Catalogs are highly favored when it comes to comprehensive marketing and advertising materials, and manuals. They offer more than enough space compared to brochures so people get the advantage of more information and loads of images. Should you engage in catalog printing online, an option which offers the same quality catalogs coupled with convenience, there are a few things that you should know first, particularly in binding.

Binding is a process done to fasten loose sheets together, regardless of how thick or thin the resulting pile would be. This is carried out after most, if not all, of the other steps in the whole printing process have been completed such as printing and cutting.

There are several ways to bind sheets together, and several materials to use for fastening. But among these options, the two most popular are wire-O binding with double loop wires, and saddle stitching with staple wires.

Which one suits your catalogs better?

To give you a better idea and to help you make the decision when you opt to go for catalog printing online, below are a few facts about each binding technique and the material used for each.

1. Wire-O binding

You have probably seen a catalog fastened using the wire-o binding process. Double loop wires resemble the wires in school notebooks, except that (1) they are not spirally looped, and (2) two stands of wire go per loop.

This sturdy material makes an ideal candidate for thick catalogs. The diameter of the loop is determined according to the number of pages and general thickness of the catalog to make enough room for the turning of pages. Another advantage of double loop wires is their appearance.

Since wire loops are employed, the bundled sheets of the catalogs to be subjected to wire-o binding are bored will rectangular holes along the left side.

Given its sturdy quality, they cost more than other binding materials. So for really thin catalogs, it is not just that it would not look so nice on it, but it would be uneconomical to go for double loop wires.

2. Saddle stitching

Again, the term ?saddle stitching? may be unfamiliar but certainly, the material is not. Staple wires and staplers are so common that even households have them. Staple wires (the thicker variety) are placed along the catalog?s spine, the line created from folding sheets from a midpoint either crosswise or lengthwise.

Since the catalog needs to be folded and considering the size of staple wires, only a few pages can be accommodated. Therefore, using such fastening tools for thick paper piles would result to poor binding.

Another thing that you should specify when you are printing online is the type and coating of the stock. If you opt for thicker ones, especially those with UV coatings, it is highly likely that the folded covers of your catalogs would end up folded in crooked lines and the coating would crack.

Make sure to ask your printer to score the cover stock or fold along the grain of the paper before folding.

The main advantage of saddle stitching is its low cost.

Before you proceed to catalog printing online, make sure that you consider the number of pages to gauge the more appropriate binding option for your materials.