OUGD504 | STUDIO BRIEF 3 | BINDING RESEARCH

Another consideration of this publication is the binding method. There are many different ways to bind it, and they should be looked at thoroughly before moving on with the next stage.

Perfect Binding:

Perfect binding uses glue to bind the pages together and gives a professional and seamless feel. This works well with thick books with a lot of pages, and usually works by paginating the book into signatures. 

Staple binding:

This bind is more simple, it uses two staples to bind all of the pages together. Usually, the pagination is just one large signature with the staple going through to the middle. A staple bind would be more suitable for thinner books, as thicker books will possibly reject the staple and this would damage the stock.

Coptic bind:

Coptic bind uses many threads running down the edge of the spine to bind the book together. This creates an interesting bind as the spine is exposed. Again, this would probably be better to do for thicker books as it is split into signatures, but it is also possible to do a single sheet coptic bind.

This week I attended a binding workshop to help me understand the process better. I created 2 mockups of a perfect bound book, and a saddle stitch book with a hard cover. I like the idea of using a hard cover, but I'm unsure whether this will make my book too bulky. I want to have a substantial book, but a hard cover with thick stock may be too overwhelming.

Perfect bind mock-up: 

Hard cover mock-up: