Bindings for printed manuals

For practical purposes, a printed document needs to lie flat on a desk. This limits the binding that you can use. The basic options are explained here.

Wire binding

This is also known as spiral binding or Wiro binding. A manual can lie flat on a desk and can be folded back on itself (this is useful if desk space is restricted). A disadvantage is that the binding is not particularly attractive.

Wire binding

Plastic comb binding

This is not as strong as wire binding. A manual can lie flat on a desk and can be folded back on itself (but it does not lie as flat as with wire binding). The binding can give an unprofessional image.

Plastic comb binding

Perfect binding

This looks good, but for practical purposes it is not good. It is difficult to make sure that a manual stays open. If the spine is bent back to help the pages stay open, the pages work loose from the binding and eventually fall out. It is not practical for small quantities, because of the setup costs (£30 to £40).

Perfect binding

Staple

Technically, this is known as saddle stitch. This is a good option if there are less than about 30 leaves (60 sides). It is cheap, the document lies flat and it can be folded back on itself.

Lay-flat

This has the visual appeal of perfect binding, and it also allows the manual to lie flat on a surface. However, the manual cannot be folded back on itself.

Lay-flat binding is practical for documents that have between about 96 pages and 400 pages. It is not practical for small quantities, because of the set-up cost. For an A4 size manual of 96 pages, 500 copies have a unit cost of approximately £2.60 for printing plus binding. Unit costs reduce with increasing numbers of manuals. (This information is supplied courtesy of Printwise (www.printwisegroup.com), June 2007.)

Lay-flat binding

Canadian binding

This is wire binding that has a cover that wraps around the spine. Therefore, the document is visually more attractive than a wire-bound document, and a title can be printed on the spine.

Suppliers of printing and binding

TechScribe produces software user documentation, we do not offer a printing service or a binding service for manuals. (If you purchase our software documentation services, we can arrange printing and binding for you as part of that service.)

For digital print services and print finishing services, we recommend Mensa Printers (www.mensaprinters.co.uk).

For lay-flat binding, the only supplier that we know of is Printwise (www.printwisegroup.com).