[birdman]

I'm making a set of baby books for an adoption agency. Since they only need 25, I'm just printing them on my home inkjet on cardstock, and originally planned to take them to Office Max to be spiral bound. There are 20 pages including the cover (which is also on cardstock, but laminated), but they would like to be able to take out certain pages on a per-case basis. (There are pages for the birth family, foster family, and adoptive family; in some cases, the birth family may remain anonymous, for example, so they wouldn't want those pages to be included.)

This throws several kinks into the works, because the spiral binding worked perfectly, as it allowed the book to be opened flat or folded back on itself for writing on the pages. Also, I will have to rework my layout so that the optional pages are back-to-back rather than a spread (e.g. the Birth Family page is currently a 2-page spread, but then you'd lose whatever was on the back of those pages if you take out the Birth Family section). Either that, or make each page 1-sided, and leave the reverse blank for the family to attach additional pictures, but that will turn this into a 40-page operation.

Well, I'll just have to work with them on that part. My real question here is, what kind of binding should I use? I mean, what do they expect, for me to put them in plastic sleeves in a 3-ring binder? Ooh, that's really classy and professional. Since there are only 25 books, I suppose one option would be to supply them with all the pages, make sure none of the optional pages are spreads, then tell them to just take 'em to Office Max on a per-case basis each time they need it.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

[andi*pandi]

You have two options that I can think of.

Oops, three.

GBC binding. This is the plastic chunky stuff. Staples might sell this machine--it holds the binding open, you punch the pages and place em in. You can get pages out without the machine, but it's a pain.

http://www.gbcconnect.com/catalog/Ca...navAction=push

Wire-O binding. Not sure if they still make this stuff.

There's a heat-seal binding that Staples sells that makes like a "business presentation."

There, I've been helpful twice this week.

[MacMan4000]

try this stuff.

[birdman]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions. I went to Staples and Office Max tonight, and found something that should work. I can get the GBC C50 personal binding machine for $60 at Office Max, then use GBC ZipBind combs. (Ignore the picture at that link -- that's not what they look like.)

You need a CombBind machine to punch the holes, and fortunately, the cheapest one will work for my purposes (and I'll probably use it beyond this project, so I think it's worth the cost). Then the ZipBind combs can easily be applied using a special tool that comes with it. This way, I can give the client one of the tools (I'll keep the other one) and they can easily add or remove pages as necessary without my assistance. They only had black ones in the store, but it looks like I can order frost-colored combs from Staples' web site. Cool.

Now I just need to figure out how to completely redo the layout so that I don't use any spreads. Fun.

-birdman

[mitchell_pgh]

This won't work perfectly in your case, but I use rubber cement on the ends with a textured "designer" tape that covers the rubber cement edge.

You can peal pages out of it without making it look or feel strange.

It looks rather professional... almost like it's a bound book.

[art_director]

If they don't have to lie flat when open here are two other suggestions:

1. Binding posts – don't have time to supply a link but they work nicely. The one problem being that they tend to be used for deeper books. You could always back the piece with a chipboard or other substantial board.

2. Gromits – simple, easy to use, customizable and can be purchased in every color on the rainbow.

Good luck.

[birdman]

I'm an idiot. I should've thought of this before.

I work for a publisher, for cryin' out loud. We have a comb-binding machine here that will punch holes compatible with the GBC models. I guess the solution is the ZipBind method. I'll print all 20 pages for each book, punch the holes at work (off the clock), ZipBind them, and the adoption agency can unZip and remove pages to their liking.

Again, thanks for the responses.

-birdman