Digital Book Printing + Smyth Sewing -- Can It Be Done Well?

[EditorialDepartment]

Hi,

I am a small publisher/designer of coffee table-type books, but can only juggle so many 500+ offset projects. I am also intent on Smyth sewn binding because you can't make a 4/4 hardcover look high-end without it.

A guy with an old Smyth (8?) machine who worked for a company with an Indigo 12000 convinced me it could be done and in the end I lost a lot of money.

I've been reconsidering it for another book (8.5 x 11" hardcover 4/4 text) with a different printer, but it turns out they are running an Indigo 7500 and a Muller Martini Diamant MC Digital. Though my knowledge of printing equipment is limited, from what I understand, an Indigo 7500 doesn't print signatures and the Diamant MC Digital is not a Smyth sewing machine. My general questions are:

1) Is this combination worth pursuing?
2) Is there a tested machine that can make a digital book look like an offset book binding-wise?
3) Should I just forget about this as a cheat for cheaper books with an offset look and feel?

Thanks for your time, and any feedback is appreciated.

P.S. Is there a forum for publishers like Print Planet?

 

[msaeger]

What about the printing process was making it so you could not do the sewn binding? I would think the pages could be printed via any method the binding is being done separately from the printing. Is it because a certain paper is required that doesn't run well on digital? Is it the look of the printing?

Just from looking at the website the Muller Martini Diamant MC Digital looks to be glue bound and not stitched, have you gotten a sample of a book from that binder? Maybe even if it's not stitched it would have the look you are wanting.

 

[Magnus59]

We've done quite a few case bound books on the Indigo.
We do a section sewn imposition using 4pp signatures precollated into 16, 24 or 32pp signatures for sewing. It really makes no difference whether you're printing in 4's on a digital press or 8's or 16's on offset, the principal is the same, you precollate the sewn sections, stack them into a book block, print endpapers, trim the book block, apply the endpapers, case it in, then apply head & tail bands, ribbons, dust jacket etc.

 

[Michelleleechan]

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[Michelleleechan]

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[rcreveli]

We've done quite a few case bound books on the Indigo.
We do a section sewn imposition using 4pp signatures precollated into 16, 24 or 32pp signatures for sewing. It really makes no difference whether you're printing in 4's on a digital press or 8's or 16's on offset, the principal is the same, you precollate the sewn sections, stack them into a book block, print endpapers, trim the book block, apply the endpapers, case it in, then apply head & tail bands, ribbons, dust jacket etc.

We've done something similar. We had a job with crazy crossovers throughout the book. We folded or 4s and collated them into 16's. Folding the 4 gave us the control to make sure every sheet was folded properly. We were doing this on a Ricoh 7110. I'm assuming an Indigo would register even better.

 

[pearlkingstone]

Hi, it is important to choose the right printing services, especially if you need Smyth sewed binding and want your coffee table books to look high-end. Even if the Indigo 7500 and Diamant MC Digital don't meet all of your needs, there are services that specialize in making digital books look like they were printed on a rotary press. Don't give up on the quality you want. Keep looking at your options until you find a trusted provider who can give you the results you want. As for a platform, you might want to look at Print Planet, where publishers talk with each other.

Good luck with getting your book published!