I wonder if you could have gotten a matte clear coat spray paint and applied it lightly once or twice. I haven't tried this, but it's just a thought to protect the ink from smearing.

A bit different from what you're asking, but my go-to solution is to use a completely different (but coordinating) material for the spine, so it has a nice contrast for added interest to the cover, and looks intentional 🤭

@@StrayMementos Good idea, thanks!

Yes as long as the leather can withstand the heat. However, even if the leather is okay, they cardboard under the leather might warp. it happened to me before

Not sure what you mean by left side. The cover goes all around, it's one piece and is folded on each side to hide the edge.

If you have one, yes

if your printer can feed it, then yes

You can only do a heat transfer using laser printers. You can also print on fabric with an inkjet printer but you have to feed the fabric into the printer, which is not done correctly can destroy the printer.

You can do sublimation and then embroider. I see another of people doing that

He’s printing on Bookcloth which is lined with paper

In your photo editor, make sure your image is cropped so there is no white around it. Then print.

If you don't cut around the image, you will get the coating transfer too. There are some companies who provide papers that weed themselves and you don't need to trim them but they only work with certain printers like OKI

@@Martyntd5 Thanks! My printer doesnt print white so there should be no white at all, and I've only printed out text from Word directly so far.

@@PhotoBookGuru Okay, makes sense. Thanks for the reply

@@whalewine You just need to remove all excess space from your image, first by makes sure there are no fades into white space in your photo editor and then by physically trimming around your image and also cutting out any white space from inside it. To answer your original question, yes that is normal, you just need to think about your image and select something that you can easily trim to a hard edge rather than a fade ...or put a border round it in your photo editor and physically trim to that.

i was coming to ask the same question

Ratchford have hundreds of book cloths

This can be done, but most people don't have access to a flatbed printer that can do this at home. They are called flatbed printers, and instead of having a sheet feed thru, you lay your media flat on the table of the printer and it moves across it while printing. They can accommodate thick items like books, etc. and most of them us UV cured inks that can bond to a range of materials even glass and plastics. There are places that print signs etc, that may have a printer like that and would share you to run your book thru it.

Um...not really, because the book won't feed through the printer.