Which Book Binding is Best?

You know the old saying about making assumptions based on appearance: “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. In an ideal world, maybe no one would judge a book by its cover - but we do, because an enticing cover is what makes us most likely to look at the book in the first place. In the same vein, if you saw a book with all of its pages falling out, you might not be so inclined to read it; that’s why you need the right book binding technique. Great book binding creates an aesthetically pleasing, compact, and well-organized way of getting information to your prospective clients. There’s a lot of different types of binding, so we’ll do an overview of what we offer.

Saddle Stitching

Saddle stitch binding is, in short, binding where the staples are found on the spine of the book. The nature of saddle stitch binding means it must be done with a book whose pages are in multiples of four. This is the most cost effective way of binding a book, as it’s not particularly labour or material intensive.

Advantages: Low-cost

Disadvantages: Maximum of about 72 pages, must be multiples of four

Side Stitching

Side stitching, like saddle stitching, uses staples in order to hold the pages of the book together; these staples go through the front cover to the back, instead of through the spine, however. The staples are thus visible at the front left side of the book; this method is extremely cost effective.

Advantages: Low-cost, can bind hundreds of pages

Disadvantages: The staple is visible at the front, which can hurt aesthetics

Coil Binding

Coil binding is particularly popular for workbooks; you’ve likely seen coil bound books during school assignments, correspondence courses, and educational seminars. With this technique, coils are threaded through holes that perforate the book; the ends of the coils are crimped so that they don’t slip through the holes. It’s popular with workbooks because the pages can flip 180 degrees, allowing the book to lie flat no matter how far in it you are.

Advantages: Can bind hundreds of pages, pages can be turned all the way around

Disadvantages: Coil is visible, costs a bit more than stitched methods

Perfect Binding

Perfect binding is so named because the binding isn’t obvious at all; heat and glue are applied to prepared pages in order to bind them all together. The edges of the pages are folded slightly and roughed in order to improve adhesion; the cover is wrapped around the pages, which adhere to the cover. This method is used for magazines.

Advantages: Can bind hundreds of pages, binding is not apparent

Disadvantages: Costs a bit more than stitched methods

The plethora of binding options we have make it easy for you to produce a stunning document; we’re not just your Winnipeg printers, but your Winnipeg binders, too!