Recently, Bookbinding Services was asked by the local Newspaper House Archives to rebind a collection of newspapers dating back to the 1950’s and 1970’s.

Before

After

Magazine and Newspaper Binding South Africa

The project required the newspapers being bound into new covers. To preserve the papers, the new covers and binding needed to be robust enough to last for another generation or two.

The previous binding was old and some of the bound copies had been destroyed resulting in some papers being damaged and parts going missing.

Traditional Bookbinding Techniques

It was interesting to look at how book binding was down years ago – surprisingly many were nailed together!

Unfortunately, being so close to the coast this resulted in the nails rusting and doing a fair bit of damage.

Other papers had holes drilled through them and were strung together with string. However, these cannot lie flat when open, making it close to impossible to read anything close to the spine.

Additionally, many papers were torn as a result of the string. Yet there were many that were bound the traditional way, using cold glue, and were still in good condition.

Tips for Eventual Binding

It’s important to store the newspapers you would like bound correctly in order to avoid any possible damage.

If you are preparing newspapers for eventual binding, make sure to store them lying flat. They should be stored in the in the position they will be bound in.

Furthermore, newspapers will bind better if inserts are omitted.

Bookbinding Services South Africa

We offer a trimming service to clean up the edges of bindings. Newspapers tend to vary in size, this may affect the amount of trim possible.

Additionally, because newspapers vary in margin size, there may be times where slight trimmings of printed parts occur. If this is a concern for you, you can choose not to trim.

However, it’s important to consider the result will not be as neat as volumes that are trimmed.

For more information about our services, please contact us.