; one is needed only to sell the book through bookstores.
How to print a family history book, step by step
- Finish the text, the captions and the index, and have relatives read the draft.
- Choose the page size, the paper and the binding.
- Lay out the pages, and save them and the cover as print-ready files.
- Ask two or three printers for prices on the same size, paper, binding and number of copies.
- Order one printed proof, and read every page of it.
- Correct the files and approve them.
- Order the copies, with time for production and for shipping to relatives abroad.
- Keep the print files and one copy safe, and give a copy to a library.
Writing comes first. How to write a family history book covers it, with a chapter outline.
Choosing the size of the book
The page size, which printers call the trim size, depends on what the book holds. Documents and maps need a page large enough to read them.
| Size | Shape | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| 6 by 9 inches | Taller than wide | A book that is mostly text, with some photographs |
| 8 by 10 inches | Taller than wide | A book with many photographs and documents |
| 8.5 by 11 inches | Taller than wide, the size of a letter page | Documents shown near their own size, and large maps |
| 10 by 8 or 11 by 8.5 inches | Wider than tall | A book led by photographs, and wide maps across two pages |
Sizes vary from printer to printer, so check the exact size before laying out the pages.
Paper, and paper that lasts
Printers describe paper by its weight and its finish. In the United States the weight is given in pounds, such as 50 lb or 70 lb text, and elsewhere in grams per square meter. One printer lists its 50 lb uncoated paper as 75 gsm. Uncoated paper has a soft, matte surface and suits text. Coated paper, in a gloss, luster or matte finish, holds the detail of photographs better and suits a book led by pictures.
For a book meant to last for generations, ask for acid-free paper that meets the standard for permanent paper: ANSI/NISO Z39.48 in the United States, or ISO 9706. Under the American standard, uncoated paper has a pH between 7.5 and 10, an alkaline reserve of at least 2 percent, and no more than 1 percent lignin, the part of wood pulp that yellows and weakens paper. Books printed on such paper may carry an infinity sign in a circle on the copyright page. Ask the printer which of its papers qualify, and ask for a sample.
Binding: from booklets to heirloom copies
The binding decides how the book opens and wears, and much of what it costs. These are the common kinds.
| Binding | How it is made | Opens flat? | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saddle stitch | Folded sheets stapled through the fold | Yes | A short booklet, such as one for a family reunion |
| Perfect binding | Pages glued at the spine into a soft cover | No | Reading copies and drafts; one printer suggests it for books up to about an inch thick, or roughly 500 pages |
| Coil or spiral | A plastic or wire coil through punched holes | Yes, and folds back | Cookbooks and working copies; inexpensive |
| Ring binder | Punched pages held in a binder | Yes | A cookbook or a record that grows, with pages added later |
| Hardcover, glued | Pages glued together and cased in a hard cover | Not fully | Everyday hardcover copies for each household |
| Hardcover, sewn | Folded sections sewn together with thread, then cased in a hard cover | Flatter than a glued book | Copies meant to last, and books opened often |
| Fine binding | Sewn by a bookbinder and covered in book cloth or leather | Flatter than a glued book | A few keepsake copies |
The perfect-binding limit is from BYU Print & Mail, the print shop of Brigham Young University, which prints family histories. Checked October 2026.
A sewn book is made from folded sections of pages, each sewn through its fold and joined to the next with thread. Walsworth, an American book manufacturer, calls sewn binding the most durable form of binding for printed books, and notes that it costs more and takes longer to make. A glued hardcover serves a household copy read now and then; a copy that will be opened often, or kept for a century, is better sewn.
What makes an heirloom binding last
The copies a family means to keep for generations share a few marks:
- A sewn text block, so that the pages cannot work loose from the spine.
- Covers of book cloth or leather over boards, with the title stamped on the spine and the front.
- Acid-free, permanent paper, with endpapers of the same quality.
- A slipcase, a box open at one end that the book slides into, which guards the covers and page edges from light and dust while the spine stays in view.
A bookbinder makes these one at a time and quotes for each job. The Guild of Book Workers, the national organization for the book arts, keeps a listing to find one.
