Smart businesses are always looking for ways to improve their image. One simple, relatively inexpensive, but often overlooked way to do just that is to put some serious thought into the appearance of your presentations, reports, and proposals. Here we list the top ten most-used binding methods, and their relative merits and disadvantages.
- Staples: Well, they had to be mentioned. Along with paper clips, staples are, of course, easily the most common method of binding paper together. But it should go without saying that mere staples are not exactly the way to show your hard work in the best light.
- Spiral Coil Binding: This binding style features a colored wire that winds through perforations in the booklet’s edge. The ends are bent so the the wire doesn’t slip through. Great for lying flat and copying, and for smaller-sized booklets.
- Comb Binding: This is a style commonly seen in popular cookbooks and the like. Handy because it lies flat for viewing and for use in the copy machine, but perhaps a little too common-looking to use for your best presentations. One of the least expensive binding options.
- Double-Loop Wire: Uses metal wire in twos, either twenty-one or thirty-two holes for a standard eleven inch document. Generally hard covers are used, and the look and feel is considered very elegant for the price.
- Velobind: This is the top choice when document security is a concern. As such, it is used most often in government offices and law firms. Plastic strips are heated in order to seal the pages of the document together on the front and back, and rivets are used to hold the pages of the document together permanently.
- Proclick: This is one of the best option for your most frequently-used and updated documents. It utilizes the same hole pattern as double-loop wire, but the binding is more easily opened and closed, allowing for quick changes when necessary.
- Thermal Binding: One of the two (along with unibind) most book-like and permanent-looking binding styles, it is also one of the most easy to use. In a thermal binding unit, pages are simply dropped into the hard cover, and they are adhered to the cover with heated glue. You then simply allow the document to cool, and it is ready to go.
- Zipbind: Similar to, but much more easily editable than comb binding. Simple and inexpensive to use and implement, this is a great choice for larger-run documents that may need to be changed on the fly.
- Unibind: This style is very much like thermal binding, but the book’s spine is made of steel, making the publication that much stronger and more permanent. This binding style is just as easy to use as thermal binding, and gives the same top-of-the-line look and feel.
- Ring Binders: This is, of course, a very popular style for in-house publications such as employee manuals and policy books. Not the best choice for your top-shelf client or shareholder presentations, it is, however, easily changed and updated, even by the end-user.
Jeff McRitchie is the director of marketing for MyBinding.com and lives in Hillsboro, Oregon. He writes extensively on topics related to Binding Machines, Binding Supplies, Report Covers, Binders, Index Tabs, Laminators, Laminating Pouches, Roll Film, Shredders, and Paper Handling Equipment.
Related posts:
- Exploring the Four Most Common Binding Systems
- Nine Ways to Bind Your Documents Reports and Presentations
- Choosing the Right Binding Style for Your Office
- Comparing FastBack, UniBind and Thermal Binding
- Choosing Between the Fastback 9 and Unibind XU138 Binding Machines
- Thermal Binding Provides That “Perfect Look”
- Book Binding – The Advantages of Professionally Finishing Your Documents and Reports
- GBC SureBind System One Binding Machine Review
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Why didn’t you mention Disc Binding? The two brands are (Levenger Circa) and (Myndology, related to Atoma)
I have seen a couple of versions of disc binding in use before (I think one is called roll a bind). However, I didn’t realize that these binding styles were very popular. I will have to do some more reading on disc binding and see what I can learn. Do you use disc binding? What types of things do you bind?
Thanks,
Jeff
I’ve use regular notebooks (legal pads, or spiral binding) for note taking – mostly for studying. However, they kind of suck, and I want the following functionality…
One, the ability to rearrange the pages of my notes (easily or semi-easily) and use hand-written and/or printed papers.
Two, to keep the papers as thin as possible, so that I can carry it in my laptop bag with a small notebook (or tablet / iPad). A simple cheap legal pad is an ideal example of this (for example, google “officemax legal pad”), because the binding adds zero thickness. So anything with thick binding, such as all the 3 ring binders I’ve seen, are even worse than a cheap legal pad. And I like multiple thinner notebooks, rather than one thick notebook with tabs, which is why I’m trying the smallest Levenger Circa disc size – the 1/4 inch discs.
Third, I want 360 degrees of freedom, meaning I can horizontally open the book, either 180 degrees (2 page view) or 360 degrees (1 page view). This is another huge failure of most 3 ring binders – they tend to force a 2 page view (ie, they do not allow a 1 page view). Cheap spiral notebooks achieve this, with only a little more thickness than legal pads, but you can’t rearrange the pages.
Finally, I want to add that I care absolutely zero about things like style or presentation. I am 100% looking for functionality for personal note taking / studying / learning. Of course that includes things like durability and smoothness of the experience. For example, I’m not quite sold yet on disc binding, because the part where it attaches to the discs is not very durable, they can get bent / damaged or sort of stuck really easy, especially if you are trying to turn just 1 page at a time 360 degrees, and I think it gets worse if you try to max out the thickness of the 1/4 inch size discs (by cramming in as many pages as possible, making it harder to turn, and worse).
Btw, it sounded like roll a bind has some bad press from alleged bad customer service, which is why I didn’t mention them. The reason I’m trying Levenger Circa is simply that they have small 1/4 inch disc sizes (while the other one, Myndology / Atoma does not).
