What kinds of bindings are suitable for your project?

Here is a run-down of the various types of bindings used for multiple page documents, booklet or books, which are common to the printing industry:

1. Saddle Stitching (Stapled Binding)

Booklets, magazines, catalogues and calendars can be bound with stapled bindings.

A heavy duty stitching machine creates wire staples (from a large spool of wire) to hold the pages together.
The machine drives the wire through the backbone fold of the piece to the centrefold where they clench tightly.

A saddle-stitched piece lies almost flat when opened and is the most convenient for readers.

A saddle-stiched document must be at least 8 pages… and increase in quantity, in four page increments.

This is a good binding method for documents of between 64 to 80 pages and on 60 to 78 lb. (or #)  paper stock.

If the document exceeds a thickness of approximately 3/8″ another type of binding would be more suitable.

2. Comb Binding (also known as Cerlox Binding or Surelox Binding)

This method of binding uses round plastic spines with 19 rings (for a standard letter sheet) and a hole punch which makes rectangular holes.

They can be used for various page sizes. Quite often, this binding is used for cook books and this type of binding has a printable surface on the spine, which is convenient for titling the book.

The comb binding is more vulnerable to damage than spiral binding, especially after repeated usage.

This kind of binding can bind pieces up to 3″ thick and they come in various colours.

3. Spiral Binding, or Plastikoil Binding

Spiral binding has become popular because of its ability to be doubled over, allowing the printed document to lay flat.

This is very convenient for technical manuals, notebooks, cookbooks and calendars.

Pages cannot be added to spiral bound pieces. The pages of the piece are punched with round holes and a special coil inserter winds the coil through the punched pages.

The cut ends of the plastic coil are then crimped, so the bindings don’t back out of the page.

Spiral binding is available in plastic of various sizes (1/4″ to 2″) and colours. It is possible to bind pages up to 24″ in length by this method.

4. Wire-O or Double Loop Binding

This is similar to spiral binding, in that the pages are punched at the spine. In this method, the holes are square punched, allowing for a double loop wire to be inserted.

All of the document pages lie flat when opened, and can easily turn through 360 degrees, while staying in perfect registration with adjoining pages.

Wire-O comes in standard colours and sizing is from 1/8″ thick to 1″ thick. They are durable and are used for reference books, reports, notebooks and calendars.

5. Perfect Binding

A perfect bind is actually a glued binding. This is the type of binding you see on a standard, soft cover book, or paperback book .

The book’s page signatures are gathered in page sequence and clamped together in a Perfect Bind machine.

The machine slices off 1/8″ from the left edge (spine), while at the same time milling the edge, providing a rough surface in preparation for effective gluing.

The spine edge then receives an application of glue, while at the same time applying the wrap-around cover.

Minimum thickness for books with this type of binding is 1/8″ and is appropriate for various thicknesses and book sizes.

It is recommended that the book paper stock used is not thicker than 100# paper stock.
An excellent binding for books, thick magazines, annual reports, catalogues and manuals.

6. Case Binding or Hard Cover Binding

This binding is used mostly for book production.

This binding requires a minimum of 60 printed sheets, folded into 16 or 32 pages signatures, which are collated and sewn by machine.

These sewn pages are called the book block.

The hardback case is made by wrapping paper, cloth, lamination or leather around the case board and then glued onto the book block.

The spine can be rounded, flat and/or tight backed.

The look of the hard cover book is superior with the availability of leather, papers, and multiple fabrics that can be used to encase the book.

These materials coupled with the variety of specialty finishing techniques, such as embossing or foil stamping, gives the case bound book a professional, classic or artistic appearance.

The book can have a printed dust jacket as a finishing feature.

When planning a printing project which requires special binding, meet with us at Hucul Printing to discuss the options available.