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Perfect Binding

The spine or the book is cut and roughened, adhesive is applied to the rough edges and a cover is glued firmly in place. Bleeds and crossovers are also handled differently on perfect bound books.

Advantages

•     Versitile

•     Overall look and visual appeal

•     Printable spine

•     Longevity

•     Ability to creatively interleaf pages

Limitations

•     Doesn’t lay flat. Not suggested for applications in which hands-free reading isimportant [e.g. cookbooks, technical guides, directories or instruction manuals].

•     Minimum thickness of 1⁄8″ inch needed if spine is printed or1⁄16inch if spine isn’t printed.

THE PROCESS

•     Folded signatures or single leaves are gathered into a stack.

•     The spine side of the stack is milled to remove the folded edges, and roughened toexpose the paper fibers. The edge of each page is left exposed.

•     Hot melt adhesive is applied along the spine edge of the book. The glue does notpenetrate; it flows around the exposed fibers.

•     The cover is applied to the spine while the glue is hot. It is then pressed onto thespine, and wrapped around the book block.

•     Hot melt dries in 2 to 25 seconds.

•     The book is run through a three knife trimmer to trim the face, the head and the foot.

Spiral Stitching

To bind using a spiral of continuous wire or plastic looped through punched holes.

Advantages

•     Versatile & widely available

•     Almost any material can be punched and bound, including paper, plastic and laminates.

•     Lays flat.

•     Ability to creatively interleaf pages.

•     Finished piece folds over 360 degrees [useful for technical and reference applications].

•     Well suited for short runs.

•     Can accommodate grain short and most paper weights.

Limitations

•     Not as sturdy as double loop wire.

•     If the wire is crushed, it will not return to its original shape.

•     Pages will jog when open and pages will step up when turned. Crossover designs willnot align.

•     Wire ends are left unfinished; may snag or pull.

THE PROCESS

•     Holes are drilled or punched.

•     Continuous spiral wire is fed into the holes sequentially.

•     Wire is crimped on both ends to prevent unravelling.

Side Stitching

Stapling the signatures together on the side rather than the fold.

Advantages

•     Versitile & widely available

•     Almost any material can be punched and bound, including paper, plastic and laminates.

•     Lays flat.

•     Ability to creatively interleaf pages.

•     Finished piece folds over 360 degrees [useful for technical and reference applications].

•     Well suited for short runs.

•     Can accommodate grain short and most paper weights.

Limitations

•     Not as sturdy as double loop wire.

•     If the wire is crushed, it will not return to its original shape.

•     Pages will jog when open and pages will step up when turned. Crossover designs willnot align.

•     Wire ends are left unfinished; may snag or pull.

THE PROCESS

•     Loose pages are collated and assembled into a stack.

•     The loose pages are stitched or stapled parallel to the spine.

•     When binding signatures, the head, foot and face of the book are trimmed.