Photography News Issue 41

Photography News | Issue 41 | absolutephoto.com

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3. The cover

5. Cover finishing

Meanwhile, cover images are treated and printed on another machine. The same care and attention is needed here, too, and regular checking and calibrating ensure everything is spot on. The efficient batching systemmeans the book cover and the inner pages are married up later in the production process.

The laminated cover is then sealed to a sheet of stiff card to give it strength and heft. The finished cover section is then ready to be united with the book’s innards.

4. Protect the cover

Some photo books might only get looked at occasionally while others get used much more often, so they need to be finished to a high standard to cover all possibilities. After the cover image has been printed it is laminated to protect it from heavy handling and to keep it looking pristine.

6. Back to the book

7. The sharpest cut

The printed book pages have been kept together and are in the correct order but of course at this point they are still loose. Gluing the pages is the next step. Several years ago, the gluing step was done completely manually. Now the sets of pages are fed into the gluing machine one at a time and once glued become a book block. The book block now has to be left to cure for six hours before any further work can be done. This is an important – and the longest – step in the production process and can’t be rushed. Poor work at this stage could mean pages dropping out of the book later. At peak times, when CEWE is working all day long, books are turned around in 24 hours.

At this point, the cover is printed and mounted onto stiff board and the book’s pages have been printed. The two sections are brought together and prepared for final gluing and trimming.

8. After trimming

The photo book is finished but before despatch to the customer it undergoes a quality control examination. Every book is hand-checked by CEWE’s trained team and any problems rectified. The spine must be in perfect condition, the book block and cover correctly attached and totally square. CEWE offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

9. Despatch

Every book is vacuum packed for extra protection during transit before being passed to the despatch department for packaging up and then sending off to the customer.