Book assembly styles (Binding types)

I have been researching some good, and professional ways in order to bind my book, and it's pages together, and I have found two styles that interest me most. The two styles that I wish to explore, are as follows.

Perfect Bind: For this trial, I have used a perfect (otherwise known as adhesive) bind technique. This techniques involves binding a cover and pages together by using a single spine with an adhesive solution. The spine holds all of the pages intact, in a similar fashion to the stitching method. However lacking the need to use needles and thread. If done properly, perfect bind techniques can be more stable, and secure than their stitch bound counterparts.

My perfect bound trial, 12 hours after production.

My trials did not go so well. I used a card spine, and PVA glue to attach the book together. I found the trial to be very messy, the PVA glue leaked over the edges of the spine when I placed pressure on the book in order to make sure that the spine stayed stuck onto the pages it was holding in. It is hard to gauge pressure, so this was tricky. Because of this leakage, some parts of the card were discoloured, torn, and were left with patchy areas of glue, that is highly unwanted, especially for a professional looking book.

Messy sections, that was caused by PVA leakage, and pressure.

Another problem with the trial was that the pages didn't open out naturally in the way books are supposed to. I think I made the spine a bit to wide, and this trapped the pages, stopping them from opening in the desirable way.

The spine issue, caused by making the card spine too wide.

The inside of my perfect bound book trial, detailing key elements of the perfect bound style. I will hand this book in as part of my development, to go with this unit.

As well as this perfect bind made using card, I also made one using paper, with similar issues, like the card example above.

Front cover.

Side, you can see unpleasant warping.

Again, the spine was too wide, trapping paper.

More extreme warping, later on.

http://printwiki.org/Perfect_Binding < Link to an interesting article, discussing perfect binding.

Stitching: For this trial, I have used a needle and thread to stitch a small sample book, with some pages together.

This technique involves simply using a needle and thread, to stitch the paper or card together like how you would stitch fabric.

Folded paper pages, ready to be stitched together

This technique can be trickier than perfect binding in some ways, for example in the way that the placement of the needle has to be very precisely in the centre of the paper fold. One missed entry location, and the thread can visually look uneven, and this is not wanted. Also the thread can come through the needle hole, if the knot isn't large enough. As a health and safety aspect, you can also injure yourself with a sharp needle, quite easily. This needs to be taken into account.

Precisely measured out marks, to indicate the entry and exit holes that the needle will go in and out, and also displaying the gap in which the thread will be placed.

The needle and thread being initially placed into the paper.

The stitching trial underway.

The finished stitching trial, with the loose thread and hanging needle still being required, to be removed from the sample book. You can see the knots in the thread, which are stopping the string from falling back through the holes.

My finished trial, with loose thread removed. Here I detail key elements of the binding technique, in the physical book. I will hand the book in as a development, to go with this unit.

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For the binding of my final book, I have decided to use a stitching technique, in order to securely bind together my book and it's pages. The reason for this, is because I found using stitching in my trials to be quicker, (lack of wait time for drying) and also slightly more tidier than using a perfect bound book, in my opinion. I will attach the front cover to the pages using spray mounting glue.

My needle and thread stitching, to bind the books pages together.

I took what I learnt from the stitching trial, and brought it into use for my final book assembly. I believe I did this well. Creating trials really did help me get an insight into book creation.





Thomas.