Traditional Printing

Softcover Book

Softcover Book, also known as Paperback, normally has a flexible cardboard as cover. Text sections are gathered together into a book block before being glued to a cover. There are generally 3 types of binding for softcover book:

Perfect bound / Notch Bound

Perfect bound is the most common binding for Softcover book. It is generally used in magazines, books, journals & catalogues. Notch bound is a variation of perfect binding. For perfect bound, the back of the text signatures is ground whereas for notch bound, notches are cut in the back of the text signatures before glue is applied to attach the cover.

Thread sewn

Thread sewn binding, also known as smyth sewn, is a much stronger binding that uses thread to sew the text signatures together. The signatures are then gathered and glued to the cover, similar to perfect bound. It is usually meant for books with a longer shelf life.

Saddle Stitch

This binding uses a stapler to hold the paper together. Text pages are stapled together in the center & folded in half along the line of the staple.

Hardcover Book & Flexibound Book

Hardcover Book is also known as hardback, or case bound book. Its main character is a stiff hard cover that usually comprises of a grey board laminated with a printed sheet. The binding of the text signatures is usually thread sewn. There will be endpaper, usually of uncoated material, to hold the cover & text together. It can also be a self-end book, whereby the first & last page of the text is pasted onto the inside cover, to bind the hard cover to the text signatures.

Square Back

Round Back

Tight Back

Loose Back

Quarter Bound

Flexibound

Flexibound is an intermediary between soft cover book and hard cover book. the cover of a flexibound book is a soft art card instead of a rigid grey board.

Wire-O / Spiral bound

Wire-O / Spiral bound

Wire-O / Spiral bound is a form of binding pages together by punching holes into the sheets and using wire / spiral loops to hold the pages together. This type of binding is common for manuals, workbooks, guides, handbooks and reports that allows the pages to be turned 360 degrees around themselves, making it easy to read or write.