Binding methods for books and periodicals: saddle stitch, glue binding, hardcover•how to choose？
There are often more things to pay attention to when printing books than other printed matter, because the product structure of books and periodicals is relatively complex. Two very important links are book binding and typesetting design. This time I will share with you how to bind books and periodicals (for more information on book and periodical layout design, please refer to another article "【Exclusive interview with book printing master】- 10 things you need to know about book design and layout! 》). As far as the Hong Kong market is concerned, the most common binding methods for books and periodicals include saddle stitching, perfect binding and hardcover. Before printing a book, we must first plan some basic directions, including: the purpose of the book, content structure (such as number of pages, text, images or picture expressions, etc.), distribution objects, usage occasions, etc.
It is best to think through these factors at the outset, as they may determine the structure of the book. For example, the content, number of pages, and usage occasions of books and periodicals may have determined which binding method is more suitable. Different binding methods of books and periodicals often require different precautions in layout design. Therefore, these factors are not decided before printing the book, but should be thought through at the initial conception stage to avoid spending a lot of time making revisions due to changes in the mind midway.
The author would suggest a relatively simple way of thinking, which is to start thinking from the "purpose of books and periodicals." We want to print a book, and what is the purpose of this book?？Product catalogs, brochures, event journals, work reports, educational publishing books, photo albums？Then think about other factors such as the purpose of books and periodicals, usage occasions, distribution objects, etc. Among many elements, the number of pages of books and periodicals is an important element in determining the binding method of books and periodicals.﹗Next, we can first understand the definitions and precautions of various book binding methods:
Horse-stitching books and periodicals
The binding of saddle-stitched books and periodicals usually refers to "wire flat nails"/"wire flat nails" or what we generally call "staples". During the production process, the machine nails a short piece of metal wire into the sorted cover and inner pages, and bends and folds both ends of the wire to secure it.
Advantages and limitations of saddle stitching books and periodicals:
The production cycle of saddle stitch binding of books and periodicals is short and the cost is low, so the price is also relatively cheap. However, the binding is weak and the wire used has difficulty penetrating thicker pages. Therefore, books and periodicals with more than 32 pages (64 pages) are generally not suitable for saddle stitch binding.
At the same time, the number of pages in a saddle-stitched file must be a multiple of 4, otherwise there will be gaps in the text. There are too many pages or the paper used is thicker, such as 120gsm book paper. When cutting the book, there is a chance that the spine corners will be broken. This is especially true for some thick card-stitched books with glued covers. situation, these are unavoidable in the normal production process. In this case, it is best to switch to the binding method of perfect binding or line binding books, which can solve the problem.
In addition, what should be avoided in typesetting design is that the page numbers are too close to the edge of the book, especially in stapled books with many pages. The page numbers will be easily cut after the book is completed. It is recommended that the page numbers and important content need to be at least 5mm away from the cut edges. . Common process problems in saddle-stitched books include missing nails, unstable nails, upward-turned nail openings, wrong page order, etc. Therefore, customers should pay special attention to the quality of the above parts when receiving the goods.
Perfectly bound books and periodicals
Perfect binding of books and periodicals is currently one of the most popular binding methods. The process is to first stack the folded inner pages in order of page numbers. After the spine grinding process, hot melt glue or cold glue is used to bond the cover and inner pages together. , and finally cut into books with a three-sided knife, referred to as glue binding.
The difference between thread-bound books and perfect-bound books and periodicals lies in the presence or absence of threading. If there are many pages, they must be threaded and bound in order to prevent them from falling off after a period of use.
Perfect bound book
Advantages and limitations of perfectly bound books and periodicals:
The stapling method of perfect-bound books and periodicals is suitable for books with a large number of pages. The stapling method is generally stronger and more durable than saddle stitch. The number of pages that can be printed on a perfect-bound book depends on the thickness of the paper. If 80g paper is used, the number of pages can be close to 500 pages at most, and the spine can be printed, which provides an extra surface for design, which also facilitates printing. Sort and find books on the bookshelf.
However, there are also things that need to be paid attention to when binding books and periodicals. For example, if "bleeding" is not done during typesetting design, there will be problems with white edges. Images or text will be too close to the book block. Once the book is completed, it will be difficult for readers to read the content in this location. In production, if the glue is not good or the glue is not well glued, it will become brittle if it is turned over many times or the climate becomes cold, and degumming will easily occur. In addition, if you put more pressure on the middle seam when reading, cracks may occur and pages may fall off.
Common process problems of perfect-bound books include: the cover is thrown off, the inner pages are thrown off, the text on the spine is deviated from the correct position, the pages are in the wrong order, there is too much glue and protrude, the spine is not square enough, etc. Therefore, customers should pay special attention to the page numbers, sticky edges, spine and other locations when receiving the goods.
Summarize
As far as the Hong Kong printing market is concerned, if customers print training manuals, product manuals, booklets, product manuals, agreements, magazines, work reports and other publications with relatively simple content, they generally prefer saddle stitching. Product manuals, financial report publications, corporate brochures, novels, reference books, etc. with rich content are mostly bound by glue binding. For some books with high collection value, such as encyclopedias, photography albums, travel albums, wedding albums, antiques, souvenir albums, etc., hardcover binding is often used.
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