the problem with "book binding," which is usually referred to as "perfect binding," is that the images that carry between pages often lose information in the deep, cracky abyss.

last time i checked, it was about double the price of a spiral bind, but this all depends on how you produce your portfolio. another limitation of perfect binding is that the price of the binding increases as the number of your pages increases.

as for an alternative, i've seen some beautiful portfolios that were sewn together by hand. this creates a loose binding, which allows for the book to lay flat when open, as well as transforming the portfolio from a mere display of work into a design project in its own right.

It's very easy to learn perfect binding yourself, actually. People get intimidated, but anyone with strong experience with an exacto knife and can glue cleanly can manage it. Also, sewn binding as mentioned above, and chicago screws can also be used to combat the spiral-bind overload.

i found the nicest option for me was to produce it as a3 pages and just staple the middle...., so make sure you produce the pdf so that it will have the front cover and pages in right places....looks so much nicer than any type of binding...also if the print shop can do full bleed or laser trim it for you, pretty sweet too, my portfolio prints are like 10$ but look sweet.

no matter how annoying Iphoto is, i've seen portfolios printed as books through apple ... very affordable and attractive:

http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/printproducts/index.html

Check out www.blurb.com

I just created my wedding album there, great quality and service. I wish I knew about it for my portfolio, would have been a great alternative.

Has anybody had recent experience with lulu.com? They've been mentioned on some prior threads, but their quality control seemed inconsistent according to some people.

I thought blurb.com looked interesting, but I have not used them yet. They do softcover book binding.

I second blurb.com. I was given one of their 7x7in softcover books as a gift recently. Double-sided satin pages, full-bleed - beautiful. Their hardcovers are excellent as well.

(noting this thread for future reference)

Blurb looks really nice, thanks for that link. I wish i had known about that about a month ago.

I've used lulu, their binding is really nice, if a little stiff, causing a deep gutter. The print quality was fine, nothing stellar, but very serviceable.

my portfolio was 8x8 and perfect bound. I did all the printing myself (including the cover--make sure to account for bending as well as the thickness of the pages) and took it to a local print shop--total cost of trimming and binding (the sheets were printed on 8.5x11 in order for full bleeds) was $15, of course this was in 2002…check with your local service providers: some will do a one off, some won't. The thing is 6 years old and still looks good and has held up to a bunch of reviews and interviews

if you decide to do a perfect binding, make sure to avoid diagonal lines crossing the spread (horizontal lines are more forgiving of misregistration) and have at least .5" gutter on both sides of the spine (it doesn't have to be empty, just don't put anything important in it)

thanks for the info..

i loooooove the paperbacks offered by apple and blurb. what sucks is that my portfolio is 8x16 and those services don't offer custom sizes.

if anyone else has some examples of what they've done that is not a spiral or cerlox binding id like to see them. thanks

Be sure to check your schools' portfolio requirements. Many schools won't accept anything larger than 8.5"x11".

thanks for the heads up.. i did check and they don't seem to specify. im applying for my undergrad (BEDS) at Dalhousie and they are not specific.

Does anyone know anything from Dal?

LULU was adequate but inconsistent when i was applying to schools two years ago. it turned out fine... but i will not be using them again.

Yeah, personally, it would frighten me to wait for the blurb/lulu/apple books to arrive, or to have to give myself so long between testing out iterations. Things always go wrong.

Don't forget bricks and mortar shops. I worked with alphagraphics [a chain like kinkos] to do a hybrid binding [tape/score/staple] for my portfolio. The local branch was more than helpful, but the costs do escalate quickly.

shaner -

i had similar difficulty with blurb and lulu because my portfolio was custom sized as well. I went to a local printer and they were able to bind it with a tape bind that used heat activated glue along the spine. They printed and cut the portfolio, leaving about half an inch past the crop marks on the bound side so that the entire page would be viewed as I designed it. We erred on the side of caution and on a couple spreads there's a small gap in the "deep cracky abyss," but I figured that that was better than losing information. Also, if you look at normal books with full bleed images, that happens sometimes.

After it was tape bound, i wrapped the whole thing in my cover material, which I cut myself, and attached it along the spine. Basically, I thought this route to be an adequate combination of professional perfect binding and do-it-yourself-ness. I hope that helps.

this does. im going to seek out some local places today or tomorrow. i have already left a 1/2" spine on the spine side of my sheets in PS so as not to get anything cut off by the binding.

thanks everyone for the help!