At this point I’m a little uncertain about disc binding. I’m hoping there’s something else, that has more durable paper punches holes… And ideally is even thinner. Like a really sturdy and thin 360 degree comb binding. My hope is that the difference would be… You can’t switch individual pages as fast (for comb binding), but still reasonably easy / fast… And the hole punch binding part will be more sturdy, even when I pack my thin notebooks to be as thick as the binding will allow (so for example, I want the smallest size binding, such as 1/4 inch discs, but I want as many pages as I can fit in that, so that the binding doesn’t add thickness to my paper, when I put it in my laptop/tablet bag).
My other idea is to find some way to make the disc binding paper punched holes more durable. Such as tape the entire left side of each page, and hole punch that. Or maybe just give up and only use thicker paper for my notes.
Any ideas?
To explain what I mean about being thin. I prefer small notebooks, like the 1/4 inch Circa disc size (their smallest size, they have 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1, 1.5 sizes). And I don’t want binding that adds thickness to the notebook – especially not thickness that is only on the left side. Legal pads are an ideal example of this. However, legal pads do not give very good 360 degree freedom, and they do not allow to easily rearrange one page.
Here are my current ideas for top alternatives to disc binding:
1) A 3 ring binding method that is simply 3 metal rings. I’ve never seen this, but it seems like it should work. I just stack a bunch of 3 ring punches papers, and open/close each of the 3 rings individual. I really do not want a normal 3 ring binder – because they are really thick and have very bad 360 degree freedoms.
2) Comb binding with 360 degrees of freedom
3) Zip binding… I’ve never heard of this before, until I saw your post here. It sounds similar to comb binding.
Oh, and I’d like to add that I realize my quest for better paper notes taking is kind of insane. There’s definitely a point at which I should just give up and go back to using spiral notebooks again… And just try to avoid the need to rearrange the pages.
Another negative thing about this Levenger Circa disc binding… I think it’s bad for thin paper. I wanted to take my existing notes (on thin cheap Officemax legal pad paper) and reorganize them into a levenger circa disc notebook. However, the paper is so thin, that the hole punch binding is really non-sturdy. Some of the holes come out every time I turn an individual page. I’ve considered two options:
1) scan my notes and print them on thicker paper
2) tape the left side, so that it’s thicker, then punch Circa holes in that
Beyond that, maybe circa discs are only good if you use thicker paper.
I saw your post here ( http://www.mybinding.com/.sc/ms/ch/An-Introduction-to-GBC-Zipbind-Binding.html ), and now I’m getting interested in zip binding. Sounds like it’s the same holes as comb binding, but easier to open/close, and gives 360 degrees of freedom (well, more like 359 degrees).
This past week I had a conversation with a vendor who is beginning to make notebooks that can be edited and still allow for 360 degree rotation. I have an example of one on my desk and it might make sense for your needs. The manufacturer is Komtrak and the system uses three rings that run through standard 3-hole punched paper. You might check out their website at http://www.komtrak.com. The product is primarily made for and sold through college bookstores for creating notebooks, workbooks and print on demand textbooks. Along those lines, here are some other products that might work for your application…
Those are just a few ideas that come to mind that might help you with your problem.
Thank you for the awesome and helpful reply.
Komtrak KOOOL Bind 3 ring: This looks pretty cool. Except that 3/4 inch rings sounds too thick for my preference (of thin one subject notes and notes-on-print-outs). With Levenger Circa, I think I even prefer the tiny 1/4 inch discs over their standard 1/2 inch size. This is to carry multiple very thin notebooks in my laptop/tablet bag. Apparently the iPad (an example of what someone might have in a small laptop bag, along with thin paper notebooks) is 0.53 inches thick O:-)
GBC ZipBind: I think these two sizes sound promising for my style of notes (3/8 in and 1/2 in) (though actually, if there was 1/4 in, I’d definitely want to try that too – because that’s what I’m trying for Levenger Circa). 19 hole comb binding holes.
Avery 360 Degree Ring Binders: I actually had seen this one. However, I think 1 inch ring sounds very thick for a thin (9 to 13 in screen size) laptop/tablet bag (especially since I want to carry multiple thin notebooks). My other gripe is that when open in 1 page view, there’s a long piece of plastic on the right side (from the front cover) making it unnecessarily thick. I was also curious about (Five Star Flex Hybrid Notebinder), but didn’t find a lot of details on it (sounds similar to Komtrack KOOOL Bind 3 ring, maybe).
GBC ProClick: 5/16, 1/2, 5/8 (so that’s ProClick 5/16, 8/16, 10/16 vs. 6/16, 8/16 for ZipBind) (1/4 is 4/16, but Circa might be rounding). 32 wire binding holes. I wonder how ProClick compares to ZipBind, besides the size differences and holes standard. And whether one of the hole styles is more sturdy (as this is my gripe with Levenger Circa disc binding).
Spiral Coil Binding: My theory is that editing pages would be painfully slow / tedious.
Komtrak Inspiral: I think it’s cool that someone makes spirals for the comb binding holes. However, my theory is that editing pages would still be painfully slow / tedious.
Overall, I think my most promising choices from this list may be (GBC ZipBind, GBC ProClick). There’s probably a lot of specific trade-offs (hidden in the details) between these two paths. Such as durability of the paper holes. If one has a different page turning feel. If one is faster/easier to edit pages. If one is faster/easier (and more affordable) to punch custom holes. If one is a better total price. If one has more support for standard pre-punched paper, other accessories, and stuff I might find at my day job’s office.
Another more that I heard about is (LIHIT LAB B5 Twist Ring Note). However, apparently this is from Japan, and is not sold anywhere online in the USA market.
Finally, I’ve also considered trying 3 single loose rings (for the 3 ring binding holes). Though I’m kind of skeptical about how well this would actually work, and whether I can get smaller than 1/2 inch.