If a book or manual has been reasonably well-constructed, it will stand up to a certain amount of abuse in terms of environmental factors or physical handling and storage. Books aren’t meant to be deliberately mistreated but they are constructed out of paper and cardboard and some environments or situations are naturally more challenging than others.
For example, Guidebooks, Field Guides, Survival Manuals, First Aid Manuals and the like are meant to be used outdoors and thus can be subjected to harsh weather. They can be dropped in lakes, streams and puddles or off hills or cliffs; squeezed into backpacks or suitcases; tossed around vehicles and/or tested in other ways not typical indoors. Activities, locations and professions that involve water can subject books and manuals to constant dampness. Books or manuals needed at construction sites, or in factories, machine shops or repair shops subject books to grease, dirt, dust and rough handling.
Protections for Books
First, laminate your covers using the sealed-edge method. This encases the cover entirely in the plastic film and seals the edges by extending them past the edges of the cover and bonded together. Your cover becomes water-proof and cleanable!
For best results you will want to use a laminate at a high thickness; the thicker the laminate the more long-lasting and durable the cover.
The strongest cover can’t protect internal pages from every possible threat (if your book is submerged in a raging river there’s not a lot you can do) but it helps with standard rough treatment.
Second, use a moderately thick paper for internal pages. Heavier paper stands up to constant handling better and longer than thinner, more fragile paper.
Third, consider Spiral Coil or Wire-O binding for your book. Spiral Coils or Wire-O binding enables books to lay flat no matter what page you’re on, which is especially helpful if you’re using both hands to do something while consulting the book. In precarious situations (trying to provide first aid to someone on a hiking trail) making the book’s contents easily accessible may be vital. Not having a spine also means you aren’t constantly stressing the spine by forcing pages to lay flat when they don’t naturally do so, prolonging the book’s useful life.
Combining sealed-edge laminating with a coil binding method can also allow the holes punched into the interior pages through pure laminate, but not the substrate of the cover itself. Thus the cover remains safely sealed in the laminate layer.
If you’re planning a book or manual that will be subjected to rough conditions or handling, give us a call at 330-597-8560. We’re happy to help you get the most out of your printing project.
Photo by Bartosz Kwitkowski
