Saddle Stitch

What is the saddle stitch?

A saddle stitch is when a stitch of either thread or wire staple is fed through the fold of a booklet or a magazine.

Saddle stitch binding is a simple and economical way to secure your printing projects. Ideal for small leaflets, magazines, menus, calendars and catalogs. This gives your projects a professional look and makes them more efficient. This method is most effective when the bookbinding does not exceed 64 pages. If you add more pages, the project may become too thick and not sit flat when you open it on to a table.

When stapling the saddles, the printed sheets are stacked on top of each other and then stapled. Saddle stitching can sound like a very strange name. The pages are sewn with a thin metal thread that rests on a metal saddle. Saddle-stitching is widely known in the printing industry as cross-linking and is very similar to perfect binding. When designing the media to be printed and interlaced using this method, care must be taken to ensure that there is sufficient space between the contents and the edges. If this is not done, the contents can be tied or trimmed by cutting the outer edges.

At Printing Manhattan we offer saddle stitch binding for brochures, small books, magazines and much more. We also offer various data printing options with our digital printing capabilities. Our goal is to ensure that our customers enjoy printing as much as possible. Our experts are ready to provide any support you may need. We use only the most modern equipment and the latest technology for printing. We offer affordable wholesale printing services.

Why do we call it saddle stitch binding?

Saddle stitch binding may seem a strange name for a binding process that puts staples onto sheets of paper, but in the printing industry stapling is usually called stitching. In addition, during the stapling/replacement process of the saddle sheet, the stapled sheets are stretched over the saddle device, hence the name “Stitching”.

What is the saddle stitch process?

To illustrate this binding process, we will use a saddle stitch booklet with a finished page size of 8.5 “x 11″ as an example. The pages and cover of this booklet will be made of 11″ x 17″ sheets, which are folded in half to 8.5″ x 11”. The folded sheets will be nested inside each other and then grouped along the folded fold or spine. Each 11″ x 17″ sheet, folded in half, creates four pages of the book. By its very nature, saddle stitching requires that the number of pages in a book be a multiple of four. Keep this in mind during book design to avoid unplanned blank pages.

Saddle stitching occurs after the pages and cover have been printed, partially stacked and nested together. After stapling, the book cover and pages are folded tighter. Some thicker saddle books are cut at the edge opposite the column so that the pages are even and neat. Books and other documents that are usually saddle stitches include programs, wall calendars, booklets, bulletins, flyers, direct mail, comics and magazines, and thinner catalogs.

What is the difference between a saddle stitch and perfect binding?

Saddle stitch binding is one of the most cost-effective binding options for books with a lower number of pages. Like the perfect binder, perfect binding is another common binding option that can be obtained from a commercial printer. A perfect binder is often called a booklet, and sometimes even a brochure (even if it is not the correct printing terminology). A perfectly bound booklet is also called a pocketbook. The ideal binding is formed when the pages of a book are glued to the spine. The cover is usually made of thicker cardboard and laminated or covered to protect the book. Although both links can be used in the same projects, it is important to note the differences.