How To Use A Dummy To Find The Right Size Binding

While most of the binding supplies on the CFS Binding Supplies website show the number of pages they can accommodate, this calculation is based solely on plain, ol’ 20 pound weight copier paper. Once you add covers, tabs and inserts, not to mention if you use thicker paper, it quickly becomes more of a guessing game trying to speculate how many sheets of 20 pound bond those will equate to. But there is a way to accurately determine your booklets’ thickness and the appropriate sized binding element. It’s called building a “dummy.”

No, not like the kind a ventriloquist would use. It’s simply a blank, unprinted version of your booklet. Just take the number of sheets your book will pint at in the same paper stock you plan to use, add in any inserts or tabs and put your covers on it. Then simply measure the total thickness. And now you just select the appropriate size plastic coil, plastic comb, wire binding or Velobind strip. We have links to capacity charts on each binding supply webpage.

Do you need help with your booklets? Fire off a question to us in the comments below and it might just turn into a post.