Custom Bookmarks with Tassels

Card Weight, Print and Finish

Bookmarks live between pages and get pulled in and out many times, so card thickness matters. A heavy silk or uncoated board feels substantial and resists creasing, while a laminated card holds up best for bookmarks given to children or used in reference books that are opened constantly.

Both sides can be printed, and it pays to use them. Put the main artwork or cover image on the front, and use the back for a quote, a reading list, your website, a social handle, a QR code to a sample chapter, or a short thank-you from the bookshop. Matt and soft-touch laminations give a smooth feel that suits literary designs; gloss makes photographic covers vivid.

For a premium touch, foil blocking on a title or a name catches the light and pairs well with metallic tassels. Uncoated card has a pleasing texture and takes handwriting, which is useful if you plan to sign bookmarks for readers. If you are weighing up silk against uncoated card, our plain-English guide to card types compares them.

Choosing Tassel Colours

Tassels come in a wide range of colours, including black, white, ivory, navy, burgundy, forest green, blush, gold and silver. Match the tassel to one colour from the artwork rather than introducing a new one, and the bookmark will look deliberate. For a series of books, giving each title its own tassel colour is an easy way to tell them apart at a glance.

Tassels are usually attached before delivery, threaded and knotted so the bookmark is ready to hand out. If you plan to give the bookmarks away loose at an event, attached tassels save hours of fiddly work. If you want to mix colours yourself later, ask about loose tassels supplied alongside the cards. Many authors order a matching set of printed DL envelopes for posting bookmarks in the same colour as the tassel.

Who Orders Tasselled Bookmarks

Self-published and traditionally published authors are the biggest group. They give bookmarks at launches, signings and festivals, post them with signed copies, and send them to book bloggers with advance copies. Independent bookshops print them with their logo and slip one into every purchase, which keeps the shop's name on a reader's bedside table for weeks.

Couples order them as wedding favours printed with names and a date, and they are popular for christenings, memorial services and retirement gifts. Libraries, museums and heritage sites sell them in gift shops, and schools give them as prizes for reading challenges. Illustrators and artists sell them alongside prints at markets, where they make an affordable impulse buy.

Charities use tasselled bookmarks as a thank-you for donors, and tutors and reading coaches give them to pupils at the end of a course. Hotels and holiday cottages sometimes leave one in a guest book or on a bedside table as a small branded touch that guests take home. Tutors and reading coaches sometimes pair them with printed A5 notepads for pupils as an end-of-course gift.

Making Artwork Fit a Narrow Card

A bookmark is a tall, thin canvas, so artwork designed for a square or landscape format rarely fits without rethinking. Crop book cover artwork to a vertical strip that still reads as the cover, or use a detail from the illustration rather than shrinking the whole image. Titles and names should run horizontally near the top or bottom, or vertically up the spine of the card if space is tight.

Keep text at least 4 mm inside the trim edge and away from the punched hole. We include bleed and safe areas on the proof so you can see exactly where the card will be cut, and we will flag any text that falls too close to the edge or the tassel hole. Our comparison of print and finish options shows how foil and lamination behave on a narrow card.

Ordering Bookmarks for a Launch or Event

Send us your size, artwork for both sides, card and finish preferences, and the tassel colour or colours you want. We reply with a custom quote by email within one working day. Minimums are low and quoted per job, so a debut author can order enough for a launch without stocking boxes of spares. If you have not ordered print before, the guide to how our pricing works explains what moves the price.

A free design proof follows, and production takes 4 to 7 working days after you approve it. Delivery is free and tracked to the UK mainland in 2 to 3 working days, so work back from your event date and leave a little buffer. If any bookmarks arrive misprinted or damaged, tell us within 10 days and we will reprint or refund them.