Choosing The Right Binding Method For Your Book

When publishing your book you may want to consider how your book will appear to it's readers. Does the appearance of your book convey your message? Does it fit the overall theme of your book? Choosing the right binding method can help you accomplish the right image and message for your book. Here's a list of our standard binding methods from Best Book Printing and their intended uses.

Saddle Stitched
Suitable for books with 80 pages or less. The press sheets are folded in half and stapled on the spine. ( I generally see used in books with smaller pages such as children's books).


Perfect Bound
Paperback books with more then 40 pages. This is the most common binding method for the self publisher. The pages are stacked and glued. They are then glued to the inside of the cover. (I usually see these used for instructional how to type books).


Case Bound
Hard cover books wrapped in cloth and foil stamped on the cover and spine. This method requires a minimum of 80 pages. This is more expensive but also more durable than perfect binding.


Case Bound with Dust Jacket
Same as standard case binding with the addition of a one sided loose color cover. This affords additional protection to the cloth cover and still allows for foil stamping on the cover and spine.


Case Wrapped
Mechanically the same as a case bound book, but instead of foil stamped cloth material, the cover wrap is printed in color on paper and applied to the outside boards with adhesive.


PlastiCoil
Much like metal spiral binding but made with a more durable plastic coil. This is suitable for books with up to 250 sheets and the coil is available in a number of standard colors.


Wire-O
A professional looking mechanical binding method that is available in 3 standard colors. This method uses a double loop of coated metal. Like PlastiCoil, it is suitable for books with up to 250 sheets.
The binding methods examples were taken from the FAQ section of Best Book Printing