THIS MONTH'S TOPIC: Concealed Covers

This wraparound concealed cover design adds a printable spine to the binding edge of a mechanically-bound book, and works for both soft and hard cover materials.

One of the main advantages to Wire-O binding is the many available cover options. You can choose either a soft cover, usually between 10 and 12 points, or a hard cover, creating a highly desirable "cased-in" Wire-O book. Either choice allows you the ability to print on the spine for easy retrieval on a bookshelf.

In addition to "standard" two-piece split-back covers, semi-concealed, fully-concealed and wraparound cover designs are widely available. These designs allow Wire-O-bound books to have the layflat characteristics that make this binding style so useful, but with a cover that hides the binding elements. Wraparound covers can even be designed to wrap around the face of the book, providing a second printable spine.

Planning Tips
Like other cover styles, concealed covers require a little advance planning to turn out properly. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

Use a pre-production sample for measurements - A pre-production sample is the most important tool you can use when planning fully-concealed covers. Fully-concealed soft covers require scores to be carefully planned in order to create a spine size sufficient to wrap around the binding element. A pre-production sample also helps determine the proper wire size, while offering you piece-of-mind by removing the guesswork from the planning process.

Covers should be of sufficient stock weight - Your cover stock should be thick enough to avoid the "embossing" effect that can occur when covers are squeezed against the binding element. Covers should be a minimum of 10 pt., although 12 or 14 pt. covers are also popular

The Eckhart Advantage
At Eckhart & Company, our automated mechanical binding capabilities offer fast turnarounds on even the highest-volume projects. Our fully-automatic Bielomatik binding machines can perform cover feeding, punching and binding inline for the most efficient production available. And our production capabilities are just the tip of the iceberg! We offer screen printing, die cutting, foil stamping, embossing, UV coating and laminating capabilities to give you plenty of in-house design freedom and make your Wire-O books truly distinctive.