Webb Publishing is pleased to provide quotes on both soft cover and hard cover book binding services. The unit cost of binding is reduced as the number of books being bound rises. There is also a set-up fee for most types of binding, which is a flat fee that applies to every run of books, whether it is a run of 2 books or 200.

We will attempt to explain the most common varieties of binding available. Please contact us for more information.

Soft Cover

Perfect-Bound
The term perfect-bound is synonymous with what the industry refers to as 'quality trade paperbacks'. This quality of binding is somewhat higher quality than the average 'best seller' style of binding. It is the most common form of binding today, with probably 80% of all Webb Publishing titles using this technology. The spine of a perfect-bound book is skored prior to the application of hot glue, afterwhich a premium-quality book cover is wrapped around the spine. The minimum number of pages required to perfect-bind a book is approximately 60 pages.

Coil-Bound: Plastic or Metal
Coil-binding is a terrific way to get a book to lie flat. Often used for cookbooks and manuals, the pages of a coil-bound book can wrap around themselves without creating a bulky mid-section. Coil-binding is a good alternative for books that have a lower page-count. They come in a variety of colours in both plastic and metal, and look very professional when used in the right circumstances.

Side-Stitched
This type of binding refers to stapling one edge of a stack of pages. Usually 2 or 3 staples are 'stitched' into the left-hand-side of a pile of individual pieces of paper. The main thing to keep in mind is that side-stitching refers to a pile of loose papers stapled together, whereas saddle-stitching refers to.......

Saddle-Stitched
Saddle-stitching refers to stapling together larger pieces of paper in the middle of the 2-page spread, and then folding the stitched product into two pages along its spine. Think of the stitches as 'saddling' (or 'straddling') the pages. This binding is frequently used for manuals and smaller-page-count children's books.

Other
There are other types of soft-cover binding available, notably 'invisible coil binding', where the book appears to be a regular perfect-bound book, but when it's open, a coil is visible inside. This binding is being used more frequently in cookbooks.

Hard Cover

There are a variety of qualities of hard cover binding available. Binding companies tend to specialize in one or two varieties of stitching - some will stitch together 'signatures' (ie: 8, 16 or 32-page inserts) together, and some stitch together a stack of individual pages in one piece. There are different qualities of 'board' used in the process, and there are a variety of qualities of paper, fabrics and leather with which the hard board is covered. Some hard cover books are covered with a dust covers, or dust jacket, and some are left plain. Hard cover binding is much more expensive than soft cover binding. It is 2-3 times as expensive as perfect-binding. Typically, Webb Publishing clients print the cover design onto a piece of lighter-weight cover stock (paper) and apply the cover directly to the hard board, eliminating the step of creating a dust cover.