Fastbind Perfect Binding system means freedom from special supply

When using A3+ card available in the standard assortment of the suppliers of copier & digital printing machinery it is better to design the print work to start from the corner of the page (not middle).

This allows you to make your nipping line for i.e. A4 format to stay in one place and allow Fastbind automatic nipping system to take care of the back cover nipping (scores according the size of the spine)

Fastbind printable cover assortment standards are made for A4 and Letter (US) sizes. These covers have oversize only lengthwise, so that you can bind thicknesses from 0 to 50 mm with one coversize - you simply cut the excess with Fastbind's built-in trimmer

>> Fastbind Creasing Machines

A4 Size covers

Letter (US) size covers - New pic needed

Structure of the paper:

- ink - coating   (silicon in laser printing) - paper grain    = body of the paper

Choosing the paper:

Pay attention to post-printing processes

• Heavy coating means difficulties for collating and binding
• For the book to be readable the paper shouldn't be too bright white (eyes get tired)
• Optimize the grammage and opacity (the text shouldn't show through)
• Offset, laser and inkjet printing all set their specific demands to the paper.
• Avoid too thin material as well as too thick for the cover

Always, when it is possible, plan your print work so that the inner pages have "long grain"- This eases opening of the book.

The grain direction in the cover should be in the direction of the spine. This means choosing short grain card for the cover.

Inner pages in digital printing:

Electronic collating is the main benefit of digital printing for book production. Design your work so that on one printing sheet you have always pages of only one page number. As example for A3 size printing this allows you to get by cross cutting four readily collected sets of A5 size books to be bound (or by dividing two sets of A4).

The grain direction

• The grain direction in the sheets should always be along the spine (long grain)
  • This way the book opens flat better
  • The book is neat and easier to handle

Margins at the edge wich will be glued

• Easier to read
  
• The amount of silicon on the adhesive area is smaller
  
• The amount of ink on the adhesive area is smaller
  
• Minimum for the margin should be about 15 mm

A4 sized books

• The content is usually printed straight on an A4 sheet so that the print out is immediately ready to be bound
  
• It's also possible to print on an A3 size sheet, but then the sheets of course have to be cut before binding to A4 sized book.

A5 sized books

• Very easy to get wrong grain direction as you can only get one A5 sheet out of a normal A4 sheet (copypaper usually has long grain)

Cover:

Size of the cover sheet for A4 sized book

• 297 x 457 mm,
  
• grain direction 297

Material

• thickness of the paper 160 - 260 g/m²
  
• coating only on the outside
  

Positioning on the sheet for an A4 sized book

• the place to fold the frontpage is 210 mm from the front edge
• starting point is the top and front edge of the frontpage
  

Size of the cover sheet for A5 sized book:
210 x 260 mm, grain direction 210

Positioning on the sheet for an A5 sized book:
the place to fold the frontpage is 148,5 mm from the front edge. Starting point is the top and front edge of the frontpage

Pay attention, when choosing the paper

1. The limitations of coating & thickness for inner pages.
   
2. Avoid cover material which is not strong or rigid enough
   
3. Avoid paper with too little opacity or too thin
   
4. Too bright white paper can feel disturbing on bright light (too much contrast)
   
5. On four colour pinting the paper should be bright enough to bring out the best of the colours