Re: Binding question

[Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM>]

Chris Hamilton wrote:

> Management prefers perfect binding because it looks nice. I'm pushing
> damn hard for for spiral or GBC because they stay open better and you
> don't have to put them under your keyboard to hold them open.

If you shop around, you can probably find a local printer who knows how
to do "lay flat" binding.  This is a form of perfect binding that leaves
the cover part of the spine free from the actual binding, and the
binding is done using a special glue on the signatures so that the book
will indeed lay flat when opened.  Best demonstration I ever saw of this
was a print salesman who dropped his sample book from a height of about
18" onto a desk and it opened to a miscellaneous page and stayed there.
I tried the same thing and the book opened to another page and stayed
there, too.

There is *lots* of anecdotal research that says that users don't use
update pages - they put them in a "safe" place and then promptly forget
them.  Binders also have a wide reputation for being the tacky way to
release a product - and it doesn't matter that the actual cost of binder
and contents is higher, per book, than the equivalent perfect bound
book, if you're talking reasonable printing volumes and a two-color
cover.  At least that's the current pricing structure in Silicon Valley.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems

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