Home: Production:
Manufacturing Your Book
This is a simplified description of what goes on once we receive your file.
The basic steps are outlined below.
Imposition
Our system places the pages
in a certain order and orientation so that when the press sheet is printed
and folded, the pages will be in the proper order. We then output proofs, once proofs are approved we output plates.
Printing
When producing your book, Southwood Press uses a process called Offset Photolithography.
The plate is mounted on a cylinder on one of our printing presses. Using
a special process involving water and ink, the ink is attracted to the
exposed area on the plate. In a rolling motion, the plate passes the
inked image over to a rubber blanket, and this blanket presses the ink
onto the sheet of paper.
Folding
& Collating
These printed sheets are allowed to dry and then go to the folders.
For a 32 page section, the folders fold each sheet 4 times.
This makes what we call a section; 1 - 32 page section of the book.
A 96 page book will have 3 sections.
Our binding equipment collates these sections together into an unbound
book block.
Burst
Binding
At the folding stage, we add a special wheel to the folder that puts
perforations on the binding side of the sections. When the sections
are gathered into unbound book blocks, the perforations along the spine
allow the glue to penetrate into each fold of paper. Once the hot melt
glue is applied to the spine, an oversized cover is then applied to
the glued area and wrapped around the book blocks. When the glue dries
(usually a matter of seconds), the books are sent to the 3-knife trimmer.
The 3-knife trimmer cuts the remaining 3 sides: the head (top), foredge
(front) and foot (bottom) of the book, to give it nice, clean edges.
The burst bound book is now complete and ready for delivery.
Section
Sewn
Section sewn books can be bound with either a soft (limp) cover as in
burst binding, or they can be bound with a hard cover (case bound).
The unbound book blocks are sent to the sewing machine which sews the
binding edge of each section and sews all the sections together. The
binding side is not perforated as in burst binding.
Once all the sections of the book are sewn they make a sewn book block.
These blocks can be either sent to the gluer to have limp covers applied
(like burst bound books), or they can be sent to our case binder for
‘casing in' to hard covers (called case bound).
Case
Bound
For case bound books, the sewn book blocks are `cased in' to the hard
covers.
The hard cover cases are made by applying glue to binder boards and
wrapping coloured cloth, or printed case lining, around them. The cases
are made to exact specifications based on the size and bulk (or thickness)
of the book block. The cases are stamped on the spine with coloured
or metallic foil (usually the title and the author's name).
Endpapers are glued to the front and back of the sewn book blocks and
then the book blocks are trimmed on 3 sides (top, front and bottom).
Just like in burst bound books, this 3 sided trim gives the pages a
smooth and clean edge. The front and back endpapers are now glued to
the inside of the cases to attach the cases to the trimmed and sewn
book blocks. You now have a complete case bound book. If jackets are
required, they would have been printed ahead, trimmed, and are applied
at this time. The books are ready for boxing.
Perfect
Bound
For perfect bound books, the binding side (or the spine) is shaved by
about 3mm then glue is applied to the cut area. The binding process
continues as if it were a burst bound book. Because burst binding is
stronger than perfect binding, we burst bind most of the soft cover
books we print. Please note that because the spine is trimmed it is
not possible to get the same inside margins for perfect bound books
and sewn bound books from the same printed sheet.
We hope this gives you a better understanding of the process of manufacturing
your book.