April 2004: Turn Your Mechnically Bound Book Into a Display Piece

One of the advantages of mechanical binding is that it offers a tremendous range of cover options. In addition to semi-concealed and fully-concealed cover options, mechanically-bound products can also be designed to include an easel on the back cover. This allows the book to stand up while fully opened, making it ideal for presentation applications such as flip charts, teaching and instruction manuals, menus and POP displays.

There are a few different easel styles. The choice of one style over another is often predicated on the amount of weight the easel must support. A larger book with a lot of pages will require a sturdier easel that can support that weight.

Die cut wing easel - This easel design is ideal for products with thicker covers. The board material is die cut to form a flap or "wing" that folds out from the cover, providing a sturdy support for mechanically-bound products. One or two wings can be formed depending on the specifics of your application. These wings are also activated by the end user, allowing the products to ship flat.

This spiral wire-bound book includes a table tent easel.

Table tent - A table tent is an alternative easel design. A table tent is formed by scoring and folding a single piece of cover material in half and binding both ends. The cover is then scored on either side of the initial score, allowing it to separate and form a base on which the pages of the book can easily rest while open.

Table tents can be formed in a wide range of cover thicknesses. While lighter 14 to 18 pt. board is typically used, at Eckhart and Company we can form table tents on case-bound products that include 80pt. board or thicker.

Planning Tip
Consider your layout - Many mechanically-bound products with easels are designed as an oblong layout, with text running parallel to the spine. This allows users to fold pages over the easel to easily display any page in the book. Let Eckhart and Company help you determine the best layout for any products that will include easels.

The Eckhart Advantage
At Eckhart and Company, we work with a wide range of cover materials on a daily basis. Whether your product includes covers made from thin or thick board, paper, plastic or turned-edge material, we can help you design an easel that will support it easily. We also let you rest easy by offering complete construction and decoration production solutions in-house, including mechanical and perfect binding, case binding, foil stamping, embossing, die cutting, screen printing and more.

Back Issues:

• April 2004  Turn Your Mechanically Bound Book Into a Display Piece

• March 2004  Large Diameter Spiral Wire Binding

• February 2004  Perfect Binding

• January 2004  Our Capabilities

• December 2003  Turned Edge Advantages

• November 2003  Semi-Concealed Wire-O

• October 2003  The Advantages of UV Coating

• September 2003  Mechanical Binding Inserts

• August 2003  The Advantages of Prototypes

• July 2003  Calendars

• June 2003  Index Tabbing

• May 2003  Plastic Comb Binding

• April 2003  Mechanical Binding Options

• March 2003  News From BookTech

• February 2003  Plastic Spiral Binding

• January 2003  Serving Our Customers

• December 2002  Wire-O Covers

• November, 2002 Spiral Wire Production

• October, 2002 Wire-O Binding

• September, 2002 Mechanical Binding Basics

• August, 2002 Cased-In Wire-O