Helpful Tips

This Month's Topic: Cover Protection Solutions
August 2004

Despite the popular adage advising against it, people have been judging books by their covers for centuries. At Allied Bindery, we know your book's cover is often designed to attract and develop interest in your product. Even more than color, text and graphics, your cover piece must arrive free of scratches, nicks and other damage. Here are a few tips to ensure your book covers exhibit the clean, professional appearance you expect:

Some uncoated paper stocks may not be able to withstand the binding process. Consider coating your stock with film laminate or varnish to ensure your product is durable enough to bind and ship.

Cover protection - In addition to serving as your book's primary advertisement, the cover is meant to protect the signature as well. Ensuring the substrate is durable enough is an important step. In the bindery, your cover will be exposed to ten separate processes that each place metal machine pieces in direct contact with the cover, creating friction that softer coatings may not withstand. If the cover can't hold up during this run through the bindery, it won't make it into your customer's hands.

Decoration and Protection - Film laminating can prevent the type of scratching and damage that can occur during binding production, packing and shipping. It also helps seal heavy and slow-drying inks such as reflex blue, which can smudge easily without protection. Let Allied Bindery help you determine if lamination is an appropriate choice for your products.

Varnish - Press varnish coatings are not as durable as film lamination, but are less likely than aqueous coatings to scratch during the binding process. Varnishes can become subject to damage from transit vibration during shipping if carton-packed. When choosing varnish, consider shrink-wrapping or specialty packaging to facilitate worry-free delivery.

Avoid Aqueous - Understandably, many printers looking to save a few dollars elect to finish covers with aqueous coatings. Aqueous coatings, in spite of the clarity and depth they provide for images, tend to be weaker than varnishes and film laminating, leading to easy scratching.

The Allied Advantage
When you involve the experts at Allied Bindery, you start out ahead of the challenges that come with binding covers. We offer a wide range of options and solutions to deliver long-lasting products your customers are sure to treasure. Contact us today to get started turning around your next project!