Technical Information
What is Flat Size?
Flat Size refers to the size of a product after printing and trimming, but before it has been folded or binding.
What is C1S / C2S?
C1S – Short for ‘Coated One Side‘, refers to paper that is coated on one side only.
C = Coated / 1 = One / S = Side
C2S – Short for ‘Coated two Sides‘, refers to paper that is coated on both sides.
C = Coated / 2 = Two / S = Sides
What is Coating or Finishing?
It is a protective layer that increases the durability and aesthetics of your printed piece. You cannot print (ink-jet or by hand), glue, or foil stamp over coatings, so you need to leave an uncoated window if you want to do any of these
There are several types of coating:
- Varnish – Varnish is essentially ink without pigment. It comes in gloss, dull, and satin
- UV Coating – UV Coating is a clear liquid spread over the paper like ink and then cured instantly with ultraviolet light. It can be a gloss or dull coating, and can be used as a spot covering to accent a particular image on the sheet or as an overall (flood) coating. Keep in mind that this thick coating may crack when scored or folded.
- Aqueous – Also known as AQ, is water based. It has better hold-out than varnish and does not crack or scuff easily. Aqueous does, however, cost twice as much as varnish. Aqueous comes in gloss, dull, and satin.
What is Saddle Stitch Binding?
Saddle Stitching
Most common type of binding, is stapling sheets together where they fold at the spine. They are commonly used for Booklets, brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, direct mailers, magazines and catalogs.
Advantages
- Fast & Inexpensive [least expensive of all binding options].
- Widely and readily available, since most printers saddle stitch in-house.
- Lays relatively flat.
- Accommodates special inserts like business reply envelopes, membership forms, order blanks.
- Gatefolds and foldouts are possible.
- Can use a self or separate cover.
Limitations
- Longevity. Not recommended for pieces intended for heavy use.
- Lacks printable spine.
- Not possible to bind in a single leaf of paper [as in perfect binding], but single leaves canbe stitched into a saddle stitched book if it has a 3.5″ inch flap, or extension.
- Thickness limitations. Documents thicker than 0.25″ inch may require another binding technique.
- May require special design adjustments for creep, especially small formats with high page counts.
THE PROCESS
- Signatures are folded with a bind fold [a fold in the paper, which allows a mechanicalor suction device to find the center].
- Signatures are opened with suction cups or mechanical grippers.
- Open signatures are hung over a chain or “saddle.”
- The signatures may then be transferred to succeeding feeding stations. This is howsaddle stitched signatures are inserted into each other.
- Covers are scored and folded on the saddle stitching machine. Then they are laidon top of the signature[s].
- The product is stitched through the fold, trimmed on three sides.