Their primary function is to join the inside to the cover and to do so efficiently.

The first of the front endpapers and the last of the back endpapers are always clear because of their lamination onto the second and third of the hardcover.

Their number is unchangeable, with four (4) pages at the front and another four (4) pages at the end.

The thickness may be 1.5mm – 2mm – 2.2mm – 2.5mm – 3mm, 15/10 – 20/10, etc. It often depends on the thickness of the interior. The principle is that the thicker the interior volume is, the more weight is added to the card. The most common thicknesses are 2, 2.5, and 3mm.

Usually covered with 150 GSM coated paper, the cover allows offset printing.

Other offset-type papers are available for complex production. The chosen offset paper must be sufficiently flexible not to crack in the corners. We recommend Olin Smooth, Olin Rough, Popset, Cotton Laid, Buckram, Via Felt, and Via Linen.

Instead of paper, you can opt for cloth fabric, leather, or fake leather.

A wide choice is available, and we invite you to check our fabric catalog in the online viewer. You can also visit our manufacturer website, Winter and Company, which offers fabrics such as Skivertex, Novalite, Wibalin, Peltouch, Geltex, Napura, Toile du Marais, Pellaq, Synth3, and Leos Nachfolger. Fabric covers are unprintable, but embossing, relief printing, hot stamping, or screen printing will be applied instead.

Fake leather

You can also opt for a hybrid option with fabric on the spine and paper on the covering. A beautiful compromise, the choice of color also adds an original touch to the design. 

One option also is leaving the card to its raw and natural look without covering it. It is a trend in the world of art and alternative graphic novels.

You can add foam between the card and the paper on the top. It gives volume and a pleasant sensation at the touch. This option is ideal for younger readers or users because it also protects the book.

Foam

The spine of a hardcover book can be straight or round. There needs to be a minimum thickness of 15mm for a round back. It holds large book pages together to mitigate their thickness.

Round spine

They are small pieces of fabric glued to the head and the tail of the hardcover book, which is usually black or white but can be of different colors, adding to the style and aesthetics of the product. They are integral parts of the cover card when the back exceeds 10 mm.

Black endband

The bookmark is another version of a page marker, a little cloth ribbon glued under the headband at the head of the book. It makes it easier to find a specific page in the book. For greater sophistication, choose two bookmarks in different colors. The bookmark has a rightful place in a beautiful publication and a blend of practicality and elegance.

Bookmarks of different colours

Spiral bound binds the interior and the cover without glue. In this case, you will have both the solidity of the rigid card and the 360⁰ opening of the spiral. It is a binding choice often found in diaries, textbooks, and cookbooks.

Possible choices for each element of your bound book according to its page count:

In the following, you will see the possible choices for each element of your hardcover book according to its page count:

Choosing between a soft cover and a hard cover is not always evident.

Budget: a hardcover indeed represents a more expensive solution. In the case of low page counts, the cost of manufacturing the cover may be greater than the cost of production of the whole inner block.

Specifications: A4 size, 96 pages + (8 non-printed endpapers), matte lamination, four-sided recto verso printing on coated paper 130 GSM, 1,000 copies, delivery included.

Rates:

• Softcover, perfect bound: £2158
• Softcover, tread sewn bound: £2337
• Hardcover, case-bound, 2mm (20/10): £4115
  

Content: Some book contents deserve a hardcover. When we find ourselves in the realm of beautiful books, a hardcover is a must.

Target market: depending on the intended use for the work, its strength is a primary factor. For example, the best option for children’s books is hardcover. It guarantees the durability of the book.

Commercial strategy: Everything you need to embellish a printed product is available with a hardcover. The visual impact of a product remains crucial today. A book in hardcover can make all the difference.

Pulsio Print advisors are available to answer your questions and give you all the support you need.

Check our price: it’s free and it only takes seconds!

Today, an alternative exists and Pulsio Print is delighted to offer it to its customers: “Silk Foil” gilding! This innovative process represents a combination of screen printing using UV glues and hot stamping. Both processes are managed with high precision by digital modules. The hot stamping is done using a special silicone plate, as fine as silk, hence the name of the process.

“Silk Foil” makes hot stampings with a curved effect without prior embossing. For this reason, this innovative gilding is also called “3D Gold”. In addition to a delicate relief to the touch, it offers an incomparable brilliance, far more vivid than that of a standard hot stamping and without the embossed effect on the back of the cover.

Convenience and speed: it allows us to achieve attractive gilding and relief effects on a single machine. Even with the two necessary manufacturing phases, the process is much faster than the two separate operations – the embossing and hot stamping of conventional gilding. And that saves you time.

Freedom in the choice of paper / cardboard: the relief obtained without embossing allows you to apply “Silk Foil” on thick sheets as well as on very thin sheets, thanks to the UV glue that creates this relief. This is impossible to do in classic gilding.

Economy: you can forget about the expense of preparing blocks for embossing and hot stamping.

The environment: “Silk Foil” technology is practically waste-free – no more setup wastage for embossing and hot stamping. The special film that adheres only to the details you have chosen to add value to is completely used up, unlike the “classic” hot-stamping film whose unapplied parts remain unusable.

Quality: the perfect adhesion between the glue and the silicone film, even on a tiny surface, avoids micro-cracks in the gilding and the removal of film of standard hot stamping. The “Silk Foil” gilded elements, even the most delicate ones, have homogeneous, smooth and stable surfaces and edges. The nature of the process preserves any gap between embossing and gilding, even on extremely fine lines – a quality that is difficult to achieve with the traditional “embossing + hot stamping” combination.

Wide choice of colours: gold, silver, metallic, copper, light copper, black, light blue, blue, red, pink, green.

Durability: “classic” gilding that is not protected by varnish is susceptible to wear. “Silk Foil” fixed by its UV glue is not only long-lasting, but it also allows for the possibility of cleaning.
Silk Foil can also be applied to plastic, wood, leather, glass, etc. This gives you an additional opportunity to duplicate certain elements of your cover on promotional items during a major marketing campaign.

The application of “Silk Foil” gives aesthetically attractive and irresistible results. It’s wonderful gilding!

In the table below you have a comparison of “Silk Foil” and classic hot stamping with embossing.

Click to increase the size of the image.

* The technical details, which make each process more or less difficult to apply, but which do not directly concern the customer (for example: the inevitable elaboration of a block for gilding and/or a matrix for the embossing, change of machines, sheet yield used for cushioning or otherwise) are indicated and translated in the table as differences in “turnaround time”.

** Dimensions for gilding / silk foil of 100 x 100 mm, on cover A5, print run 1000 copies…

To make the best choice for your project between classic gilding and “Silk Foil”, we recommend that you contact a Pulsio Print Customer Advisor. According to your files/project and with the help of our pre-press service, they will advise you on feasibility and the best choice. We advise you to avoid overdoing special effects. “Silk Foil” is a sufficient process for attracting the customer’s attention while reducing your production costs and manufacturing time.

Check our price: it’s free and it only takes seconds!