Sometimes folded leaflets or plastic wallets in a ring binder are not good enough to wow your clients, customers or lecturers and simply don’t do your documents justice. If you’ve spent ages designing a brochure or booklet or writing a book or a thesis then make sure you give the best impression by having your work professionally bound.
Saddle stitching
According to the PrintWiki Encyclopaedia of print, saddle stitching is “…a means of binding pages together by driving staples through the centrefold of a signature or group of signatures.” Signatures are printed sheets of paper which have been folded into 16, 32 or 64 pages. This traditional bookbinding method uses a saddle stapler which has distinctive v shaped staples (hence the term saddle) which allow the central fold of the pages to be easily aligned. Common uses for saddle stitch binding include brochures, catalogues and booklets and this technique gives these documents a neat and professional finish.
Other bookbinding options
Perfect binding
If you have a larger document to bind such as a book, thesis or manual then saddle stitching won’t be the best option as the staples used in saddle stitching won’t be strong enough or big enough to hold all the pages together. Perfect binding is a common choice for paperback books and according to the Dictionary.com definition this technique is done with “…a machine that cuts off the backs of the sections and glues the leaves to a cloth or paper backing.” Perfect binding is great for thicker books and even theses but if you’re on a budget or want your readers to be able to leave pages open easily then wire binding could be your best option. Wire binding is suitable for books, brochures and manuals and is a popular choice for the workplace for training manuals and company guides. Smaller academic documents such as dissertations can also be bound using the wire method of bookbinding.
PUR binding
Another option on binding is that of PUR binding (polyurethane reactive) adhesive binding, this can be used for a wide range of applications such as catalogues, annual reports, manuals and text books.
Benefits of using PUR
•While inks and coatings compromise the adhesion strength of perfect bound books, PUR is impervious to these intrusions, the aggressiveness of PUR adhesive makes it ideal for books where heavy ink coverage or flood coatings are pressed into the spine area.
•Works with a wide range of paperweights and different finishes of stock.
•Crossover images are more accurate.
•Thin books are most suited to PUR finishing as there is no build up of glue.
