New Litho - State of the Art Printing Technology

Finishing Options

Scoring

Scoring means mechanically creasing a job. It prevents thick stock from surface splitting along a fold, leaving a ragged, unsightly edge. Greeting cards and covers on stock heavier than 200gsm are scored before being folded.

Folding

Our folding machines produce a clean, accurate fold or folds for your jobs. When specifying multiple folding for a job (for example an A4 sheet folded twice down to DL size) always consider which way a reader will view your job as it unfolds again - a tri-fold (also known as a roll fold) unfolds differently to a z-fold. Both cost the same, but look different as the job unfolds back to flat.

Bindings

Wiro

We prefer steel wiro binding over plastic comb binding. Comb binding is not particularly robust, and barely cheaper than the stronger but more compact wiro binding. Wiro comes in a range of colours and sizes to suit jobs between 10 and 200 pages.

Saddlestitching

Saddlestitched jobs have two steel staples in the spine (a magazine like Who Weekly is a common example), Saddlestitched jobs always have a page count in multiples of four. They may have a cover of heavier stock, or stock of a different finish than the text (for example a glossy cover but uncoated text). Jobs of up to 70 pages can be saddlestitched, after which they're too thick for the staples to be effective.

Perfect Binding

A magazine like the Australian Women's Weekly, or a paperback book are two examples of perfect binding. A perfect bound book needs to be at least 60 pages thick to be effectively bound.

Lamination

Lamination offers much more substantial protection to a piece as a whole. Encapsulation puts a piece in a sandwich of two pieces of polycarbonate. It's tough, waterproof and great for menus and other pieces that need to look good and stay that way in hostile environments. Care needs to be taken with lamination of digital print. The laminate will not always adhere to large printed areas, and can bubble or lift if flexed or creased.

Matt celloglazing is an expensive but very luxurious satin finish often found on upmarket paperbacks. We also use it on business cards and similar items, too. As before, matt celloglaze will not always adhere to large printed areas. There are alternatives that offer the same luxurious finish, though Matt supastick, adheres to digital output of any coverage. Also available are gloss celloglaze and gloss supastick finishes.