Printing a family cookbook
A cookbook used in the kitchen needs to lie flat and stand up to spills, which points to a coil binding, or a ring binder that lets the family add pages as new recipes come in. BYU Print & Mail describes its coil binding as inexpensive and durable. A hardcover keepsake edition can be printed alongside. How to make a family cookbook covers the layout and the choice of binding.
Print on demand or a short run
Print on demand means each copy is printed when it is ordered, from files the printer keeps. There is no minimum order, and a cousin can order a copy years later. Blurb, one printer of this kind, says production takes four to five business days, and that most orders arrive seven to eleven business days after they are placed.
A short run prints a set number of copies at once, often starting at 25 copies. Gorham Printing, which prints runs of 25 to 5,000 books, gives an average of two to three weeks for production, not counting proofs and shipping. BYU Print & Mail asks families to allow three to five weeks after the final proof is approved. Short-run printers quote each job, and some offer gold or silver foil stamping on the cover; ask each which bindings and papers it can do.
| Print on demand | A short run | |
|---|---|---|
| Copies | From one | Often from 25 |
| Price a copy | Higher, with discounts from 10 copies at one printer | Lower as the run grows, and quoted for each job |
| Time | About two weeks from order to delivery, at one printer | Two to five weeks after the final proof, then shipping |
| Later copies | Ordered at any time from the same files | A new run, with a new quote |
From the printers named above, checked October 2026.
What good copies cost
Many short-run printers quote job by job, so the clearest published prices come from printers who print to order. Blurb publishes a price list for its trade books, with starting prices for the minimum of 24 pages and a few cents for each page beyond. Worked from that list, a 6 by 9 inch hardcover of 200 pages costs:
| Interior | One copy | Each of 10 | Each of 25 | Each of 50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black and white, 50 lb uncoated | About $26 | About $23 | About $21 | About $20 |
| Economy color, 70 lb uncoated | About $26 | About $23 | About $20 | About $19 |
| Standard color, 70 lb uncoated | About $49 | About $44 | About $39 | About $37 |
Worked from Blurb's published prices for a hardcover with a printed cover, checked October 2026: $18.99, $14.99 and $20.99 for 24 pages, plus 4, 6 and 16 cents for each further page, less 10 percent on 10 to 19 copies, 20 percent on 20 to 49 and 25 percent on 50 or more. Shipping and tax are extra.
So 25 copies of a 200-page hardcover cost about $520 before shipping in black and white, and about $980 in full color. Each further 100 pages adds about $4 a copy in black and white and $16 in color, before discounts.
Photo book printers price by the page, at a higher rate. Mixbook, for one, lists a 20-page hardcover from $29.99 at 8 by 6 inches to $84.99 at 14 by 11 inches, with each extra page at $1.79, up to 400 pages. That suits a book of 40 or 60 pages of photographs. At 200 pages the extra pages alone come to more than $300 a copy, so a long family history costs far less printed as an ordinary book.
Can you print a single hardcover copy?
Yes. A printer that prints to order will print one hardcover at the one-copy price, and that single copy is also the proof. A bookbinder can make a single sewn copy in cloth or leather, priced for the job.
Preparing the files and reading the proof
Printers ask for two files: the pages as one PDF at the book's exact trim size, and the cover as a single page with the back, the spine and the front side by side. The spine's width depends on the page count and the paper, so the cover is made last; Blurb's own instructions say the same. A photograph that runs to the edge of the page needs extra image beyond the trim, called bleed, so ask the printer for its sizes, margins and bleed before the pages are laid out. What to do with old family photos and papers covers copying photographs at a resolution that suits the printed size.
Order one printed proof and read every page on paper. Check these in particular:
- Photographs that print too dark or too light, or look soft.
- The inner margins, where words and faces can disappear into the fold.
- Captions beside the right photographs, and page numbers that match the contents and the index.
- The title on the spine, straight and centered, and the colors of the cover.
Ask a short-run printer for a printed proof before the run. BYU Print & Mail includes the first printed proof in its estimate, and charges 10 cents a page for further proofs, with file preparation at $25 an hour.
How many copies to print
Count by household. A simple way is one copy for each household of children and grandchildren, one for each of the oldest relatives, one for a library, one kept as the family's archival copy, and a spare. With print on demand, more copies can be ordered at any time, so it is safe to start small. With a short run, a few extra copies in the first order usually cost less than a second run later. Keep the archival copy upright in a cool, dry room, as for photographs and papers, and the print files in two places.
