The Cover is Not the Book

 

Image from Burleson Public Library

The first thing you see when you pick up a book is the cover. However, it is the inside of the book, the book block, which has a far greater impact on the overall functionality of the book. In this post, we are going to cover three book block construction methods and their advantages and disadvantages.

Layflat binding is a premium quality technique which is used for books with a strong visual impact. The most common applications are photo books, children's books and sales collateral for high end real estate and yachts. A layflat book consists of series of panoramic two-page spreads without any gutter or break in the center.

Image from Imaging Solutions AG

The two images above show the contrast between a perfect bound book where the image is interrupted by the gutter at the center and the layflat book at the bottom where the image can stretch seamlessly across the center.

Layflat books are manufactured by printing each two page spread, leaving the back of each printed sheet blank. The printed sheets are creased and folded at the center then glued together back-to-back or with a cardboard sheet sandwiched between to create thicker pages.

fastBook Professional by Imaging Solutions AG

Most personalized layflat books are made using equipment from Imaging Solutions AG in Switzerland. The fastBlock and fastBook Professional take the printed and collated sheets and do the creasing, folding and gluing to create a book block ready for trimming.

While layflat books have strong visual impact and are extremely durable, they require twice as much paper as other types of books and the binding process is slower because each page is glued individually. They are too expensive for most mainstream book projects.

Smyth Sewing Produces Durable Books for Libraries

Most library books and textbooks are bound using Smyth Sewing. A Smyth sewn book is manufactured by printing the content on both sides of a large sheet. These sheets are folded to create signatures consisting of multiple pages, often 16 or 24 pages per signature. Each signature is sewn with thread through multiple places along the spine of the book. Then all of the signatures are sewn together to create the complete book block.

Smyth Machinery USA Provides equipment for Smyth Sewing

Automated equipment for building Smyth sewn books was first patented by David McConnell Smyth in 1871 and the company which bears his name is still one of the leading suppliers of Smyth sewing equipment. Because the threads go through every page, these books are durable and hold up well to heavy use. However, the process works best for large runs of books and is seldom used for personalized book projects.

The most popular from of book binding is perfect binding which is used for almost all paperback books and many inexpensive hard cover books. In a perfect bound book, the pages are printed on both sides and trimmed to a single page size. The pages are collated together and the spinal edge is roughed up with blades or abrasives. Next an EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) hotmelt glue is applied to the spine and the spine of the book block is pressed into the spine of the soft cover. As the glue cools, it holds the pages together and holds the cover to the book block. 

If the perfect bound block is to be used in a hardback book, stronger end papers are added at the front and back of the book before it is glued. These will be used to attach the book block to the cover.

A perfect binding machine from Standard Horizon.

Many companies make perfect binding equipment including Standard Horizon, Mueller Martini and CP Bourg. 

Perfect bound books are popular because they are lightweight and inexpensive to make. However, the glue in the spines keeps the books from opening flat. If the books are forced open, the spine can be broken and the pages can fall out. Heavy use can also cause the spines to give way and allow the pages to fall out. While this binding method is often used for personalized books, the books lack the durability and the visual impact of layflat books.

There is a variation of perfect binding called PUR binding. With PUR, the EVA hotmelt adhesive is replaced with a Polyurethane Reactive adhesive. This is stronger and makes the pages less likely to fall out, but it also requires several hours of curing time before the book can be trimmed. This makes it less attractive for manufacturing personalized books.

Whichever of these binding methods are used, the final book block must be trimmed on the top, bottom and front edge before it can be cased in.

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Parts of a Book from Future of Publishing

Most of us who love to read books take the actual physical embodiment of the book for granted. We assume that it will be light enough and durable enough to carry, and able to be opened and closed hundreds of times without falling apart. In reality, a well made book is a mechanical marvel that requires each of the components to be precisely sized and positioned.

Since most people have never made a book, I am planning to put together several posts on the materials and processes required to make a high quality book. To begin, take a look at the diagram above and let's discuss the most important pieces. 

