Pacific Bindery & Trade Services

Frequently Asked Questions

Coated papers are papers that are coated with glossy, semi-gloss, or matte finishes. A paper does not have to be “glossy” to be considered coated.

Coated paper has an agent added to its surface in order to improve brightness, smoothness, or other printing properties. Once coating is applied to the paper, rollers help to “polish” the paper.  It fills in the tiny pits and spaces between the fibers, giving it a smooth, flat surface.

On coated paper, printed material is more shiny and bright, which is why it is typically used for brochures, glossy photos, booklets, and more. Second, the coating restricts how the paper absorbs ink, helping to prevent the ink from bleeding. This is a desirable trait for complex designs or images that must be sharp. Finally, coated paper is more resistant to dirt, moisture, and wear, which will help it to last longer.

Uncoated paper does not have a coating to fill in between the fibers. It is generally rougher than coated paper and tends to be more porous, which makes it very absorbent.  Images printed on uncoated paper will be softer and less crisp. Uncoated papers are great options for novels or books that you will be writing in. The rough texture of uncoated paper is a great option for some art books too.

Shells are sheets or pieces of artwork that are pre-printed and then stored or printed later with the remaining artwork or text. For example, this is often used for business cards that have foils on one side and will later have the names of individuals printed on the other side. To save on costs a business will print the “shells” in a large batch, and later print the remaining information as needed (typically not a very complex design or print).

This is when we “crease” the paper, prior to folding to help prevent cracking of the stock. If you have a 100lb cover on a saddle stitched book, we would score the spine. This helps give a clean fold.

Variable data printing is a form of digital printing, including on-demand printing, in which elements such as text, graphics and images may be changed from one printed piece to the next, without stopping or slowing down the printing process and using information from a database or external file.

Bleed refers to an extra 1/8” of image or background color that extends beyond the trim area of your printing piece. The project is printed on an oversized sheet that is then cut down to size with the appearance that the image is “bleeding” off the edge of the paper. This makes sure there are no white edges showing on the final trimmed piece. It is also important that the trim marks are outside the 1/8″ of bleed.

It is the direction of the paper fires are on a sheet of paper. You always want to try to score + fold with the grain to get a sharper, cleaner fold and to minimize cracking. If you fold against the grain, the surface of the paper could crack + split.

This is a printing process, where a digital file is printed directly onto a substrate without any printing plates on a “digital” press. The electronic file is sent to the digital press and it can print 1 copy, or multiple copies. Usually used for short runs, as it is less expensive, and usually a quicker turnaround.

This a process where ink is applied to fine mesh screen and the pushes through the screen and onto the substrate. A stencil method of printmaking in which a design is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

This is a type of printing that has been the same process for over 150 years.                                                                    This requires a die, and the ink goes onto the image on the die, then debosses this into the paper surface. This is a slow, costly process, and is usually used for decorative or specialty items.

Flexography is a modern version of letterpress printing. This traditional method of printing can be used on almost any type of substrate, including corrugated cardboard, cellophane, plastic, label stock, fabric, and metallic film. The flexographic printing process uses quick-drying, semiliquid inks. In this age of digital printing, flexography holds its own in the areas of large orders and long print runs, particularly of packaging products and labeling. Flexographic printing uses flexible photopolymer printing plates wrapped around rotating cylinders on a web press. The inked plates have a slightly raised image and rotate at high speeds to transfer the image to the substrate. Flexography inks can print on many types of absorbent and nonabsorbent materials.

Flexography is well-suited to print continuous patterns, such as for gift wrap and wallpaper.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Offset printing is a commonly used printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or “offset”) from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on the repulsion of oil and water, the offset technique employs a plate in the process and the Ink rollers transfer ink to the image areas of the image carrier, while a water roller applies a water-based film (fountain Solution) to the non-image areas.

The most common binding types are: Saddle Stitching, Perfect Binding, Smyth Sewing, Saddle Sewing, Wire-o binding. Lesser used types are: Front or Face Sewing, Japanese Binding, Lay-Flat Perfect Bound, Swiss Binding, Plastic Coil, Rivets, Eyelets, + Chicago Screws.

Embossing and debossing are the processes of creating either raised or recessed relief image and logos in paper and other materials. An embossed pattern is raised against the background while a debossed pattern is sunken into the surface of the material (Paper).

 Debossing is the term used to describe the opposite process or effect, which involves applying pressure to the front side of a stock forcing the material away or down from the paper surface.

Registered Emboss:

In this type of embossing, the embossed image exactly registers to a foil stamped or printed image.

The foil stamped image area is usually embossed so as to give it a raised look.

Multi-Level Emboss:

The embossed image area is raised to multiple levels with varying depths and in so doing, will give the image more texture and relief which gives it an interesting look.

Blind Emboss:

In this type of embossing, the effect is not stamped over a printed foil or image.

The colour of the embossed image is usually similar to the colour of the paper surface.

Sculptured Emboss:

This refers to a hand-tooled process. It is usually used in a drawing or photograph to create various levels of depth so as to make the image appear multi-dimensional and realistic

“Combo” Embossing:

This is when you combine a foiling + embossing as a combination die. This is rarely used and usually wouldn’t recommend it.

To help illustrate this bindery process, let’s use a Saddle Stitched booklet with a finished page size of 8.5” x 11”, as an example. The pages and cover of this booklet would be made from 11” x 17” sheets that are folded in half to 8.5” x 11”. The folded sheets would be nested one inside the other and then stapled together along the folded crease or spine. Each 11” x 17” sheet folded in half creates four pages of the book. By its nature, Saddle Stitching requires the book’s page count to be in multiples of four. Keep this in mind during your book layout to avoid any unplanned blank pages.

Some General Guidelines: The Saddle Stitch method is most effective for binding booklets and publications with around 64 pages or less. Books with more pages may become bulky when folded and may not lie as flat as desired when Saddle Stitched. Also, whenever laying out a book it is important to use ample blank space (margins) around the content of your pages. After the book has been bound, you don’t want any print buried too deep in the fold of the book’s spine or too near an edge that may be trimmed. To prevent issues such as these, it is always a good idea to check with your planner in the early stages of book design.

Saddle Stitching may sound like an odd name for a book binding process that places wire staples through sheets of paper but in the printing industry stapling is commonly called Stitching. Also, the collated sheets are draped over a Saddle-like apparatus during the stapling/stitching process, hence the name Saddle Stitching.

In the printing industry, Saddle Stitching refers to a very popular book binding method in which folded sheets are gathered together one inside the other and then stapled through the fold line with wire staples. The staples pass through the folded crease from the outside and are clinched between the center-most pages. Two staples are commonly used but larger books may require more staples along the spine.

Fundamentally, the largest difference is between the types of adhesive used in the binding process.  Perfect binding uses Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) adhesives whereas (PUR) uses Polyurethane Reactive Adhesives. 

The PUR adhesive offers superior adhesion over EVA and also the ability for the bound book to lay flat without compromising the binding strength.  The polar nature of polyurethane molecule allows it to adhere to UV-cured coatings, films, as well as to traditional uncoated and clay-coated papers.

Due to PUR using smaller amounts of adhesive over perfect binding it also means that you can achieve a square spine on even the thinnest of books.  PUR glue is more durable and flexible than EVA glue and, once the glue has set, it is almost impossible to tear a page out of a PUR-bound book. EVA hot melt glues still have their place in book-binding, especially when it comes to binding thread-sewn books, as the thicker glue allows for greater penetration into the spine area of the folded sections.

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