Saddle Stitching

G’Day Listeners,

Frank from Ink Printing here and this is my second Podcast talking about Finished Art. This Podcast, preparing Finished Art for Saddle Stitched books.

Saddle Stitching is quick, efficient, and is the most cost effective option for binding a book. You can have a heavier stock cover if you wish or have the cover pages the same as the text pages, a Self Cover book.

OK, the basics; what is a Saddle Stitched book?

Well, folded sheets are gathered together (Collated) one inside the other, placed over a “saddle”, and then stapled through the fold line with wire staples. The staples pass through the folded crease from the outside, usually two staples. I’m sure you’ve all seen examples.

MULTIPLES

Each sheet in this book is called a Section. When folded the Section will yield 4pp, (four printed pages) and for that reason your publication page count must be a multiple of four; even if the last few pages are blank.

PAGE COUNT

The minimum page count for a Saddle Stitched book is 8pp; I.e. two Sections. There wouldn’t be much point stapling just one sheet. The maximum page count is dependant on the weight of the paper used, the paper thickness. Ten or fifteen 80gsm pages when folded would be a lot less bulky than say, 170gsm pages. A bigger bulky book will not fold flat and the staples may not even penetrate. As a rule work on 64pp maximum page count for light paper, down to 32pp for heavier paper. For an exact limit talk to us and depending on what stock you choose we can run a dummy to make sure it will work.

SUPPLYING ARTWORK

When supplying your Artwork, even though it will be printed in Sections, please send as single pages in the one PDF. Do not Impose or send as spreads; we will do the Imposition to best suit our press, and in this instance, to best allow for Creep.

CREEP

When multiple Sections are folded and Collated the outer sheets wrap around the inner sheets and will have ‘further to travel’ such that when the whole book is folded the outer most sheet edge will fall short of the first inner sheet by a few millimetres (or more). So, in practise, if you have a Folio (paper number) one millimetre from the page edge, when the book is trimmed, all the Folios will be progressively trimmed off resulting in no Folios toward the middle of the book. To compensate for this we apply Creep to the pages which progressively moves the inner pages closer to the spine. That fixes one problem but creates another, Cross-overs.

Cross-overs are pictures or graphics that are printed across two pages. That means, of course with the exception of the middle page spread, the image will be printed on two different Sections. It can be tricky enough to get the image to line up correctly but impossible with the use of Creep because the page has been moved towards the spine and the image has effectively been cropped. We can not apply Creep to those affected pages but that will mean Folios ect. close to the page edge will get closer or cut off. SO

ARTWORK TAKING CREEP INTO CONSIDERATION

Don’t place Folios or graphic devices too close to the page edge.

If you have Cross-overs definitely don’t place Folios or other graphic devices too close to the page edge.

Due to the ‘roll’ of pages closer to the binding avoid smaller type or finer graphics near the spine.

SO THATS IT, I hope something it all that may prove useful, but, please remember if you have a question, or you’re a little unsure of how to prepare something for print, give me a call, Frank at Ink Printing 04 33 80 1958

….. and, don’t forget the BLEED

Listen to the podcast by clicking on the player below.

Saddle Stitching