Soft binding with staples

The most budget-friendly way to bind a small number of sheets is soft binding with staples. The method is simple and reliable, and it suits a wide variety of materials in different sizes – the most popular formats being A3, A4 and A5.

Staples are made of different materials:

• copper;
• steel;
• galvanised steel;
• nickel.

Staple binding is used for study guides, brochures, magazines and books of a small volume. Such editions open easily, look neat and are convenient for studying the material or making notes, and they stand up well to frequent use.

Soft binding with staples: types

Simple as it is, staple binding (also called wire stitching) comes in two forms:

• side stitching, where the staple goes through the spine of the product from the outside;
• saddle stitching, where the staple goes along the fold of the spine.

Before the sheets are stapled together, preparatory work has to be done: the sheets are collated in the right order, according to the pagination, so that they form the pages of the product. In small printing centres this is done by hand; in our publishing house it is done automatically, on special professional machines. The same applies to attaching the thick cover, stapling and folding the product.

For manual work, for example for very small print runs, we use not only a professional office stapler but also a special rotary stapler. This is quite enough to staple products of various sizes without damaging them. The size and the number of staples are chosen according to the thickness of the block.