Finishing and Bookbinding
We offer a complete finishing and postpress service: binding, folding, trimming, lamination, spot varnish, embossing, die-cutting, hot-stamping. The possibilities are almost endless!
Folding
Folding is one of the most common finishing operations. We bend the machine – the folder – or the hand and the fold, according to the draw or the complexity of the folds. The paper can be folded without packaging or after being slotted. The choice of whether or not to crimp the paper depends on the thickness of the paper and the direction of the crease relative to the grain direction of the paper, or the ink coverage – especially in digital where the toner is deposited on the paper surface and can “break” when folding. Typical uses: leaflets, calendars, table tents.
Here are five common types of folding
Saddle stitching
Saddle stitching is particularly ecological: everything is recyclable and a minimum of material is used. We use 2 staples, stitched on the back, directly on the fold. The minimum number of pages is 8 (2 folded sheets in two give 8 pages). The documents thus bound must contain a number of pages divisible by 4. This type of binding is limited by the thickness of the document once folded. Depending on the paper used, you can staple documents with more or fewer pages. With the thinnest paper, it is possible to fold 15 sheets, or 60 pages. Typical uses: magazines, brochures, notebooks, etc.
Perfect binding
Perfect or soft cover binding is the typical binding of books or magazines with a large number of pages. When the paper can no longer be folded in half for saddle-stitching due to the large number of pages, you have the option of switching to spiral or Wire-O binding, or to perfect binding. The covers can be laminated and double or quadruple creasing can be done, with or without flaps. The number of pages must be divisible by 2 in the case of digital printing and by 4, 8 or 16 in the case of offset printing. Typical uses: books, magazines, catalogs, brochures.
Plastic spiral or metallic Wire-O binding
The spiral binding is made of a preformed plastic rod that is inserted into a series of holes in the binding edge. Wire-O binding is made of a wire pre-formed into rings that will be folded back on themselves when binding, after being inserted into a series of holes in the binding edge. You can bind with or without a spine, depending on the desired effect. When the spiral or metal rings are visible, it is a spineless binding. A more polished look can be achieved by wrapping the spiral or metal rings almost entirely with the document cover. The documents thus bound must have a number of pages divisible by 2. These two types of binding allow the document to be opened flat, making it easier to read or take notes.
Typical uses: presentation or reference documents, lecture notes, corporate or presentation documents.
Options
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Recycled plastic: Dark green, almost black. This is the only color available, as plastic is not sorted by color during recycling.
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Non-recycled plastic: Choice of colors (regular or fluorescent).
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Metal: choice of colors.
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Metal and plastic are recyclable.
Holes and perforation
Hole punching is the first step in spiral or Wire-O binding. There are also holes for notebooks with rings, labels, calendars, etc.
Perforating consists of drilling a multitude of small holes in order to allow the sheet or a portion of it to be detached. Typical uses: tear-off forms, coupons, etc.
Paper cutting
The majority of prints end up on the paper cutting machine at one point or another during finishing. Depending on the complexity of the finishing, the cutter will be used to prepare the paper for binding. This is the case for saddle-stitched documents where the edge (opposite the fold) is cut at the very end of the operation. Full bleed documents must be trimmed on a paper cutting machine.
Creasing
Creasing is the operation of making a groove on cardboard or heavy paper to facilitate folding. The fiber is crushed strongly by a blunt blade, so it won’t break or crack when folding.
Mounting
Mounting posters on various supports makes them more rigid. We offer a large choice of media: foamcore, gatorboard, wood, sintra, etc., depending on the use for which the poster is intended.
Lamination
Lamination is the process of covering a printed paper or cardboard sheet with a plastic film – matte, matte anti-scratch or glossy – to strengthen it physically or to support the visual with a particular effect. This process is used to protect cover pages, in particular. The lamination on one side of the sheet does not prevent recycling of the paper because the plastic will easily separate from the paper for recycling.