Perfect-bound books are affordable for self-published authors looking for professional book printing. They’re also famous for catalogs, manuals, workbooks, and brochures.

They’re also less expensive to produce than hardcover books and stack well. Another excellent characteristic of perfect binding is that you can put your book’s title or any other information on the spine!

Covers

Perfect-bound books have a cover that wraps around the book’s pages and is glued to the spine. It is a prevalent binding method for softcover books of all sizes. It is a good choice for manuals, catalogs, how-to guides, biographies, coloring books, photo books, and more.

The cover can be designed with flaps that extend approximately 3″ beyond the text pages on the front and back of the book (for example, on a 6″ x 9″ book). These flaps are folded back to be (almost) flush with the text.

In this way, the cover can look very elegant. However, if the flaps are too wide to reach the edge of the white text pages on the cover, they can create an unsightly contrast. Using a lighter cover material that matches the text pages is the most straightforward approach to avoid this.

Leaving at least 10 millimeters of space from the cover’s spine edge to the first and last interior pages of a perfect bound book is also good. It is so that the book block can be glued into the cover without losing any vital artwork.

If you are planning on having your perfect-bound book printed, make sure to shrink-wrap it before shipping it to ensure that it is not scratched during the shipping process. Shrink-wrapping also keeps the book’s covers from moving and getting damaged during transit.

Interior pages

Interior pages are the pages that go inside of a cover and are used to hold together the rest of the book. They’re printed on a thinner sheet of paper than the cover and are not as thick to allow readers more accessible access to the pages.

In perfect bound book printing, interior pages are glued to the cover’s spine with strong thermal glue and then trimmed as needed to give them clean, “perfect” edges. This binding method is most commonly used for softcover publications and is a popular choice for catalogs, product catalogs, and magazines.

One key thing to remember when designing your interior pages is that a single sheet of paper equals two (unlike a hardcover book, where one sheet of paper is considered one page). It’s also important to consider that the first and last interior pages will have a 10-millimeter area of glue around them. It may impact the appearance of your artwork and text, so keep this in mind when creating your interior pages.

Ensure you use the correct fonts and margin sizes when creating your interior pages. If your margins are too small, you won’t be able to fit enough words on each page to make the book look nice. Similarly, feel free to experiment with several fonts to find the ones that work best for your project and layout.

Cover glue

Perfect-bound books use glue to bind together the cover and the interior pages. This binding process is famous for softcover books like paperbacks and magazines.

To assemble a perfect bound book, the binder operator first stacks the interior pages and roughed up this block’s spine to increase the glue’s bonding area. It allows the glue to adhere more tightly and firmly to the spine.

After the glue dries, the three open edges of the book are trimmed to give it clean, neat edges. This binding method is powerful and can withstand a lot of stress.

Another advantage of perfect binding is that it can handle a lot of page count. As a result, it makes it an ideal choice for catalog printing and other large-scale projects.

In addition, this binding style is also an excellent choice for self-published authors who want to make their books look professional without breaking the bank. Finally, with prices much lower than hardcover binding, this bookbinding method is the perfect solution for producing small quantities of printed books.

You must pick the correct adhesive type to bind a perfect bound book. EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) is common, but other choices are available. PUR (polyurethane reactive) is a newer type of glue that offers more strength than EVA.

Spine

The spine is a vital part of perfect bound book printing, and it’s essential to get it right. Whether you’re looking to print a brochure, catalog, or even a manual, you need a perfect spine that matches your design.

To do so, you must first understand how the spine of a perfect bound book is made and how it is employed in the process. The spine is used to glue the cover and pages together, ensuring a professional look that will impress your customers.

Once the spine is formed, it’s trimmed down so that each side has crisp edges and no unevenness. It is done by a process called 3-knife trimming.

An adhesive is applied to the book’s spine during the process, and three sides are trimmed down to size to create the finished product. Once the glue is dry, these trimmed book pages are wrapped around a cover to complete the perfect binding process.

Perfect binding is the most common method of binding books and is frequently used for paperback/softcover books, magazines, and catalogs. It’s also an excellent option for self-published authors who want to produce professional-looking books without breaking the bank.