Ever wondered what the finished style might be for you next print project?

Most estimate requests that come through to me tend to be unclear on the “finished style” required. Maybe you are unsure what this means. So let me help you out here with some of the more common methods used.

For leaflets – we all love the straight forward and simple…. Fold – where your piece of print is either folded in half, into three, concertina folded, roll folded etc. Absolutely ideal for any type of leaflet, folded posters, take away leaflets etc

For Brochures, Books, Reports, etc this is a little more complicated…..various options to choose from but the main ones are…

Saddle stitched –Stitching is a method of binding one or more printed sections together by means of wire staples (stitches) through the spine and centrefold. This method is fast and cost effective.

Perfect bound –  Perfect Binding is a method for binding the printed sheets using a glue to bind the text pages into the cover. This method is great for thicker books, where saddle stitching can’t get the job done. Perfect Binding is most commonly used on paperback books.  It’s elegant and professional. It can be pricey for smaller runs and is not suitable for very thin books (saddle stitched best here – see above).

PUR Binding – this is very similar to perfect binding but uses a more durable and flexible glue. It is nearly impossible to remove pages from a PUR Bound book. Ideal for printed items that need to be long lasting reference tools or need a longer shelf life.

Wiro bound –  A method for binding loose leaves using a series of metal wire loops formed from a single continuous wire run through punched holes on the binding edge. Great for Notebooks, Calendars, etc

If you’re mind is still not made up then give me call and I am more than happy to discuss any of these options in more depth to make sure you choose the right finishing style!

Every so often, a client asks for a job to include what is known as “throw outs”. These are pages that fold out away from the foredge of a publication to create a spread that is wider than the rest of the job, and may themselves fold again to form multiple leaves. These can be very useful in highlighting a particular image, such as a map, or a wide format picture that cannot easily be accommodated in the format of the rest of the job, for example, but they do require a bit of thought at the planning stage.

Whether a job is saddle stitched or perfect bound, it will usually go through a three-knife trimmer after the staples or glue are applied. This cuts the job flush at both head, foot and foredge. When a throw out is included it is usually necessary to ensure that the folded edge falls short of the intended trim for the rest of the job, or there would be a risk of cutting through the fold, leaving a loose sheet of paper.

Similarly, it is also necessary to ensure that the edge of the page that folds back towards the spine also falls short of the spine edge (particularly with perfect bound jobs), or there is a risk that it could be stapled or glued into the spine, leaving the spread completely inaccessible. On perfect bound jobs we would recommend that the edge of this page is planned to fall about 10mm from the spine, since even if the page edge stops short of the spine, it can risk being difficult to recognise as a separate page if it is too close, causing the reader to turn over the folded leaf as if it is a regular page.

As above, the page (or pages) that fold back towards the spine need to be smaller than the rest of the job, but in order to avoid the three knife trim, the page which abuts the fold out page also needs to be smaller (page b in diagram). And what applies to one side of the piece of paper naturally also applies to the other, so the pages that make up the back of the spread need to be sized to run from smallest to largest, left to right.

This also means that when creating the artwork for a spread containing a throw out, the regular sized page on the other side of the spine – page (a) – needs to be included.

These considerations mean a bit of careful calculation is needed on the part of the designer or planner of the job.

But when all these factors are peoperly taken into account, it is possible to create stunning effects with the use of well planned throw out sections.

We must have printed hundreds of jobs that are finished as “perfect bound” books. This means the text sections are folded, and “milled” (to produce a rough edge that glue will adhere to on the spine edge); then they are gathered one on top of the other, and a cover with a spine is wrapped around the text blocks, with glue injected into the spine to hold the text sections in place, before the whole thing is trimmed on three edges to produce a neatly finished book. (We usually recommend a slight variant of this process called “PUR binding”, which is the same process, but uses a stronger glue.)

In order to make the books as strong as possible, the binder creates what is known as a “hinge flap” on the front and back covers. This is created by placing a crease approximately 5mm from the edge of the spine. The glue that is injected into the spine also goes here, so that for this small area the cover glues down flat onto the first and last text pages. If you check any books produced in this way you will find that most have this feature.

However, this creates a problem in the supply of artwork that is almost never addressed in advance. This is, that if the intention is to have an image that reads over between the inside front cover and first text page (or the last text page and inside back cover), an allowance needs to be made for the image being lost in two places; both on the inside of the front cover and on the first text page.

Below is an example of what one of our clients wanted to act as a spread on the inside front cover and first text page of a book we produced for them.

If we hadn’t made the adjustments for the hinge flap allowance, we would have ended up with something like this.

