How to print and bind a chapbook

Most chapbooks are printed on a photocopier or risograph and saddle-stitched: folded signatures held with two staples on the spine. Past about sixty pages, perfect binding with a glued spine becomes the practical choice.

Three ways to hold a chapbook together. