Perfect binding is one of the most common forms of book binding today. It is typically the style of book binding used for most paper back books and phone books. The problem is that true perfect book binding systems are quite expensive, and not conducive to a single book or to the beginner. It is now possible to create a perfect bound book with your thermal book binding system!

1. Materials

-A good thermal book binding machine is a must. Some small/entry level thermal book binders will not get hot enough to yield a strong enough bind.

-The cover used for a perfect book bind is a single sheet of paper that is large enough to encompass the front cover, back cover and the spine of the book. Most perfect book binding has printing on all three sides.

-You will need a device to score the cover to cleanly and accurately fold the cover at the spine.

-You will need an adhesive thermal binding glue strip to insert in the spine of your scored book

-Finally, all perfect bound documents need to be trimmed. This will more than likely require a stack cutter.

2. Creating the cover

-Once the text of the document is printed, you can get an accurate measurement of how thick of a spine you will need.

-You can then create the artwork for the cover making the spine text the appropriate size.

-It is a good idea to create tic marks on the cover (in an area that will get trimmed) to mark the point for scoring the cover.

-Score and fold the cover, creating a 'U' shape.

3. Adhesive

-The adhesive strip will need to be trimmed down to size.

-Take the measurement of the book block, and cut the adhesive strip just slightly oversized. Cut the strip about 1/8" short on the top and bottom of the book so the adhesive does not run out the ends of the document.

-Place the adhesive strip in the spine of the book.

4. Binding the document

-Once the cover is created, and the adhesive is cut to size, place the document in the cover and place the document into the cover.

-Then run through the bind cycle as you normally would for traditional thermal book binding. (It is highly recommended that you run these covers through a couple of bind cycles).

-Cool the document

5. Trim the book

-Cut the document down to finished size using a stack cutter.

Notes and suggestions:

-You can try to cut the cover down to size prior to binding the book. This could eliminate the need for a more costly stack cutter, but is a much less exact finish.

-Due to the fact that the adhesive strip is probably not perfectly cut and since there is no edge glue, the front and back pages may not be securely bound.