Integral binding. Types of book bindings. Covers for binding

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Although e-books are becoming more popular every day, their traditional paper counterparts do not give up their positions. At the same time, most publishers understand that, due to their high cost, printed paper literature is significantly inferior to electronic versions. For this reason, book printing and binding technologies are constantly improving. So, one of the latest innovations in this area was integral binding. What is it and what are its advantages over other methods of book design? Let's find out.

What is book binding

To better understand the uniqueness of the integral method of weaving printed materials, it is worth understanding what binding is and why it is needed.

As you know, a book (in its modern form) consists of many paper pages fastened together. Frames thembook binding, which is sometimes also called a cover, although this is not exactly the same thing. This device serves not only to fasten the pages, but also to protect them from damage, as well as to inform about the content of the publication.

Sometimes the word "binding" refers to the very process of creating a cover. However, in this sense it is more correct to use another name. This is "binding".

History of bookbinding

The exact date of the origin of the tradition of using book bindings is not known. Scientists believe that this happened in the 2nd century AD. e. However, it took another two centuries to perfect the binding, making it look like a modern one.

Initially, its main function was to fasten and protect the pages of the book from damage. For this reason, bindings were made of strong, rigid materials such as wood or leather. In the same period, a tradition arose to decorate books with precious metals and stones, which made them very expensive and inaccessible to most.

With the advent of printing, printers began looking for ways to speed up and reduce the cost of binding. In this regard, leather-bound books have been supplanted by cardboard and fabric counterparts for several centuries. After that, they ceased to be a rarity, and their covers began to perform not only a protective function, but also an informative one. They began to write information about the title and author of the work, as well as about the publisher, less often - about the owner.

Starting from the 18th century, among we althy people, onlyaround the world, there is a fashion for compiling your own libraries. In this regard, for each owner of such a "collection" a unique binding design was developed, often using a coat of arms.

The quality and luxury of the decoration of books now depended on the financial capabilities of their owner. For example, Pushkin was not rich, so the design of the bindings in his library was very modest, but distinguished by durability. At the same time, many landlords in the Russian Empire, who collected books only for the sake of fashion, skimped on the quality of bindings for the sake of appearance.

In the 20th century, with the development of industry, all stages of the production of printed products were automated, and human participation in this process was reduced to a minimum. Moreover, with the advent of paperback, leather-bound books have become history. Although today you can order such a design for a gift edition, made by the master manually. However, it will cost, as in the old days, very expensive.

What is a book cover and how is it different from binding

The cover is often equated in semantic meaning with the word "binding", and although both of these terms mean the outer covering of the book, there is a certain difference between them. What is it? Let's find out.

The cover is the paper or cardboard outer covering of a book, notebook, diary or any document. At the same time, the binding is almost always made from heavier types of cardboard covered with paper, film, cloth or other materials.

Structurally, these two conceptsalso differ from each other. So, there are no endpapers in the cover and, as a rule, it is a whole cut piece. While the traditional binding for a book may consist of several parts glued together. There is also a one-piece version of it - integral binding.

Due to the prevalence of paperback editions, paperbacks are often confused with hardbacks. These publications can be distinguished by the presence of a flyleaf. If it is, it's paperback books. If there is no flyleaf, this is a bound edition.

What is the binding made of

Traditional binding for any edition consists of several elements. First of all, it is a binding cover. In fact, this is the same as the cardboard cover. It serves as the main protective cover for the entire book. This part is found in two types: composite and one-piece.

Classic compound lid is made of cardboard parts pasted over with fabric, colored cardboard or plastic, less often artificial leather. It contains three details: two sides and a backlog (a strip of cardboard covering the place where the pages of the book are fastened - the spine). The indentation between the sides and the lagging is called the rib.

In the one-piece version, it all adds up to one piece.

Regardless of its appearance, the cover is attached to the book block (pages collected in a notebook) using endpapers.

The remaining three sides of the book, not fastened together, are called trim: front, top and bottom.

The bookmark-tape glued to the binding bears the namelace.

What materials are binding covers made of

After wood was no longer used in book production, for many centuries the cover for binding was made from cardboard of various thicknesses.

