Available plastic comb bindings are our a standard soft binding technique for ultra-small publishing projects.  For a comb bound book, the collated text block has separate front and back covers applied. The front and/or back cover can be imprinted with your choice of cover art.  The book block is then punched with the holes along the binding edge that the wire or plastic comb is fitted through. This type of softbinding is considered "lay flat".  However, with softbound books with large numbers of pages, while the book stays open and the pages flat, the comb spine itself makes the book rise in the center around the spine.

Generally, the plastic comb spine is left blank.  However, some spine imprinting can be accomplished.  This works best with larger page count books.  Though we don't recommend this because the combs are produced and than flattened to be imprinted.  This weakens the plastic and can reduce the life span of the book.  Additionally, a spine imprinted comb bound book is not very economical - sometimes doubling the binding costs.  Generally, if spine imprint is desired on a softbound book, the best style choice is perfect binding.

Covers that are coil bound may be coated with UV protection (clear overlap guards against plastic curl and harmful ultraviolet rays), or clear plastic sheets can be added on the outside of the paper cover giving the covers extra protection.  Wanting to make your soft bound book resistant to tears and spills? A vinyl cover product is now available - it has much the same look and feel of a matte cover but is a bit more rigid, tear resistant and will not take on any liquid (the book interior would still be paper and prone to stains).

This option is a nice binding for yearbooks where supplemental pages may be introduced infrequently.  Though it is tedious, a book owner can add punched pages to an already comb bound book without any special tools.  The number of punched holes utilized in comb binding produces a much more sturdy book than 3-ring binding.  Comb binding is a great soft binding option for other transitional (short use) items and fund raisers (due to economy and flexibility in production).  While economical, the fact that the paper involved has been hole punched will reduce the lifespan of the item due to use stress on the holes.  For long-term preservation and usage goals, different soft binding methods are suggested.

The cost for plastic comb bound soft cover varies with the size of the job. There are projects  and options where this method can be more expensive than a hardbound book.

Standard types of soft bindings include:

• perfect binding

• traditional tape and staple binding

• plastic comb binding

• coil (spiral) binding

• 3-ring binding

• wire saddle stitch binding

• post/Chicago Screw