How a personalised colouring book is made

Six steps on the site

1. Name and age. The name goes on the cover and in a caption under every picture. The age helps us suggest a level.
2. What they love. Up to three themes, from dinosaurs to princesses to robots. With Enhanced personalisation (£3.00 more on a PDF) you can also tell us anything else they're into, and we make the pages around it after you pay.
3. Level. Beginner, Medium or Hard. We suggest ages 2–4, 4–7 and 7+, but go by what they enjoy.
4. Storybook. Just colouring, or a short story line under every picture for £1.50 more.
5. A quick sketch. A rough look at their cover and one page while you choose.
6. PDF. Then a preview of the real cover and first page, with their name, before you pay.

What we put together

The pictures come from our picture library, chosen from the themes you picked, at the level you picked. The book opens with the cover and a "This book belongs to" page, then 10, 20 or 30 pictures (£4.99, £6.99 or £9.49 as a PDF), each with its caption. A gift can have a page at the front with your message.

Everything a child might read goes through our checks first: no brands or characters from films and shows, no real people and nothing scary. With Enhanced personalisation, if a page we make doesn't pass those checks, a picture from our library takes its place, and if we can't make at least half the pages we refund the add-on automatically.

The PDF

It's on your order page and in your email as soon as you pay (with Enhanced personalisation, once the pages are made, usually within 10 minutes). The download link works for 72 hours, so save it somewhere safe. It's set up for A4 when you pay in pounds and US Letter when you pay in dollars, and you can print it as often as you like for your family.

Printing at home

• Print at actual size (100%) rather than "fit to page", so the borders stay where they should.
• Print single-sided. Felt tips and paint pens can show through to the other side.
• Ordinary printer paper is fine for crayons and colouring pencils. For felt tips, thicker paper or thin card stops the colour going through to the table.
• The pictures are black line art, so a black-and-white printer is fine for colouring. The cover and the page borders are in colour and look best from a colour printer.
• Run out of a favourite? Print that page again: it's your PDF.