Fastback books available by special request.
Click the book for catalog listing.

Though it can increase the production price several dollars each, fastback bound books with black ink may be personalized on the front or back cover or with an extra frontice piece. 

All binding/cover services are available as part of a complete publishing package, POD (small quantity charges may apply), and binding only. However, Gregath does not wholesale raw binding supplies for individuals or other binderies.

Another possibility, especially with small quantities is the fastback cloth tape method which is a bridge between tape and staple and perfect binding:  The block of the book is glued like it would be for a perfect binding with front and back covers attached.  Then to cover the glued edges (binding side) and for further reinforcement a strip of special semi-rigid/reinforced cloth binding tape is used for the spine.  With the fastback method, a spine imprint may be added, but not very economical on small publishing projects. However, some ingenious authors, have been known to use cloth tape and then employ a calligrapher to hand label each spine.  With the fastback method there are a limited number of cloth tape fabric colors available for the spine - one can design their cover to either contrast or match the spine.

This method is an alternative to the  perfect bound method, and can be economical in low quantities.  There are those who like the ascetic look of a tape and staple book as well.  The fastback cloth tape method eliminates the acidity/rust factor of the wire stitch tape and staple binding that needs to be considered through the life of a given book. The fastback tape binding also eliminates the storage/usage problems that both comb and coil bound books have with their bulky spines.

Standard types of soft bindings include:

• perfect binding

• traditional tape and staple binding

• plastic wire comb binding

• coil (spiral) binding

• 3-ring binding

• wire saddle stitch binding

• post/Chicago Screw