To correct this problem, in fact you have to duplicate the image twice, and (in the case of the front cover) move the duplicated left hand side to the left, and duplicated right hand side to the right, to allow for the two areas being lost. So in the end what you print will look something like this.

But of course, when the duplicated areas are stuck to each other, what you will see will be the image going (seamlessly – we hope) across the join.

The same applies (in reverse) to the inside back covers.

If your print job requires extra finishing, such as a folder with a pocket, packaging or a die cut business card, you may be asked to supply the printer with a cutter guide. It is important that this is set up properly in order that the final job is cut and folded correctly.

There are a number of things to consider when designing your job if you will be using a die cut. For example, it will add to the amount of time the printers and finishers need to complete the job and it may be expensive depending on how complicated the design is. Therefore, it is always worth asking the printer first if they have a template available that can be used in which you can build your design around. This will mean you do not have to create the cutter guide saving you time, it will be correct from the printers point of view so no costly revisions or time lost at this stage and the finishers will already have the die made so may not charge you what it would cost for making a new one up.

This is an example of a standard 5mm capacity folder cutter guide.

If you require a bespoke design, there are a few things to be aware of when setting up your guide.

You can supply it as a separate PDF or incorporated into the actual design. Either way, it is best to make the edges of the cutter line a solid spot colour at 0.5pts and any folds as a dotted line also at 0.5pts and in the spot colour. It would be wise to rename the spot colour Cutter Guide.  In addition to this, you would need to make sure the guide overprints the artwork below so the artwork below is not knocked out when printing.

Your cutter guide will then be constructed using a Gerber machine. The solid lines denoting the cuts will be made from sharp metal and the dotted fold lines are converted into recessed blunt metal strips. This die is then punched into the print, giving you the final product ready to assemble, etc. The punching is usually done from the front as this gives a much cleaner edge. Therefore, it is best to always design your cutter when looking at the design from the front. Just makes it easier for the finisher.

At Printhouse, we have a library of templates for various cutter guides; some of which may already be made into die cuts and others that have been used previously that we know to be correct. Should you require any help with creating your cuttter guide, just contact us and we will be able to advise you. You may also want to check out our templates page here.

Love is (so they say anyhow!), but getting your Annual Report designed and printed needn’t be any such thing as we’ve just proved once again.

Commissioned by public service giants Amey back in November, PrintHouse were tasked with producing, from start to finish, an Annual Report the company would be proud of …but without any of the issues that had dogged the design and print process they’d experienced before.

A detailed production schedule was worked on between the parties, with clearly defined timelines and responsibilities, ensuring that key personnel at both ends knew what was required and by when.

Having firmed up a design brief together, PrintHouse immediately got to work creating a range of templates for approval, paying clear attention of course to the existing brand guidelines. PDF and hard copy proofs were sent along with a host of samples; having produced Annual Reports and Brochures by the barrow load it was easy for us to show final examples of a variety of different finishes and materials to again help the production teams narrow down the final specs.

The coming weeks saw copy supplied along with draft tables for insertion as the studio began to create the master document in the chosen style. With everything in place it meant that when the final copy and final accounts were submitted, placing them became a simple task. With page count now also finalised a complete dummy booklet was created and supplied on the agreed substrates to ensure spine measurements were spot on and to allow exact calculations for postage requirements to be set. And with regard materials, in order for Amey to comply to their environmental responsibilities, we helped select a fully recycled material and made the appropriate FSC claim  allowing them to gain all the positive green PR so associated.

And so to print. With sign off received a full set of hi-res press calibrated digital proofs was sent out same day for the client to give their final OK to. A good thing too as these highlighted one or two small issues that we were able to quickly and easily resolve. With two presses running day and night (so a back up always in place) we were able to print within 24 hours with the cover being matt laminated and a spot UV varnish effect being applied.  The final job was then PUR bound — an extra strength glue to ensure that pages won’t simply fall out — boxed up and distributed as required.  Oh, and of course a web optimised PDF was sent for uploading to the company website.

The final result looking just like this… (click images for larger pictures)

A delighted client was soon emailing

Just a quick note to say thank you for all your work on the annual report — it’s arrived today and everybody is really pleased with it.

If you’d like me and my crew to do the same for you, just send through details and I’ll be delighted to discuss how we could work together.

We are often asked about the various methods of binding books. So I thought I’d just give a simple description of some of the different techniques here, plus a note on some issues arising from them.

