One of the biggest choices you need to make before designing your next booklet is what binding type you are going to choose. A lot of factors go into determining which binding type is best, such as page count and the book’s purpose. You must ask yourself questions such as where will it be used? By whom? How will it need to function?
When you start to look at it that way, there is a lot to consider! While perfect binding is great for magazines and product catalogs, spiral binding or wire-o binding is probably the better option for projects such as manuals and cookbooks. If you’re on a budget, saddle stitch binding is the optimal choice. Before we get into the nitty gritty, take a look at our book binding options overview below.
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Book Binding Options: Overview
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Saddle Stitching |
Perfect Binding |
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Spiral Binding |
Wire-O Binding |
Below you can find more detailed information on each binding type to help make your decision easier.
Saddle Stitch Book Printing
Saddle-stitched binding is the most common and cost-effective form of book binding. Booklets bound in this way have printed sheets that are folded and nestled together one inside the other and then stapled through the fold line. This allows the booklet to lay almost completely flat when open. This means that less of your design gets lost in the middle and the book will be easy to handle. However, there is a limitation to this type of binding. Staples can only hold so many pages. Therefore, saddle stitching is best for smaller booklets containing less than 92 pages.
Page Count Restrictions: 8 Pages – 92 Pages | 4 page increments
Available in Soft Cover or Self-Cover
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Popular Saddle Stitch Books:
Perfect Bound Book Printing
Perfect binding is a popular type of book binding you see on soft cover books such as paperback books and magazines. The internal pages are printed on both sides of text weight paper, then gathered together (collated) into a book, one on top of the other, in numbered page order. The cardstock cover of the perfect bound book is placed over and around the inside pages, attached along the binding edge by the application of a strong yet flexible PUR glue.
Page Count Restriction: 28 Pages – 2” thick | 2 page increments
Available in Softcover Only
Popular Perfect Bound Books:
Spiral Bound Book Printing
Spiral binding or coil binding is similar to saddle-stitched binding except that it involves creating holes along the left edge of a booklet's pages and inserting a continuous plastic coil through the holes. This binding allows for a wide variety of sizes and page counts. It also offers the most versatility for the user to lay the pages flat, which is why this is a common binding method for spiral notebooks and journals.
Spiral bound books are easier to handle due to the ease of turning pages, lack of spinal tension, and folding or wrapping back around themselves (360 degree). You cannot print on the spine or add or remove pages. Crossovers, or images that span two adjacent pages, inside of perfect bound books are not recommended.
Page Count Restrictions: 8 Pages – 2” thick | 2 page increments
Available in Soft Cover Only
Popular Spiral Bound Books:
Wire-O Bound Book Printing
Wire-O binding is similar to spiral binding except for instead of a spiral coil, it has a metal coil, as shown above. This binding allows for a wide variety of sizes and page counts. Wire-O tends to be an ideal option for when a project is for a professional setting, but also needs to have the versatility of moving the pages 360 degrees. A good example is an annual report or presentation booklet.
Page Count Restrictions: 8 Pages – 2 3/4“ thick | 2 page increments
Available in Softcover Only
Popular Wire-O Bound Books:
Softcover vs. Self-Cover
While describing the book binding options above, we mentioned softcover and self-cover. Here is a brief look at soft cover and self-cover to give you a better grasp.
A SOFTCOVER BOOK is like a paperback novel, catalog or magazine. The soft covers are printed on a more durable heavier weight cover cardstock paper to give your book a little more thickness and heft. We recommend 80# or 100# gloss or matte cover cardstock for the cover and 80# or 100# gloss or matte text for the inside pages. 70# gloss text is available when weight becomes an issue, for example, mailing. Below is a saddle stitch example of softcover (the darker colored cover in the example is a heavier weight than the inside pages).
SELF-COVER BOOKS have the same paper weight for the front and back cover and the inside pages. 100# Text (Gloss or Matte) is recommended. We only offer self-cover for Saddle Stitched Books. Below is a saddle stitch example of self-cover (the cover and inside pages are the same paper weight).
