Coil bound books are brilliant. This highly durable professional binding method combines all the ruggedness you’re ever likely to need, with the ability to lay completely flat, regardless of how many pages your book has. Diaries, notepads, reports and training manuals are all products that suit coil binding.
There are many ways to achieve the durability and aesthetical performance of coil bound books, however, at CLOC we only ever use metal wires – there’s no plastic here! The process involves punching the text (inner pages) along with the cover and then clamping a metal wire so that it forms a strong circular bind. This approach ensures the finished product is very comfortable to use indeed.
We purchased our first coil binding machine in 1967 – that’s a serious amount of coil binding experience!
Coil bound books are easy to print in any of the standard sizes such as A6, A5, A4, Royal, B-sizes or any custom size you can think of! What size is very much up to you, although diaries and notepads tend to be in A5 to ease portability and manuals and reports are often produced in A4 size.
Use our instant quote calculator to find out how much your coil bound books will cost – it works for all standard sizes and if you have a custom sized item, simply submit an RFQ via the site, via email info@clocltd.co.uk or by phone 020 8801 6983 and we’ll get straight back to you.
Deciding whether to choose colour or mono printing is a personal choice.
The general rule is that if your text is almost entirely black and white, selecting mono shouldn’t affect the overall performance of your paperback book and will save you money – use our instant calculator to check!
That being said, sometimes saving money is less important than achieving the look you desire, after all, colour images and text look a lot better in colour than they do in mono.
With most printers, there is a monumental difference between mono and colour coil bound books, but CLOC aren’t most printers.
We’re the UK’s cheapest for a whole host of print specifications and it’s therefore always worth checking the instant quote calculator – you may be surprised to find that fully colour printed coil bound books are within your budget.
If you want to save money but would also like a colourful cover that has a bigger impact, why not select mono text (inner) pages and add a colour cover.
Now for the boring bit – even the mighty coil bound book has its limitations. The binding method, known as wire or wiro binding loses all its aesthetical performance if you have too many or too few text (inner) pages.
With too few pages, the coil aspect of the bind can appear too big and quite cumbersome, therefore affecting the overall look of the book. We recommend 5 sheets (or 10 pages if printed double sided) as a minimum page count.
If you have too many pages, the coil aspect of the bind begins to have too great a diameter and it can take the focus off what is written on the cover – something no author would ever want!
Our maximum page count recommendation would be 300 sheets (or 600pp if printed double sided).
If you’re coil bound book falls outside of our recommended minimum and maximum page counts, fear not! There are always plenty of other options, so just contact the team and we’ll advise accordingly. Email - info@clocltd.co.uk or telephone 020 8801 6983.
It is essential that you setup your artwork correctly to achieve the best coil bound book results.
Text - If you’re ‘text’ pages (that’s everything other than the cover) do not need to be printed to the edge of the sheet, as you would expect for a novel, we recommend that you leave a margin of at least 20mm all the way around the edge. Beware, the binding method will encroach on your artwork by around 10mm on the edge that is being bound.
If your ‘text’ section does require printing to the edge of the sheet as you would expect for a diary with lined pages, we recommend that you add at least 3mm of bleed to each edge. What’s bleed? Well… just like your desktop printer at home, our fancy production printers don’t like to print all the way to the edge of the sheet. To ensure that the print runs all the way to the edge, please supply artwork that is 3mm larger all the way around than your finished document size. If you want A4 (297mm x 210mm) coil bound books, each text page will need to be 306 x 216 mm instead. We will then print this onto larger than A4 paper and trim it back to A4 size with our huge guillotines. You’ll lose whatever is printed in the additional 3mm bleed section but the finished item will be A4 in size and have printing all the way to the edge of the sheet. If you are unsure with regards to setting up your artwork for bleed, just speak to the team – we’re on hand to help!
Cover – Coil bound books do not have wrap around covers or spine printing. Treat both your front and rear cover as separate pages and submit them with your main text (inner) pages artwork. If you require printing on the inside front and rear cover, please let the team know – sometimes what may seem blindingly obvious to the author, isn’t always to the print operator and the more info the better!
Setting up artwork for print can be tricky but a friendly CLOC advisor is always on hand to help. All you have to do is email - info@clocltd.co.uk or telephone 020 8801 6983.
Why Should You Print Your Coil Bound Book with CLOC?
01
Experience is key!
We bought our first coil binding machine way back in 1967. Since then we’ve produced millions and millions of coil bound books.
Several of our main Binding Operatives have worked in our industry for 30+ years – if you can stump them with a coil book specification they haven’t come across before, you’d be the first to ever do so (and we’re sure they’d relish the challenge!).
02
We Are Multi-Award-Winning in The Field of Quality
Regardless of how cheap our printed coil bound books are, it would be irrelevant if the quality didn’t stack up. Here at CLOC we are multi-award-winning in the field of quality and are accredited to the International Standard on Quality, ISO 9001.
We utilise some of the very best printing and print finishing technology, only use premium paper and card and have a process-checking stage that will ensure that your coil bound book is signed out of every production section and by an Account Manager before it ever reaches you.
We also offer a comprehensive proofing service where we effectively print and bind a single copy of your coil bound book so that you’ll know precisely what it will look and feel like before you press go for the rest of the order.
Customers can rest-assured, if CLOC makes a mistake with your coil bound books, we’ll put it right for you. We’re a family-run business that’s big enough to cope but small enough to care. In fact, several of our customers have used CLOC for their coil bound printing needs for over 25 years!
03
Our Books Are Crazy Cheap
We are the coil bound book printer that prevents all other printers from writing ‘We’ll match any other quote’ on their website. For a wide spectrum of highly desirable print specifications, we are regularly benchmarked as the cheapest printer in the UK. CLOC is an extremely efficient business, with comparably low overheads for a company of our size. This streamlined ethos allows us to sell print quite often below what it costs other printers to even produce. After 40 years, our family-run business realises that maintaining customers long term by keeping margins very low is the key to being in business for another 40 years.
Our instant quote calculator is simple and easy to use but if you can’t find what you’re looking for or need a more bespoke coil book quote, don’t hesitate to get in touch on 020 8801 6983 or by emailing info@clocltd.co.uk.
04
We’re Responsible So You Don’t Have to Worry
CLOC cares about the environment – BIG TIME! In fact, we’ve collected no fewer than 6 National Awards and 3 International Awards over the past 8 years, as well as being accredited to both ISO 14001 (the International Standard on Environmental matters) and The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Our absolute crowning achievement was when we were presented with the Green Apple Award at the House of Commons – that is till we won it the year after and then again 2 years after that!
Choosing CLOC for your coil bound books is a positive way of demonstrating just how much you care are about the environment. Our on-hand team are experts at ensuring your books reach the gold-standard in environmental performance. Don’t hesitate to ask for advice and we’ll recommend paper, print options and finishes that will elevate your products way beyond your initial eco-goals.
05
CLOC is a One-Stop Shop
It doesn’t matter how big your requirement is or how big you are as an organisation – you’ll be treated like family at CLOC. Our customers include self-publishers looking to have a single copy of their first ever novel printed, right through to some of the most well-known and established Global brands and Institutions. Whether your print spend is £10 or £500,000, we have a team and solution tailored for your every need.
As you grow, we’ll support you. As you look to boost the aesthetics of your products, we’ll show you how. We’re here for you, whenever you need us.