Investigate the mainstream trend of Chinese book printing and binding

Paper

More than 95% of the 160,000 books that participated in this book fair are still based on paper. Although people had high hopes for e-books before the opening of the fair, at least in this book fair, e-books are still difficult to trace. This may be another way to tell people, now asserting paper It’s ridiculous that the book will die at the end of the day! Paper books are still the mainstream form of publications for a long time to come.

The books on display at this book fair mainly include coated paper, light coated paper, lightweight paper and offset paper. Among them, lightweight paper and coated paper are the favorite papers of many publishers.

Years ago, Chinese books used a wide range of books and printed papers. This kind of paper is mostly produced by using straw mixed pulp. The weight is 50-60 grams, and the paper quality is poor. Printing with this paper is also determined by the low price of Chinese books. However, with the development of the times, the pricing of books has become inconsistent with the low prices of early years. The printed papers with rough texture and poor printability have lost their status. Instead, the texture is more delicate. Printing excellent quality offset paper. In recent years, a lightweight paper with a texture similar to that of offset paper, but with a more fluffy texture and lighter weight, has been favored by more and more publishers. At present, there are many domestic literature, social science and leisure books. These papers are used for printing.

In the field of book printing, coated paper is a kind of long-lasting paper. This kind of paper has an irreplaceable position when printing art, photography, auction and other types of books. Today, this situation has not changed. In this book fair, books such as art are basically printed on coated paper.

Changes in book printing paper are also reflected in the change in paper color. Domestic book printing papers prefer white paper, and the whiter is better, so paper companies also try their best to bleach paper. However, it was later scientifically proven that excessively white paper was not good for the reader, so papers of beige, primary colors, and light pink were used more and more in book printing. In this book fair, in addition to the art books printed on coated paper, other books have been difficult to see books printed on very glaring bleached paper.

print

At the current book fair, the books exhibited, whether domestic or foreign, have reached a high level in printing quality, which also reflects the overall development level of the printing industry from one aspect.

At present, offset printing is still the mainstream printing method for books, but the digital printing industry has begun to emerge. At the book fair, on the third floor of Hall 1 of China International Exhibition Center, there is a network-digital printing exhibition area specially opened by the organizing committee to showcase the combination of digital printing and publishing.

Although the performance of books in personalization is not as obvious as some products, digital printing can be a good complement to high-volume printing in terms of emergency filling. Beijing Qiliang Haide Printing Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Shenglong Printing Co., Ltd., which participated in this exhibition, have already cooperated with some publishing houses to provide small batches of some broken copies.

Another trend in book printing is environmental protection. According to General Manager Liang Zhaoxian of China Business (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., who is participating in the Book Fair, publishers, especially publishers in Europe and the United States, attach great importance to environmental issues in the printing process of books, not only inks and binding glues. Requires environmental standards, even papers require FSC certified products, and printing companies are required to obtain FSC certification. Although the current demand for stricter in this area is mainly overseas publishers, Mr. Liang believes that it will not take long for domestic publishers to pay attention to this aspect.

In the post-printing of books, there is still a trend worthy of attention, which is that more and more books use glazing instead of film. Compared with the laminating process, the glazing process does not use adhesives, thus reducing the VOC emissions. At the same time, the glazing process makes the paper no longer have the trouble of plastic film in the future recycling. Another advantage of the glazing process is that it can be partially finished, and the film can only be processed as a whole. The glazing and the film can have different effects of matt and bright light, and the glazing treatment can be processed in line with the offset printing machine, and the production efficiency is higher. It is precisely because of its many advantages that in the book printing, the glazing process gradually replaces the laminating technology.

Binding and binding

The books on display at this fair have a variety of binding forms, ranging from ordinary saddle stitching to flat binding, to stitch binding and hardcover, and many children’s stereo books are very complicated. The manual binding, in some ancient books, is also used in the form of bamboo slips and scrolls. Binding was originally an ancillary process, but now it has become a process that adds value to book publishing.

There are also bindings that add value to the book. Binding is divided into the book's own binding and exterior frames. The book's own binding is mainly reflected in the book cover, title page, bookmarks and so on. From the cover, there are books that use, imitation leather, tufted, special paper, laminated with a laser film or directly printed on a laser film, and partially embedded on the cover. Of course, for the public, the conventional simple binding is used, and the cover is made of thick coated paper or cardboard, and processed by lamination or glazing. Cover printing with special binding materials, mainly using hot stamping technology to print the cover text, which has a direct relationship with the selection of materials.

The binding of the title page is mainly reflected in the selection of materials and the printing process. Among them, the printing of the title page is generally hot stamping or hot silver; and the choice of materials is varied, everything. In order to attract attention, some books make books into round or other forms of special-shaped books, which also puts new demands on the binding of books.

In terms of exterior frames, domestic boutique books use a large number of envelope designs. The various materials and different forms of envelopes increase the aesthetics of the books and increase the protection of the books themselves, but the increase in the cost of production of the books is not Little sly. In contrast, foreign books, in addition to children's books, most books have no more outer packaging, the book's binding tends to be simple, this contrast is worthy of reflection by domestic book publishing units and printing companies.

postscript

In just one day's visit, we can't have a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the book printing production. All we can do is to look at the leopard and find some fur. For the understanding of the printing and production of book fairs, our views are also at their own level, which may be superficial or even wrong. It is for your reference only.