Chapter Three. Binding and Finishing

Getting ink on paper isn’t the end of the story. The printed piece must be trimmed to its final size and subjected to any required folding and gluing. Build it the wrong size in the beginning, and you’ll suffer the slings and arrows of irritated prepress operators who have to perform surgery on your file. Layout repairs cost money and time. The mechanical alterations required to mend incorrect page size or configuration can be complex (and expensive). Even if your artwork is perfect, you must keep in mind that trimming, folding, binding, and fancy finishing treatments such as embossing are all physical processes. Environmental influences such as temperature and humidity, coupled with the stresses of moving paper through printing presses, folding equipment, and trimming devices, can result in errors in the final piece. As a designer, you can’t control those physical processes. But if you take those possibilities into account as you prepare artwork and create page layouts, you may be able to minimize adverse effects.