Frequently Asked Questions

Booklets can be either stapled together using fixed length staples or 'stitched' together using staples formed on the fly from reels of stitching wire. Stapled booklets are usually stapled whilst the sheets are flat, then folded, whilst with saddle-stitched booklets, the sheets are folded first, then gathered together over a fulcrum or 'saddle' and stitched afterwards. This gives a far shap crease meaning saddle-stitched booklets suffer from far less 'bulge' than stapled booklets. Whilst saddle stitching looks similar in appearance to stapling, the length of the 'stitches' can be optimised to suit the number of pages ensuring a neater and often stronger bind.

Yes we can but it is a much slower process than our automated booklet-making so we prefer to quote these as bespoke jobs.

Fibre-cracking on folds is a natural characteristic of paper and is more noticeable where heavy ink coverage is intended to go over the spine. This can be reduced by pre-creasing covers which Flexpress do as a matter of course on cover-weights over 250gsm or can be eliminated completely by choosing to laminate your covers, prior to booklet-making. Unfortunately, on lighter paper stocks there is little we can do to prevent a degree of cracking so it's best to avoid designing covers where there this is likely to be a concern. Please be aware: Flexpress can't be held responsible for fibre-cracking when laminating is not chosen. We can, of course custom quote for bespoke sizes.

This depends on the books use and your budget. Saddle-stitched booklets tend to lay flatter when opened than perfect-bound books, and are a cheaper option, but a perfect-bound booklet gives a better-quality, more professional impression. The thicker the saddle stitched booklet, the less flat it will sit when closed and the more bulge out you'll need to compensate for in the design (the V spine pushes the central pages beyond the cover width meaning more is trimmed off - often causing issues with images or text, such as page numbers that have been designed close to the edges). Perfect-bound books have the same trim off all pages so this is not likely to be an issue.

Unfortunately not. Whilst at first glance this would seem fair, custom sizes require more work for us to produce. For example: our pre-press department can automate the imposition of standard sizes but custom sizes have to be done manually. We have programmes ready set up on our guillotines for standard sizes but not for custom sizes and custom sizes are much more difficult, and expensive for us to pack.

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