Saddle stitching

This is a very common finishing method, which basically involves folding the text pages in sections so that they run in the correct order, and stapling, or “stitching” them together (or to a separate cover, which is often printed on heavier material). Very occasionally, books can really be “stitched” using a material such as ribbon, to create a decorative effect, but more often the term refers to the use of staples. Using this technique, folded sections are collated one inside the other, with the staples being applied through the spine, and the books are then “three knife trimmed” to give a clean top, bottom and front (“fore edge”).

There is a limit to how many pages can be finished in this way. There has to be a minimum of 8 pages, but, depending on the material used for the text pages, it may be worth considering one of the other binding techniques below for anything above, say, 60 pages in total.

One issue that may arise when jobs are saddle stitched is “creep”. Creep is caused by the fact that the outer pages in a saddle stitched book have to wrap around the outside of all the inner pages, which means they are in effect larger than the pages towards the centre of the book. This can mean that unless an appropriate allowance is made, page elements – page numbers, for example – can be nearer to the fore edge of the centre pages than on the pages nearer the cover. This is a factor that should be considered during the process of designing a document – particularly if the document is to have a large number of pages.

Perfect, or PUR binding

Perfect binding is a great method of finishing books containing more pages. Like saddle stitching, this involves folding text sections so the pages run in the correct order, but instead of collating the sections one inside the other, they are “gathered” one on top of the next. The pages are imposed in such a way to leave a small gutter at the spine. After folding and gathering the sections, the gutter on the spine edge of the pages is milled away, and glue is applied to the fresh paper edge. The covers are then drawn over the text blocks, and the book is again three knife trimmed – forming a book with a spine. This is how most paperback books are created. The only real difference between perfect binding and PUR binding is the use of PUR glue in the latter process. This is immensely strong, and avoids the problem of text pages falling out of bound books, which did used to be an issue with perfect bound jobs in the past.

Burst, or “notch” bound books

This is a very similar technique to perfect or PUR binding, except instead of milling away the gutter in the spine before applying the glue, the spines are instead notched, and glue is injected into the notches. This means the books can lie flatter when open than perfect bound books, but some people find the appearance of the notches when the book is forced flat a little untidy.

Thread sewing

This technique involves folding sections as above, but prior to the application of any glue, the sections are sewn together by a machine to make book blocks. These can then be bound to covers, either using the perfect bound/PUR method, which provides extremely durable paperback books where the internal pages open very flat; or by casing them into hard covers – usually cloth covered boards. This is the method used for creating most hardback books.

A common mistake we often encounter in the Repro department involves incorrectly setup artwork for documents that fold more than once. A good example of this would be flyers and brochures that contain 6  or more pages. Documents such as these are normally designed to either be finished with a concertina fold (also called a ‘z’ fold) or a roll fold. Both names are fairly descriptive of their outcome.

Z Fold Leaflet

The z fold leaflet is folded in equal parallel parts much like an accordian and will resemble a ‘z’ from above when opened out. This zig zag style of leaflet is much easier to setup as it requires the flat page to be divided exactly into the required number of panels and will back up perfectly on the reverse.

Example:

A typical DL sized Z fold with 6 pages will fold into three equal sections measuring 99mm x 210mm. This leaflet size is very common as it originates from an A4 page which is in effect just folded twice. Because of this, the guides and back up will be exactly the same on the reverse.

Roll Fold Leaflet

The roll fold is a little more tricky. It involves the largest two panels being the same size at one end with the rest of the panels being incrementally smaller so that they can fold into each other and nest correctly. This means each panel is slightly different in size and the designer has to consider the back up very carefully.

Example:

A typical DL sized roll fold will have three sections, two of which will make up the front and back cover and are the largest at 100mm each. The third panel needs to fold inside neatly without buckling the leaflet and therefore needs to be slightly smaller. As this leaflet will usually originate from an A4, so the last measurement must be 97mm. The first diagram shows the outside spread of the leaflet which includes the front and back cover on the right. The second diagram shows the inside spread which is the exact inverse and reverse of the measurements on the front. This is where most people slip up. The outside spread must start with the lowest measurement on the left and the inside spread, the lowest measurement on the right – remember, they have to back up correctly and so they are not the same on both sides!

The simplest way of checking that everything works is obvious. Print it, cut it out and fold it up! If the margins and text line up correctly and the folding is flat without buckling, you have successfully created your leaflet. Congratulations! Output a high resolution PDF (don’t forget the bleed!) and send it to us for fast turnaround, quality printing.

