How to design the spine of a book cover

[blues4284]

I have created a book in InDesign out of nine different files. The first file contains the cover. Right now, it is a single page, but I want to add a spine. The printer has told me it will be 5/16." How do I get that dimension into the document so I can place text on it?

 

[jimoblak]

You need to create the back cover, spine, and front cover on a single InDesign document page. Just drag out the guidelines to show where the spine is.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[jpstroud]

To expand on this a bit, you'll need to double the normal size of your page, then add the spine width in order to set up a standard "perfect bind" cover. Enter this figure into the Document Setup width field. An easy way to map out the spine area would be to set the Columns to 2, with a gutter equal to the size of your spine.