What's the best way to bind together a marketing piece with multiple pages? Saddle-stitching and perfect binding are the most common methods. Learn the pros and cons for each method below:
Saddle-Stitch
Saddle-stitch or "stitching" is the use of two metal staples to hold a booklet together. This method is best used on smaller booklets ranging between 8 and 64 pages and is usually the most economical way to bind. It is often used for wall calendars, magazines and catalogs.
When saddle-stitching all pages must be laid out in a two-page spreads, which means your booklet must be designed with a page count in multiples of four (two pages front and back). You cannot have page count that is not divisible by four because the staple always needs to go in the middle of a two-page spread.
There is no printing on the spine available with saddle-stitching, since it is just the fold with staples. But the booklet can lay flat when opened, and since there is no glue involved, it can be shipped and used immediately after stitching.
Perfect Binding
Perfect binding is when pages are folded and glued to create a flat spine with a cover placed around it. It is meant for page counts from 28 up to 250 pages. Since the pages are gathered and glued together, you can design pages in multiples of two (one page front and back). Soft cover books, product catalogs and yearbooks are often perfect bound.
With perfect binding, there is space on the spine to print a title. However, perfect bound books cannot lay flat, so they are not the best choice for cookbooks or instruction manuals where one page would need to stay open for a long while. You also lose some space on interior pages where they have to be glued together, so you'll need to include a large interior margin on a two-page spread and keep any vital information away from the spine area. It is also recommended to allow 24 hours for glue to cure before books are used, so it does add to the turnaround time for this process.
These are just two of the ways we can bind a multi-page marketing project. For all 14 of your binding options, download our free Binding Cheat Sheet:
