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About Plastic Coil Printing

Dazzle Printing offers four binding styles, one of which is plastic coil printing. Plastic coil binding, also called spiral binding, is a great option for cookbooks, workbooks, journals, and planners. Plastic coil binding is like spiral notebooks used in school, except the coil is plastic instead of metal.

plastic coil printing

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Plastic Coil Printing

Advantages of plastic coil printing include:

  • Plastic coiled books lay flat when open, so they are easy for users to write in and to consult for instructions.
  • You can turn one of the pages completely around so that one page instead of two pages is showing at one time.
  • The coils used are very durable and long lasting. Even when pulled or stretched, they will spring back into shape.
  • Since they are plastic, they are safer for children than wire-o binding.

Disadvantages of plastic coil binding include:

  • Plastic coil binding is more expensive than saddle stitch, perfect bound, or wire-o binding.
  • Since the bound edge of the page is punched with holes, you need to make sure to leave extra large margins so that no text is punched.

How Are Books Plastic Coil Bound?

For plastic coil binding, the book is printed on large sheets on our digital presses. Depending on the finished size of the book, we print between 2 and 4 books on each sheet of paper. If the covers are not going to be laminated, we print the covers and inside pages together in full sets. If the covers will be laminated, we print the covers and inside pages separately.

The covers and inside pages are then cut down to the finished size of the book. If the covers are laminated, they must be collated with the inside pages.

The bound edge of the book is then punched on our automatic punch. The size of the coil depends on the thickness of the entire book. The proper sized coil is then spun through the holes on the book. The coil is longer than the book, so the ends are then cut and crimped so that the coil will not unwind from the book.

spiral binding

Article on Plastic Coil Bound

For a more detailed description of the plastic coil binding process.

Plastic Coil Printing FAQs

Although we have four standard sizes for plastic coil book printing

(5.5 x 8.5, 6 x 9, 8.5 x 11, and 9 x 12),

we can also print nonstandard size books of any size

up to 9 x 12

To order a nonstandard size book, use the next larger size on our pricing calculators. For instance, you would select 8.5 x 11 pricing for a 8 x 10 book.

Yes, all sizes of plastic coil books can be printed as landscape. There is a small additional charge for landscape books.

The minimum number of pages for multipage documents, including plastic coil, is 8. The range of coils that we can use is 8 mm to 50 mm. The maximum number of pages for the 50 mm coil is 1150 pages for 70# coated text stock, 975 pages for 80# coated text stock, 775 pages for 100# coated text stock, 800 pages for 60# uncoated text, and 725 pages for 70# uncoated text.

Yes, we can print on the inside of the covers at no additional charge. Make sure we can tell from your PDF file whether you want printing on the inside of the covers. If you want blank covers on the inside covers, make sure to add a blank page after the front cover and before the back cover. If there are no blank pages in your file, we will assume that you want printing on the inside covers. Alternatively, just let us know in the notes section of the order form whether you want printing on the inside of the covers.

Yes, we do offer clear plastic covers and a variety of colored back plastic covers. You can find that option under Additional Finishing Options on our calculators.

Yes, we offer several lamination options: gloss, soft-touch, leather, and linen lamination. Lamination will add durability to your cover and will impact the look of the color. Gloss lamination makes colors standout, while soft touch lamination has a very velvety feel. Many of our clients will laminate the front cover and add a plastic back to the back cover, which is a great way to add visual appeal to the front cover and extra durability to the back cover.

Yes, while we do offer 2 and 4 corner rounding on plastic coil printing, for the stability of the book we recommend 2 corner rounding. Corner rounding looks great on journals, planners, and children’s books.

Your files should be submitted as high-resolution PDF files with bleeds. Incorporate at least a 1/8 inch bleed on all four sides of our document.

Files should be submitted as single pages in the order they will be read.

Inspiration for Books

While you are getting your plastic coil book ready for printing, you might want to check out some of our Client Spotlights. Each Spotlight provides the details of a book we printed with the client’s thoughts on the process of printing with Dazzle Printing. Here are some plastic coil books you might want to take a look at:

Contact Us with Questions

Dazzle Printing is ready to print your plastic coil books! We offer an impressive list of benefits: low printing quantities, reasonable prices, outstanding quality, numerous paper and printing options, free shipping on orders over $399, a 100% satisfaction guarantee, and awesome customer service. If you have any questions, feel free to call us at 1-800-338-4329, email us at help@dazzleprinting.com, or chat with us online (our online chat is in the bottom right corner of every page on our website).

spiral bound notebooks

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