Hard Cover Books

For purposes of this discussion, books have two parts, the cover and the text (even though the text may include illustrations, charts, and photographs, not just type). The text, or inside pages, are fastened together by some method of attachment to form a book block. There are two types of cover. Soft cover books have a cover made of heavy paper or cover stock. Hard cover books have a cover consisting of binder boards (heavy cardboard) with a covering material wrapped and glued over it. Some hard cover books are also provided with a paper dust jacket to brighten and protect the hard cover.

We produce all the types of hard cover books described below.

How It's Done. Hard cover books are made by these steps

• Print and fasten the book block. At the front and back of the book block are endsheets, the heavier paper which in a finished book runs from the inside of the cover to the front or back of the text.
• Make the case, or cover. This consists of three pieces of binder board glued to a sheet of covering material. The pieces of binder boards correspond to the front, spine, and back of the book.
• Add headbands to the book block, round the spine of the book (if called for), and do other finishing steps expected for quality books.
• Draw the case onto the book block. This consists of gluing the endsheets to the inside of the covers. It's either done very slowly by hand or quickly by machine.

The Covering for a hard cover book is the material to which the binder boards are glued. There are thousands of kinds, weights, and colors of coverings. The three basic popular types are printed, laminated covering; library cloth; or leatherette. The printed, laminated covering, or lithowrap, can carry whatever design you like. Lithowrap coverings are generally done in full color, so no dust jacket is necessary to show off your design. Library cloth includes woven fabric (expensive) or simulated woven fabric, in both cases impregnated with a resin that strengthens and stabilizes the material. Leatherette has a finish that simulates various kinds of animal hide or simply shows attractive patterns. We can also use genuine leather (composite), or high quality simulated leather.

For library cloth or leatherette covers, the book title, author, other information, along with possible designs are applied to the covering by stamping. Flat foil stamping is most common (and least costly), using gold, silver, or colored metallic foils. Three-dimensional die stamping is also possible at a higher cost.

We can provide a dust jacket with any type of hard cover.

The Attachment consists of Smythe sewing or adhesive.

For Smythe sewing, the pages are printed on a large sheet, known as a signature, and are folded down to the right size for pages. The individual signatures for a book are sewn through the fold at the spine side of the pages, with the sewing holding the pages in place and holding the signatures together. A layer of adhesive emulsion is applied to the sewn book block to strengthen it, and a reinforcing material is added at this stage for heavier books.

Smythe sewn book blocks then receive either a hard cover or a soft cover.

Notch case bound books begin as folded signatures, which are notched to allow adhesive to penetrate to all pages. These signatures are then attached with hot melt blue. For hard cover books a reinforcing material and endsheets are then attached.

Perfect bound books may begin as folded signatures or as loose pages. In either case, the spine side is ground down to expose individual loose sheets for gluing. A hot melt glue is applied with reinforcing material. If the book block is destined to be bound with a soft cover, then that soft cover is attached with the hot melt glue at this stage. With PUR perfect binding, an especially strong PUR adhesive is used.

Drawing On. The cover is joined to the book block by gluing the endsheets (and reinforcing strips) to the inside of the cover.

Now pull a book apart to see the anatomy I've just described.

A Dust Jacket is a printed paper covering loosely wrapped around the covers of the book. Our dust jackets are always laminated for protection and appearance. Perhaps the dust jacket is intended for protection, but mainly its purpose is to catch the eye of a prospective purchaser with bright colors and catchy designs. True, some dust jackets are staid and conservative. Most books bound with library cloth or leatherette have dust jackets, and most books bound with printed, laminated covers do not have dust jackets. But it's entirely up to you.