Hard cover books are assembled in two sections. The inside pages are bound together to form the book block and the edge where the pages are bound together is the spine. At the front and back of book block, end papers or end sheets are bound with the book block. The end papers are usually thicker and stronger than the rest of the pages and will be used to adhere the block to the cover. 

The cover, or case, is made by wrapping cloth, leather or a laminated print around stiffening material, usually chipboard, There is a stiffening board for the front, one for the back and usually one for the spine. The spine board is the width of the thickness of the book block and there is a gap of a few millimeters between the spine board and the front and back boards to create the hinge that allows the book book to open. The wrapping material is glued to the boards, wrapped around the boards and turned in so the edges will not be visible when the cover is attached to the book,

Once the book block and case are completed they need to be brought together. This is done by applying an adhesive to the front and back end papers then positioning the case around the block so that the spacing at the fore edge, top edge and bottom edge are the same. One the books are assembled, they are usually put under pressure to ensure a good attachment when the glue dries or cures.

Headbands are often added at the top and bottom of the spine to provide a decorative touch.

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The Future of Photography is Synthetic

 

A commercial photo shoot has traditionally been a complicated process. You needed the product, props, a set designer, lighting and a skilled professional photographer. Apparently, all of those things can now be synthesized in a browser based virtual design studio from Zerolens.

In a presentation at Virtual 1st last month, Nik Redl, Co-founder and CEO of Zerolens, explained how their site can be used with 3D product models to allow the creation of photo-realistic product shots in less than three minutes. The site is preloaded with a library of  customizable 3D models and they can build models of your products in a few days.

Zerolens recommends their tools to create images for e-commerce, social media and A/B testing. By simplifying the process of creating images, it should be possible to create a much wider variety of images for specific use cases.

In a conference filled with exciting photographic applications for artificial intelligence, Zerolens stood out enough to win the Best in Show Award.

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Find Something Interesting in People, Always!

 

Photo by David Hume Kennerly

Pulitzer Prize winning photograph David Hume Kennerly spoke last Thursday at the University of Missouri and revealed that he began in photography at the age of ten by photographing his cat with a Kodak Brownie camera. Moving on from cats, he went on to a career in news photography that has bridged fifty years and allowed him to capture images of every President of the United States from LBJ to Joe Biden.

Kennerly won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 based on a set of images including powerful scenes from the war in Vietnam and Cambodia. Licensing restrictions prevent including any of those here, but you can find them at https://ccp.arizona.edu/kennerly/galleries/vietnam-cambodia.

President Ford by David Hume Kennerly

In 1974, he was appointed official White House photographer for Gerald Ford and was given exceptional access to the President and those who visited the President. At the end of the Ford administration, Kennerly returned to Time Magazine where he continued to photograph Presidents and other world leaders.

When asked how he manages to capture so much emotion in his images, Kennerly responded that he works to "find something interesting in people, always, and the camera shows that."

Kennerly also discussed his work in war zones and disaster areas explaining that "he and his colleagues go to the places you don't want to go to show you things you don't want to see." By doing so, he gives us a deeper understanding of what is really happening in the world.

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Time to Return

 

After six years, I have decided to return to regularly updating The Creativity Paradox. As before, it will cover an eclectic set of topics involving creativity in business management, photography, printing, print finishing, additive manufacturing and other arts.

I have been surprised that these posts have continued to have several hundred page views per month, even without any updates. Since there seems to be interest in the old posts, I have tried to repair or remove any broken links and fix anything else needed.

Originally, this blog began as a serialized version of a presentation on Creativity in Business Model Development for Graph Expo in 2011.  Most of the ideas presented are just as valid today as they were ten years ago.  You might find it interesting to return to the beginning.

I also want to acknowledge my debt to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who passed away on October 20th. His research on creativity and flow states contributed greatly to the understanding of creativity and have heavily influenced my writing on the subject.

At the end of this year, I will be retiring from my full time employment with Imaging Solutions which will give me more time to research and write.

What topics would you like to see covered?

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