Matte vs. Gloss Lamination: Which is right for your book?

Often overlooked and under-considered is book cover lamination, or the finish which gives the book protection from the world around it.  Lamination can change the visual and tactile experience of shopping for or reading a book.  It can also affect the perceived quality and value of the book. Let's review a few of the pros and cons of gloss and matte finishes for soft covers (paperbacks).

While gloss lamination catches the eye with high-contrast colors and sheen, matte lamination offers an understated, soft look and feel to your paperback book.

Gloss Laminate

Gloss laminate is visually stunning.  It produces deeper, cleaner and crisper lines and colors, and gives vibrancy to cover photos.  The glossy, reflective finish grabs attention and implies a richer product. Gloss laminate is durable in that it repels dust, dirt and fingerprints.  Even when it does come into contact with surface dirt, it is easily wiped clean. Gloss is the standard for trade paperbacks.

Some considerations to make when choosing gloss lamination: Scuffs, scratches and indents can be more visible with gloss covers - by nature of the glossy reflective finish, the imperfections catch light and draw attention. The vibrancy of color and sheen of the finish can sometimes overshadow the subtlety of an understated cover design.

Matte Laminate

Matte Laminate is often described as a more professional and elegant finish.  Matte is currently the more "fashionable" choice for laminate. It is currently very popular among Young Adult titles. Authors, designers and consumers are enamored with the look and feel of matte lamination.  The velvety texture of the finish makes for a pleasant tactile experience.  The matte soft cover finish is less reflective than gloss, giving a more natural look to cover art.  A less shiny cover absorbs more small scratches and scuffs without looking "beat up." The simple contrast of a matte cover among many glossy covers may draw its own attention on the bookstore shelf.

A few caveats regarding matte lamination: While many love the soft feel of matte lamination, the texture can be unusual and unexpected for some. The less reflective finish can lessen the intensity of cover color, producing a more "washed-out" or muted palette.  Matte lamination can produce lower contrast on darker colors, resulting in an overall softer look.  While scratches and scuffs are more readily absorbed by matte lamination, this finish can be more susceptible to stains and spills.  

In the end, laminate is a personal preference - that can only really be evaluated with book in hand.  Ordering proof copies of your book in different laminates can give you the ability to compare and contrast finishes on your own, side by side before you order many copies.  You may even choose to produce the same title in both finishes to appease all audiences!  

For answers to more detailed questions on soft cover laminates, please email info@bnbindery.com or fill out the general information form here.

BNB exemplified as innovator of hardcover “book-of-one” manufacturing

The "Book-of-One" binding model, once criticized for its inefficiencies and cost prohibitions, has now become a reality in the digital printing world. A print on demand bindery such as BNB, has shown the benefits of “one book at a time” production – less inventory/warehousing costs and quick turnaround. From ordering to shipping– and all the processes in between - the entire “book-of-one” model has been proven to be a cost effective, efficient way to get books to the end customer.

In a recent blog from Printing Impressions (www.piworld.com), Don Piontek of IBIS Bindery Systems, Ltd. based in the U.K. discussed the challenges of the modern printer/binder with regards to hardcover "book-of-one" production.  Compared to soft cover finishing, hardcovers have many more components to marry together into the final product.  This necessitates a longer production time, more handling and less efficiency when every unit has the potential to be a different title.

Defending the hardcover “book-of-one” model for BNB is Werner Rebsamen, Professor Emeritus RIT.  Rebsamen challenges Piontek to consider companies such as Bridgeport National Bindery who have “amazing technology at work.”  Electronic ordering, barcode tracking of book components and drop shipping to customers are all factors which make BNB and the hardcover “book-of-one” a smart choice. Customers such as Amazon can electronically request titles for themselves or their customers, and finished orders are often shipped within 24 hours of receipt. Rebsamen continues that the cost of binding a single hardcover book can be comparable to a 5000 book print run of the same book.  “Traditional book manufacturers adjust to this trend,” he concluded, with BNB as a successful example of changing with the times.

BNB gets into the Holiday Spirit with Christmas Book Trees

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The first attempt, 2012...

It all started three years ago with a small stack of books and a string of lights in our prepress department.

This year, BNB decided to up our game with a 5-foot Christmas Book Tree to celebrate the season.

Employees from several departments gathered books earmarked for recycling, and took time early in December to build a tree. Glue and creativity flowed freely as the small group added, subtracted and rearranged books into a pleasing (and structurally stable) shape.

Onlookers may have heard phrases like, "I'm not an engineer, but...." or "I think it's leaning forward, try this..." However, in general the tree building process went smoothly. 

After stringing a few twinkle lights, our BNB Christmas Book Tree was complete.  Of course, no tree is complete without a special tree topper - our own gigantic pine cone!

BNB 2015 Christmas Book Tree

Accessorizing our large Book Tree are several folded book trees, sprinkled throughout the bindery.

Mini folded book trees on display in our front office

Here are a few resources if you're looking to build similar book trees:

The Bibliophiles Christmas Tree

How to Make Folded Paperback Christmas Book Tree