Wire stitching in books and publishing refers to binding printed materials together using metal wire staples or stitches to form a booklet or similar folded publication. Also referred to as staple binding or saddle stitching, wire stitching offers a durable yet cost-effective means of fastening pages together securely.
Wire stitching involves stacking folded sheets of paper – often multiples of four sheets – together into a booklet form and placing them under a wire stitching machine, where small wire stitches or staples will secure them together to form an elegant binding for your book. Stitches often go through one fold midway down its spine, creating a strong yet neat-looking binding.
Various publishers widely utilize wire stitching with a low page count for magazines, brochures, pamphlets, catalogs, and booklets. The popularity of this stitching can be attributed to its simplicity, affordability, and ability to accommodate different paper sizes and finishes. Additionally, it allows the finished book to open flat, making reading the content simpler.
Although wire stitching can be used effectively with small to medium-sized publications, it may not be ideal for thick books with hundreds of pages due to its lack of durability or longevity compared with perfect binding or case-binding techniques. Still, wire stitching remains a highly cost-efficient and fast turnaround way of binding documents when cost efficiency and speed of turnaround are essential considerations.