Compared to paperbacks, hardcover books always have better aesthetics. Besides, the outstanding advantages when storing, arranging and transporting are always loved by users. Hardcover is essential to create a perfect product and is considered an effective strategy when a book first reaches the user.

WHAT IS HARDCOVER BOOK?

A hardcover book is a book that is bound with a thick cover on the outside. The purpose is to better store, organize and preserve books. The hardcover of the book is processed with many different techniques to ensure safety and eye-catching for the book. This is one of the factors that helps the book attract and bring readers. The price of binding hardcover books depends on the size and number of books being bound. Many types of books use hardcover such as: books, stories, photobooks, dissertations, projects, genealogies, novels, scientific works.

HOW ARE HARDCOVER BOOKS CLASSIFIED

The most obvious criteria often used to classify hardcover books are paper material and post-printing processing techniques.

PAPER MATERIALS FOR HARDCOVER BOOKS

There are many materials that can be used for the hard cover of a book. Popular with the following 3 materials:

A type of paper with a structure of thin sheets of paper ranging from 3 layers, 5 layers or 7 layers, even 9 layers for carton products that specialize in heavy goods.

Advantages:

• Carton paper is strong and sturdy for the best protective cover. 

• The price of this type of paper is quite cheap, saving the cost of making book covers.

Disadvantages:

• Carton cover has good water resistant ability so it is easy to tear when exposed to water.

• The surface is not smooth, so the presentation of the book cover is not beautiful

With these advantages and disadvantages, carton material when used to print hardcover books is often rolled with an additional layer of high-quality paper on the outside. It seems that this material is only used to create stiffness for the cover. Printing is done with high quality paper to create a beautiful effect for the book.

DUPLEX PAPER

Due to its large quantity, Duplex paper is the choice used when making hardcovers for books. Duplex paper has 2 different sides, one gray side and one smooth side, making it easy to perform different printing techniques.

Advantages:

• Duplex paper has a smooth surface that can directly perform many eye-catching printing techniques to create beautiful cover designs.

• It’s time saving for printing process.

• The printing surface material is smooth, so the printed colors are clear and the images are realistic.

Disadvantages:

• The price is higher than cardboard With these advantages and disadvantages, Duplex paper is more suitable when used for high-value books.

• It could be an important documentary book or a long-term research project

 

HARDCOVER ART PAPER

With a variety of textures and colors, this is a type of paper often used for high-end publications. The same goes when used to make cardboard, art paper is often used for the covers of high-value books. There are two choices: smooth and slightly rough paper. Fine art paper can use many printing and post-printing processing techniques to create classy book covers.

Advantages:

• The paper surface is easy to perform many printing and post-printing techniques for beautiful cover designs.

• Diverse choices of paper materials to suit many different requirements.

Disadvantages:

• The price is quite expensive so it is often used in processing high-end hardcover books.

It can be seen that art paper has outstanding quality but is relatively expensive. To both save costs and create beautiful cover designs, people often use it in combination with Carton paper. Carton paper is used to create stiffness for the cover, the outer surface is rolled with art paper or Duplex paper to create an eye-catching effect for the cover.

Hardcover printing techniques

Book covers often show some basic information such as:

• Book title.

• Author.

• Publishing company.

• Publishing year….

There is not too much information shown on the cover. These information are printed by the same printing technique. The main difference is the post-printing process. Below are popular techniques to bring life to book covers.

Metal pressing printing technique

Use to create emphasis with important information you want to show on the book cover such as:

• Publisher logo.

• Book title. Popular metal pressing colors such as gold, silver, red, blue…

Advantages:

• Eye-catching effects help the book become more impressive and advanced.

• Can be done on many paper materials.

Disadvantages:

• High price.

• Easily discolored over time.

Matt/gloss lamination of hardcover books

Besides the printing technique, matte lamination is used a lot for book covers.

Advantages:

The colors of the writing and patterns are sharp and vivid.

Keep the cover model durable for a long time.

Avoids dust and makes books very easy to clean.

The price is relatively cheap, suitable for many popular books.

Disadvantages:

Lamination is often used on paper with low weight, so it easily wrinkles, making it difficult to transport and store books.

embossed book covers

Technique suitable for hardcover books using fine art paper. Patterns are embossed or embossed on paper. Advantages:

• Images and writing are shown clearly and vividly with good depth

• Suitable for books and valuable documents that need to be stored.

Disadvantages:

• The cost of this technique is quite high, so it is often used in a few details on the cover.

UV coating on book cover surface