I get asked all the time if we can bind a brochure, catalogue or journal “paperback book” style so as to create a spine that, without doubt, enhances the look and perceived value of the finished item.  This binding style is referred to as “perfect binding” – but as with so much in the industry there is more than one way to skin a cat. So as well as “Perfect” binding you will also hear terms like “thread sewn”, “burst” and “PUR”

Whilst they all look alike, the type of glue or technique used actually makes quite a difference to the quality of the product you will receive; the following will I hope ensure you ask for what you need!

PUR Bound Brochure

As most of us have sadly experienced when reading novels on our holidays, standard perfect bound books have a tendency to fall apart. The “hot melt” glues used - little pellets that liquefy when heated up and solidify when cooled down – often go brittle when they dry out.  As such when folded back or pushed flat, a must with a brochure a catalogue, the spine can crack allowing pages to simply fall out. Bad for your image, bad for business.

To get round this most traditional perfect binders offer to “thread sew” the book in sections first – exactly as it sounds a thread is sewn in to give each section considerable extra strength.  Certainly does do the job but, as it’s a timely process, it can be an expensive additional option.  As such alternatives were devised – burst binding was one, where the spine of each section is slotted or perforated during the folding operation. Glue is pushed up between the perforations during binding to give it a bit of extra strength.  But the key word here is a “bit” and as such is rarely a recommended solution.

However the real breakthrough came with the advent of what we now term PUR Binding.  Using a polyurethane adhesive (hence PUR) gives the final bond far more flexibility.  Like standard perfect binding it is processed hot and hardens by cooling, but once bonded it is impervious to heat.  What we end up with is a great looking product that once set (takes 24 hours to fully “go off”) gives the strength, and then some, of thread sewing but at a speed and a cost more akin to traditional perfect binding.  Although the set up costs are a little higher, as once open the canister cannot be re-used, in our opinion it is worth every penny.  Spending a small fortune on your next publication only to risk it falling apart with use is, surely for all companies, a risk that can never be worth taking.  So next time go PUR and assure yourselves a purfect finish!

As a designer — and possibly as Fred Bloggs too — it is likely that you’ve heard about Pantone. To make things clear, however, let’s remind ourselves what Pantone means in print business.

In simple terms it means designers and clients can choose from over a thousand precisely formulated colours, each of them having its unique numeric identification, e.g. “347U”. Using this specific colour number for your work means it will always look the same, no matter if printed in the UK, China or Canada. Pick a colour for your logo from a special swatch book (ask your designer or ask us) and rest assured we will print it exactly like that.

So how does Pantone colour theory look in real?

Suppose you want to print some letter headed paper and your Brand Manual specifies the colour of your logo as “Pantone 347″. As the stationery will be printed on an uncoated stock, we will use the Pantone “solid uncoated” formula or simply colour number “347U”.

Pantone mixing formula

Note the formula next to Pantone number. It means the printer needs to mix our green colour from two base inks — 62.5 grams of Pantone Process Blue and 37.5 grams of Pantone Yellow (there are total of 13 base inks which can produce over 1,000 unique colours). We will use the default 100 grams of ink for our short run. An electronic scale and a spatula is used to “cook” our inks.

After we have the correct amount of base inks in place, we are going to mix it a bit with a spatula. Such a preliminary mix will then be put into an ink duct on the printing press where it will further amalgamate and form our final colour.

Pantone 347U ready for printing

That’s it! Our printing press minder is ready to produce your stationery (or any other printed matter) in the accurate and consistent Pantone colour!

Finished Piece

We’ve printed all manner of books here – from Xmas Bestsellers about Patriotism to Anniversary Books for The Superstar Trainer and O2 Arena.  But a book all about Garlic; well here was a first.

At Printhouse we love the “out of the ordinary” and, after meeting with the editor, we soon saw her vision for the book and gave our advice.  A mixture of facts, oddities and, most importantly, recipes, it was felt the book needed an earthly feel. Our strong environmental credentials ensured we could offer full FSC certification and print using vegetable based inks.  Of key importance though was the material; after much sampling a 100% recycled uncoated stock containing impure flecks was selected to really give it that natural look; the finished results proved it to be have been a fine choice.

With it needing to be hard wearing we ensured the book was perfect bound using PUR glues; as the glue does not go brittle when it dries pages can be pushed flatter without risk of the spine cracking.  The only thing left to worry about was the timescale – with the launch of book scheduled for the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show we had less than a week to get the initial 3000 copies produced for what was an un-missable deadline.  Working day and night as a standard this proved little problem for us, with finished books completed as required and on the stand ready for sale.  And sell they did; having received a host of fantastic reviews barely 2 months later the re-print is already in hand!

I’d like to thank you and the team for a most brilliant job. Working with everyone at Printhouse has been an absolute pleasure”

– Natasha Boswell, Editor