Calculating spine width for perfect bound books

[QualityPrint]

I am just wondering how others calculate the spine width for perfect bound books for a variety of paper types. We are coming up short on jobs using our current calculations especially on dull stocks. Any help is appreciated

 

[lfelton]

I am just wondering how others calculate the spine width for perfect bound books for a variety of paper types. We are coming up short on jobs using our current calculations especially on dull stocks. Any help is appreciated

What can catch you out is if you have the incorrect caliper input in your calculation software. There's a big variation in thickness on the same weight book wove between mills and paper types and the same is true for coated grades. Getting the caliper out to check would be my first step.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

We always make a dummy with the correct stock before making the final adjustment. The kind of cover and the binding equipment seem to make a little difference too.

 

[almaink]

Cool little application that figures it out for you.
http://home.comcast.net/~jeff.ulicny/software/apps/SpineCalculator.zip

 

[bradg]

Regarding the Spine Calculator: What unit of measurement does it use? I get a number, but I don't know if it's picas, points, centimeters, inches, etc.

 

[rich apollo]

The spine should be:

(number of pages ÷ 4) x caliper

As Lukas said, though, your best bet is to make a dummy.

 

[almaink]

Spine calculator values are in decimal inches.

 

[TigerPress]

Online Spine Calculator

 

[margadri]

When do you yankees will ever start using metric system?
LOL

 

[contrakid]

This gives a very good idea of spine size although you can get problems when some paper stocks are thicker than the norm for that weight etc. but 99% of the time its very close.

Text Pages
x
Paper Weight
x4
x25.4
divided by 200,000