START JOBS RIGHT:
As we all know, printing projects go through an arduous process from concept to fruition. Often, it’s the printer’s client that prolongs this problem by steering a print project through a lengthy approval process. What once seemed to be a realistic production schedule sometimes suddenly isn’t. While communication is important to the success of any project, communication with your bindery in the early production phases is critical. Make sure you convey your scheduling needs up front, letting bindery production begin immediately. Provide the following items:

1) A detailed purchase order that includes the quoted price
2) A collating sample, dummy or existing printed piece
3) Rule-outs for all forms
4) Clearly marked samples or office copies.

- Submitted by Steve Trovati, E&M Bindery Sales

THREE PERFECT BINDING TECHNICAL TIPS:

- Grain Direction Is Important. Whenever possible, keep the grain direction of your paper running parallel with the spine. A perfect bound book with the grain running the wrong direction tends to have a short life and is susceptible to a wavy and cracked spine.

- Keep Inside Cover Hinge Score Area Coating-Free. Since the contact area between the cover and text is critical, keep the hinge and spine areas of your inside cover free of ink and paper coatings. For full-bleed inside covers, overlapping coatings and hinge areas by 1/16" is acceptable.

- Crossovers and Line-Ups. Since individual readers open books to varying degrees, non-parallel crossover images are difficult to align. Avoid finger pointing and let your perfect binding services company fold all your signatures. If a job arrives improperly folded, there is little anyone can do to achieve good crossover and line-up registration. Allow at least 1/8" face trim margin - and preferably more - so your perfect binding operator can pull images deeper into the spine without worrying about under-sizing the book.

JOB CHECKLIST AVAILABLE:
At E&M Bindery, we faithfully use a checklist for every job that goes through our plant. If you would like to receive a copy of ours, just ask us and we’ll gladly send you one. On it you’ll find 12 quality checkpoints for cutting, 15 for folding, 14 for perfect binding, 9 for saddle stitching, 10 for mechanical binding and more! Also, there are sign-off areas. Even if you must change it a bit to suit your needs, it’s still a useful tool - one that has helped us a lot over the years.