What’s the Difference Between Saddle Stitching and Perfect Binding?
From glossy publications like magazines to technical publications like user manuals, the binding of a print job makes a difference in the feel and cost of your project.
What’s the best binding for your publication – saddle stitch or perfect binding?
Let’s start at the beginning and look at the basic definition of each option. They’re both popular solutions for producing multi-page booklets, catalogs, magazines and user manuals.
Saddle Stitching
With saddle stitched publications, multiple pages are bound together along the fold with two “staples.” It’s not a giant stapler like you might picture – but a specialized saddle stitching machine that punches wire through the paper.
As an example, consider an 8.5” x 11” magazine. We print the magazine at an 11” x 17” size. Each of those sheets will fold in half to 8.5” x 11″. We’ll then gather the pages of the magazine together and stitch them along the spine. Typically we’ll stitch them with two “staples” but can do more if needed.
In most cases client partners use saddle stitching to bind multi-page booklets of 8 pages or more. For the saddle stitch method to work, the pages of your booklet need to be multiples of 4. You can usually saddle stitch a booklet of up to 68 pages (it can vary depending on the thickness of the paper). Once a book has more pages, you will need to have it produced with a perfect binding.
Perfect Binding
A perfect bound booklet has a flat spine, like a large catalog or paperback book. In this option, the sheets of the book are gathered together, we apply a glue along the binding edge and place the cover of the booklet over and around it. A book can be perfect bound as long as it is 28 pages or larger. In perfect binding, the final page count just needs to be a multiple of two.
Three Differences between Perfect Binding and Saddle Stitching
Size
Your choice of binding will depend on the size of your job. If you have 100 pages, you’ll need to choose perfect binding. Also, if you have an oversized magazine (think twice the size of Rolling Stone) you’ll likely want to choose saddle stitching.
As mentioned above, you can typically saddle stitch a booklet of up to 68 pages depending on the thickness of the paper. More than that and you’ll automatically switch to perfect binding.
Conversely, if you only have 16 pages, it will prove difficult to perfect bind the printing, so you’ll likely want to choose saddle stitching.
Feel
The feel of a perfect bound glossy catalog feels differently than a saddle stitched newsletter. Of course, some of the feel depends on the printing, but you can’t deny the look and feel of a thicker publication.
Maybe you want to mirror the feel of Time Magazine – it’s saddle stitched. Depending on the perception of the end-user you’re going after, you’ll want to explore these two common binding techniques.
Cost
As always, your budget may direct your choice. Below is a comparison between saddle stitching and perfect binding. This example is not a perfect quote due to varying factors like date and paper choices, but gives you an idea of cost between these two common options.
48pg + Cover – Saddle Stitched Book
80# Gloss Cover – 80# Gloss Text
4/4 (4 Color Process – High Speed Digital)
Qty 100
$433
48pg + Cover – Perfect Bound Book
80# Gloss Cover – 80# Gloss Text
4/4 (4 Color Process – High Speed Digital)
Qty 100
$601
Helpful note: In printing, a sheet of paper has 2 sides, so 1 sheet is referred to as 2 pages. If you have an 11 x 17, that folds in half to 8.5 x 11, your printer will refer to this as 4 pages.
Depending on your situation and how you see the variables line up, choosing between these popular publication solutions should be a little easier.
