Finishing Services

From saddle-stitching to precision gate folding, glue-binding and tabbing, our bindery department finishes your job with the professional results you’ve come to expect from Joseph C. Woodard Printing Company. Our bindery solutions are vast and include foiling, embossing, dye cutting and more, so please check with your Customer Service Representative for creative options that suit your needs.

Saddle-stitching – Signatures are nested (set one into the other rather than stacked) and then stitched through the fold with staples made of thin wire. These books can lie flat. However, saddle-stitching only works for shorter books of up to 80 pages.

Side-Stitching – Side stitched books are essentially loose sheets of paper stapled together. A paper cover can be wrapped around the entire stack and glued to form a printable spine. However, side-stitched books do not lie flat.

Plastic Coil Binding – This is just like spiral binding, but plastic makes it a resilient alternative. Plastic coil bindings come in multiple colors.

Ring-Binders – Think of your school days and ring binders. Vinyl covers can be silk-screened or paper inserts can be printed and then inserted behind the clear covering.

Tape, Post or Velo Binding – In the first case, the covers and book pages are taped together over the binding edge. In post binding, screws are used in much the same way as side stitching (but the books can be disassembled and pages can be added or removed). In velo binding, a thin, flat piece of plastic runs the length of the bind edge on the front and back of the book, and thin plastic pegs attach the two through the pages of the book.

Case Binding – Also called edition binding; this method results in what is commonly called a hardcover book. It is the most expensive option yet also the most durable. Stacked signatures are gathered and sewn together for strength.

Perfect Binding – Like case-bound books, perfect-bound books are also made up of stacked signatures. These are gathered into a book and the edges of the spine are ground off (or notched). Perfect-bound books are less durable than case bound books but are significantly cheaper.

Lay-Flat Binding – Using flexible glue on only the edges of the spine, perfect-bound technical manuals or cookbooks, and the like, can be made to lie flat on a table.

Plastic Comb Binding – This method is good for technical manuals that have a lot of pages and must lie flat. The stack of pages comprising the book is punched with a series of holes along the binding edge through which a plastic comb is inserted.

Wire-O and Spiral Binding – Both of these mechanical bindings hold far fewer pages than comb binding. Wire-O is a series of parallel wire loops attached along a wire, while spiral binding is a metal or plastic continuous loop passing through the punched holes in a spiral from the top to the bottom of the book.