Printing Perfect Bound Books

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Published 12:00am, 01/01/1970 by | Advice

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Perfect bound books, also known as paperback books are the most popular and cost effective option here at Book Printing UK; offering both durability and quality. We believe printing perfect bound is the perfect option (pun intended). Especially for those new to book printing.

One Size Fits All

You’ll be hard pushed to find a book type which isn’t suited to perfect bound. Here's just some of the book types which are commonly used for this binding.

  • Novels
  • Poetry
  • Travel guides
  • Children’s books
  • Autobiographies
  • self-help books

They Sell!

The popularity of perfect bound books has led to a large revenue of sales around the world. Just take a look at Amazon’s latest best selling books.

From the first instance you will see that nearly every book is a paperback/perfect bound book. This is no coincidence. Perfect bound books are a tried and tested book type. It succeeds in being sturdy, portable, cheaper and quicker to print. Therefore, first time book printers are left with the reassurance that perfect bound is a very safe option.

How We Make Perfect Bound Books

To create a perfect bound/paperback book, we ‘mill’ the spine edge of the unbound book. This creates a rough surface allowing the glue to bind more successfully. The book is then passed over a very hot glue tank, where a revolving wheel applies the glue. The cover is then clamped to the book with the glue allowed to set. Once cooled, the books are trimmed to the desired size. But don't worry, we'll deal with the technical side.

Printing Perfect Pages

For binding, we use Planamelt. A hot-melt technology which is the first choice for adhesive bindings.  Perfect bound books have a minimum of 26 pages and a maximum of 600 pages. This is to ensure too few or too many pages do not compromise the effectiveness of the glue. If you have fewer than 26 pages, then we would recommend booklet printing.

Paper type is also important when creating your book. At the end of the day it will be your personal choice, but we recommend you read about our paper types first to guarantee it fits the style of your book. For example, if you’re making a comic book, then you will be looking for thicker paper, possibly 135gsm.

Size Options:

Our most popular size for perfect bound books is A5. However, we offer multiple sizes when printing perfect bound books, including:

  • A6
  • A5
  • A4
  • Royal
  • Custom size

 

If you'd like to print a perfect bound book, then please get in touch:

https://www.bookprintinguk.com/contact-us

Or call 01733 898102 to speak to one of our team.