Bound so it opens the way you meant it to.
Binding is the decision most likely to be made by whoever’s quoting rather than whoever designed it — and it decides whether a spread works or disappears into the gutter.
Six ways to hold it together.
Saddle stitched
Folded sheets nested together and stapled through the spine. Fast, economical and opens nicely — the go-to for programs, magazines, catalogues and zines up to about 60 pages. Page counts run in multiples of four.
Perfect bound — EVA or PUR
Pages glued into a wrap-around cover for a square, printable spine, from 32 to 400 pages. PUR glue is stronger and more flexible than EVA, so the book opens flatter and the pages stay put, even on coated stock. Reports, look books, novels and catalogues.
Case bound
A rigid hard cover over the book block — the one made to survive years on a shelf. Coffee-table books, yearbooks, memoirs and anything that’s meant to be kept.
Spiral & wire-o
Punched and bound with a coil or wire, so the book opens completely flat and folds back on itself. Manuals, recipe books, planners and presentations that need to stay open on the desk.
Pads
Sheets glued along the head so every page tears off cleanly. Notepads, desk pads and order forms, branded to match the rest of your stationery.
NCR books
Old school and still essential. Carbonless duplicate and triplicate books for invoices, dockets, receipts and job sheets — we still print plenty of them.
Why not jazz up the cover?
The cover is the first thing anyone touches. Everything else we do can go on it — in the same job, under the same roof.
Embellish it
Raised varnish or foil on the title, the logo or a texture right across the cover.
Embellishing →Laser cut it
A cut-out window, a shaped edge or an engraved pattern — with no die to pay for.
Laser cutting →Print it in white
White ink on a deep Colorplan cover. Unusual, and very hard to ignore.
White toner →Worth knowing before you design it.
- Spine width isn’t just thickness. Page count, stock caliper and binding all count. We’ll give you the exact measurement.
- Grain direction. Paper folds cleanly with the grain and cracks against it.
- Creep. On thick saddle-stitched books the inner pages push out. We allow for it — keep content off the outer edge.
- Covers want scoring. Heavy or laminated covers crack without it.
Setting up the file
Single pages
Supply in reader’s order, not imposed spreads.
Work out the spine
Use the spine calculator in our help centre, or send page count, stock and binding and we’ll confirm the width.
Mind the gutter
Design across the spine only if the binding lies flat.
Bleed & safe area
2mm bleed, critical content at least 2mm inside the trim.
How we do it
Horizon finishing — a four-clamp PUR perfect binder and an A4 landscape saddle stitcher — sitting directly after a B2 digital press. That combination is why short-run books are a normal job here rather than a special favour.
