FOLDING

Bindery

Folding

Although some printed items are deliverable as they come off the press, most printed material must be converted through the use of bindery or finishing equipment.

The most common finishing operation is folding. This is something that should be considered as a piece is being designed so your printer can help you to determine how to best utilize the mechanical folders instead of more costly hand-folding operations.

The sketches below illustrate the most common types of folds. Once your print job is folded, it may need to be gathered or collated which can be done by hand or machine. After the pieces are gathered, the sheets/pages can be bound by the following methods: saddle-stitch, side-stitch and corner stitch.

If the finished booklet lays flat (a cookbook, training manual, etc.) then mechanical binding is a good option. A plastic or spiral (wire) comb can be inserted into punched holes along the left margin.

Finally, a book can be perfect bound, where a glue is applied to a special lining to go over the backbone of the book and then the cover is adhered to it. This is used to bind inexpensive paperback books. A hardcover or case-bound book is commonly used for book editions that need to last a longer time. The folded signatures are sewn together then coated with glue and rounded to the correct shape. A gauze strip is applied to the backbone and attached to the cover. The endleaves are then glued into place to secure the cover to the pages of the book.

Roll Fold	Right Angle Fold	Single Fold	Accordion Fold or Z- Fold
Gate Fold	8-Page Parallel or Double Parallel	Letter Fold	Presentation Folder
Side-Stitch	Saddle-Stitch	Corner-Stitch	Plastic Binding
Spiral Binding