Perfect Binding File Preparation - HELP!

[prepressdork]

Hi everyone,

As a commercial printer, we process some projects that will perfect bind. I know to prep the file in single page format with bleed on all sides but was wondering if anyone has any insight on knowing when artwork should be shifted away from the spine? By this I mean, suppose artwork is centered horizontally with say 1/2" inch of blank space on either side. After perfect binding the artwork is likely to look off center and closer to the spine.

Does page count matter? Would this be less of an issue if the book was only 1/8" thick versus 1/2" thick? Would stock weight also dictate when artwork should be shifted away from the spine? How much???

Please provide any insight you can.

Thank you,
pd

 

[johnny_jay]

You may want to contact the binder and see how they would like to have it set up. We perfect bind in house but we only offset the pages 1/8" for grind off. We have had projects that bind elsewhere and I know specs can change from shop to shop.

For our work, page count and stock does not matter. We will shingle signatures if the stock is very think.

John

 

[prepressdork]

I've spoken with 3 perfect binders and none of them provided specs for file preparation except for hinge size.

 

[Josephine]

We have the 1/8" grind off figured into our layouts for perfect bound books, so our imposition program takes care of that.

 

[prepressdork]

Hi all,

Please put grind off and imposition aside for the moment. What I'm after is if you shift page artwork away from the spine in the originating document for any reason. If you do, when and why? What considerations (such as page count, overall book thickness, stock, (other???), etc.) dictate the need to shift the artwork?

Thanks,
pd

 

[JoeatData]

Hi all,

Please put grind off and imposition aside for the moment. What I'm after is if you shift page artwork away from the spine in the originating document for any reason. If you do, when and why? What considerations (such as page count, overall book thickness, stock, (other???), etc.) dictate the need to shift the artwork?

Thanks,
pd

Hey PPD I work at a book printer. We use a inner shingle for creep. We don't move the work at all. On a rare occasion we will have a client request that we move/adjust photo pages that cross-over 1/16th to face.

 

[JimBob53]

We usually do not make adjustments on the pages... our prefect binder will take just less than 1/32" off and have not noticed that being enough to make our pages look out of center. If you are sending plates to a Ctp system you can have a little space built into the template before the pages are placed.

 

[johnny_jay]

We do not move the pages. On jobs that drill, we do send them specs of where the holes will be so they can layout the job accordingly.

 

[Jon Wood]

At our shop, we do compensate for this pretty regularly but it's a bit of a gray area (and my OCD doesn't like gray areas). The amount of visible page that's "consumed" as a result of the pages curving into the spine varies significantly, depending on how the book is handled so there is no formula that can be applied to compensate for it. It pretty much comes down to personal preference.

Our "standard" (if you can call it that) is to shift the pages away from the binding edge .125". We always have a paper dummy made for perfect bound jobs and sometimes, depending on the stock and page count, that amount can change.

It's my opinion that the customer should be involved in the decision, as it's more of a design issue than a bindery issue. I've had to debate this with others in my department that think we should do it by default, as a favor to the customer. That may work out fine most of the time but that's mainly because most of our customers don't notice one way or the other. Unfortunately, we've ended up doing more harm than good on more occasions than I care to remember. It can get even more interesting when there are images, or better yet, type crossing over to the adjacent page.

I don't know if that's the kind of information you were looking for, but that's all I got.

Cheers!

 

[ashabanapal]

First and foremost, this is what proofs are for, so you can see the product and determine if you or your customer want the images shifted. That being said, my standard margins on images for cut sheet perfect binding is a .375" on the binding edge and .125" on the trim edge. Center within the 8" of real eastate left, remember to offset even/odd margins for duplexing and you should get a consistent product no matter which bindery you use.

 

[rwolfe1970]

We usually shift the artwork 1/4" for the IFC and first two pages as well as the last two pages and IBC to compensate for the hinge score. Everything else we leave alone or creep for stock thickness.