Finishing Tips…

Sometimes it pays to take a fresh look at the way you do business… to find new ideas to help improve the profitability of your business. Impressive savings can be made at the finishing stage if you take an enlightened approach and consider every opportunity to cut costs.

We hope you find the following tips helpful, and don’t forget that whenever you need advice on Finishing, we are always delighted to help.

• Always allow a minimum of 3mm of additional image outside of the page trim area where image is intended to print up to the trim of the book. This is called bleed.
• As a general guideline, do not position text or important imagery within 10mm of the edge of the page.
• Remember that the more pages there are in a saddle stitched publication, the smaller the innermost pages become, spine to fore edge. This is called bulking or creep. Perfect binding is an option if the bulking effect is too great.
• If the pagination of a perfect bound book produces a spine width of less than 2mm, consider saddle stitching. A spine of less than 2mm can be produced but will look rounded and scruffy.
• Cover stocks above 130gsm (depending on the publication's intended use) may require creasing or scoring prior to folding to avoid cracking on the spine.
• Do not place perforations closer than 10mm to the fold.
• Consider sealer varnishing on Matt or Silk papers, or when using predominantly white paper on your front and back covers, as this will help prevent marking caused by ink transfer during the production process and whilst in transit.