HardingPoorman Group is probably best known for being a commercial offset printer, but we do quite a bit of other stuff too….including BINDING.
“Binding” refers to any number of ways to attach several pages together. That can include books, catalogs, annual reports, manuals, calendars, magazines, information cards, and even unique custom pieces such as over-sized flip charts.
As you can tell from the breadth of types of products that can be bound, there are many different ways to bind them, from simple hole punching with rings, to saddle stitching, wire-o binding, perfect binding, and plastic coil binding.
How does one decide which type of binding will produce the best result for the project at hand? Experience is always a great place to start. Your sales and customer service reps can help you look at the number of pages being bound and the stock you are considering using, and recommend a binding type that will hold up. There are other factors to be considered as well, such as how much handling the project will get, how long the finished is expected to last (months? years?), what type of cover the bound material will have, whether it will be mailed or shipped and if weight is a consideration or not, and the budget of project.
Some types of binding are classier and smoother than others. Some – such as wire-o binding – have an esthetic post-modern appeal that may work especially well with the design of certain pieces. The budget, design and workability of each piece all come together with the binding, so it is a good place to do research, look at samples, and investigate all options before making a decision on the type of binding to use.
HPG will be blogging about some of the more common binding methods over the next several weeks, and who knows, we may even showcase a few of the more unique options as well!