Copies for relatives abroad
Copies sent from the United States to London, Toronto or Israel pay international postage, and the relative may be asked for import tax or a fee. Ask whether the printer can ship from somewhere nearer, or send the files to a printer in that country, and allow extra weeks.
Giving a copy to a library
A library copy keeps the book for relatives not yet born. The Library of Congress accepts published family histories, subject to review by its staff, and unpublished ones case by case if they are bound. FamilySearch asks families to write before sending a book, and needs the author's permission to copy it into its digital library; it accepts books that leave out the details of living people. The Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne also collects family histories, as do many local historical societies.
Does a family history book need an ISBN?
An ISBN, the International Standard Book Number, identifies one edition of a book for bookstores and libraries. A book given to relatives does not need one. It is needed to sell the book through bookstores and online sellers, and each format needs its own. In the United States ISBNs are sold by Bowker, the official agency, at $125 for one or $295 for ten. In Canada, Library and Archives Canada issues them free to publishers and self-publishers based in Canada, who agree in return to deposit copies under the country's legal deposit program. In the United Kingdom and Ireland they come from the Nielsen ISBN Agency, for a fee.
Sources: Blurb's price list and its pages on trade books and print files, with its production times read through a search summary; Mixbook's hardcover prices; BYU Print & Mail on family histories; Gorham Printing, through a search summary; Walsworth on sewn binding; the National Information Standards Organization and the International Organization for Standardization on permanent paper; the Library of Congress and FamilySearch on donated family histories; Library and Archives Canada on ISBNs; Bowker's ISBN prices, read through search summaries. Checked October 2026.
Questions families ask
How much does it cost to print a family history book?
For a 200-page hardcover at 6 by 9 inches printed on demand, about $26 a copy in black and white and about $49 in full color at one printer's published prices in October 2026, less 10 to 25 percent on 10 copies or more, with shipping extra. A short run of 25 or more is quoted for each job, and bound copies by a bookbinder are priced separately.
How long does it take to print a book?
Printed on demand, about two weeks from order to delivery: one printer gives four to five business days of production, and most of its orders arrive in seven to eleven business days. A short run takes two to five weeks after the final proof is approved, plus shipping. Add a week or two before that for the proof itself.
Are hardcover books more durable than paperbacks?
Yes, for a book that will be kept and handed down. The hard cover protects the pages, and a hardcover can have a sewn text block, which a book manufacturer calls the most durable binding for printed books. A paperback with glued pages can loosen with heavy use, so choose a sewn hardcover on acid-free paper for copies meant to last.
Do I need an ISBN for a family history book?
No, unless the book will be sold through bookstores or online sellers. A book given to relatives or to a library can be printed and cataloged without one. In the United States an ISBN costs $125 from Bowker, or $295 for ten; Canadian residents get them free from Library and Archives Canada.
How do I print a hardcover book from a PDF?
Ask the printer for its page sizes, margins and bleed first. Save the pages as one PDF at the book's exact trim size, and make the cover as a separate file with the back, the spine and the front together, once the page count is final. Send both files, order one printed proof, correct it, then order the copies.
What paper is best for a book meant to last?
Acid-free paper that meets the standard for permanent paper, ANSI/NISO Z39.48 in the United States or ISO 9706. Such paper is alkaline and nearly free of lignin, the part of wood pulp that yellows paper. Choose uncoated paper for a book that is mostly text and coated paper for one led by photographs, and ask for samples.
How a Zichronos book is printed
Zichronos researches a family in the archives that hold its records, then publishes its history as a finished hardcover book, in a large format. A standard commission includes five hardcover copies and a PDF, and the book can be published on Amazon at no charge if the family wishes, so relatives anywhere can order a copy. Premium packages, priced on request, add heirloom-bound copies, sewn and bound in cloth or leather, in a slipcase, made from the updated edition. Printing is a small part of what a researched book involves: what a family history book costs sets out the rest, family history book examples and Inside a book show the pages, and How we work sets out the steps. Companies that write family histories compares the firms that research, write or print family books.