However, from the second half of the 20th century, plastic began to seriously compete with cardboard. Covers for binding from this material are more reliable and are not afraid of moisture. Today they are quite often used in the printing industry. By the way, one of the main advantages of plastic over cardboard is that covers of this kind can be not only of any color, but also transparent. However, this innovation has a significant drawback. The fact is that plastic covers can be harmful to the environment, since this material itself does not decompose and needs to be recycled.

The trend of using plastic for book binding is no longer about fiction or gift editions, but about making bindings for notebooks, diaries, notebooks, essays, theses and reference books.

It is also worth noting the growing trend of making covers of notebooks and notebooks from silicone.

Hardcover and its subspecies

It is widely known that there are such types of bindings: hard, soft and integral. Moreover, each of them has its own subspecies.

Depending on the coating of the cardboard base of the hardcover cover, there are options for it.

• 7БЦ (cellophane) - the cover is gluedsealed with laminated or varnished paper.
• 7T - cardboard covered with fabric. It can be printed, lacquered, dyed or embossed.
• 7B - according to the processing method, this subspecies is similar to 7T. However, in this case, the lid is covered not with fabric, but with various materials like artificial or natural leather, bumvinyl, balacron, etc.

KBS and ShKS

Considering what types of bindings are common in the modern typographic world, it is worth paying attention to the subspecies of softcover. There are two of them.

• KBS - adhesive seamless bond. Unlike hardcover, in this version the pages are not stitched, but only glued together. The cover is made from a printed and laminated one-piece sheet of paper or cardboard with a density not exceeding 300 g/m2. This method is the cheapest and easiest to perform. At the same time, publications in such a binding can quickly tear, since the KBS is not very reliable.
• ShKS - sewing adhesive bond. This method differs from the KBS only in that the pages of the book block are not only glued together, but also stitched. The binding cover is made in the same way as for the KBS. Books made with BSC last much longer than KBS, but are more expensive.

Which binding is called Dutch

In recent years, integral binding has become especially popular. Sometimes it is also called "Dutch". It is an intermediate link between the softand firm.

Its peculiarity is that with this design of the publication, the cover is made from a single piece of laminated cardboard with a density of up to 500 g/m2. Due to this production method, this type has the properties of both hardcover and softcover at the same time.

Features of the integral method of book cover design

What are the special properties of Dutch binding?

First of all, its production is cheaper and faster. Unlike hardcover (which requires multiple cutting and gluing operations), integral book covers are easier to make. It is cut from a single piece of laminated cardboard, which is scored at the fold and does not need additional processing. This Dutch binding is similar to soft binding.

However, in contrast to it, the cover of the integral type turns out to be very dense and does not look very different from the hard one. At the same time, it is lighter (by weight) and less durable, but still surpasses the soft ShKS in reliability.

Reliability, cheapness and ease of this way of designing the cover of publications allowed him to become one of the most popular in the world in a few years. In this regard, in some countries there is a tradition to print school textbooks not in hard but in integral cover. Thus, the weight of the books that schoolchildren carry in their briefcases has significantly decreased, as well as the load on the child's spine.

Channel Binding

In addition to the three most famous todayways to design book covers, there are several intermediate methods that appeared only in the late XX - early XXI centuries.

First of all, this is a channel binding. Pages in this case are not stapled, glued or perforated. On a special machine, they are fastened to the cover and to each other using a U-shaped metal channel.

Thus, you can bind papers with both hard and soft covers or plastic covers.

Books and notepads with plastic and metal springs

Among the cheapest and most popular ways of book binding is spring binding. It can be metal or plastic. An edition designed in this way does not have a spine - its place is taken by a spring, which is stretched through the perforations in the pages. For such weaving, a special machine is needed that makes holes and stitches them.

Reference books and guidebooks are most often designed in this way.

Stapling with metal staples

If the book is small in volume and format, it is bound using a regular paper or cardboard cover (without a flyleaf). As a rule, such publications are fastened with two staples, very similar to stationery ones. This is the cheapest and most affordable way to bind books, although it is only suitable for small volumes.