A system and method for enabling production of larger books utilizing a multi-substrate hinged media. A media definition for a specialty media can be enhanced to include information about multiple variants that contain varying sizes of hinge sections related to a specific media and a page assignment rule. The set of hinged media variants can be treated as a single media type and the properties of the media type determine sheet thresholds for each variant. The specific media variants can be assigned to specific document pages based on the page assignment rule. The pages in the center of the book utilize larger hinges to allow the pages to lie flat, while pages at the beginning and end of the book utilize smaller hinges to prevent imaging on the hinge area.