Making Soft Cover Books on Demand

Making a soft cover takes only seconds, but the result is a very square and durable bind. The book sizes can be as small as 3” x 3” or up to 9” x 12”. The content can be as little as two pages or up to 1.5” thick. Depending upon the weight of the paper, there can be up to 800 pages in the book.

Step One – Contact your local paper supplier and purchase “thin cover index” stock in short grain (the direction of the paper fiber). The cost per sheet is just pennies. Essentially, this is a wrap around cover that is glued to the content. For making 8.5” x 11” books, use legal-size cover stock. For making 8.5” x 11” books, use 11” x 18” cover stock.

Step Two – Print your images on the cover.

Step Three – Use a laminator and laminate with 1.2 mil nylon glossy or matte laminate. Do not use thicker laminate or polyester material; it causes the cover to curl making it difficult to make the hard case.

When laminating, only apply laminate to the outer cover. It’s best to take all of the tension off your roller and allow the laminator to pull the material freely.

Step Four – Each book cover must have a front cover crease to fit into the binder at 90 degrees. Use the “C400” Cover Creaser to make a precise crease. It can also make an opening hinge crease about ¼” away from the cover crease. The opening hinge looks professional and takes pressure off the book spine when the book is opened. The C400 creaser is very easy to use and can crease up to 150 covers per hour. It’s also good for making tri-fold brochures.

Step Five – Place the creased cover in the rotary bookbinder. Drop your printed contents on top of the cover and clamp them together.

Step Six – Push the handle on the rotary binder down to wrap the cover and create the back cover crease. Then push the handle up to flip the book upside down. This will allow the book content to fan as the adhesive is applied and gravity will work in your favor to pull the adhesive in to the paper fiber.

Step Seven – If you binder has the Paper Grain Opener (“PGO”), run it across the book spine. The PGO micro-slits the paper fiber and is especially beneficial when binding coated stock.

Step Eight – Run the adhesive applicator across the book spine, right to left and then back. As quickly as possible, push the binder handle down and hold it securely for 5-10 seconds. The adhesive sets up and cools down very quickly. Remove the book from the binder.

Step Nine - If there is excess cover, place the cover into a trimmer. The book is trimmed and ready to be read!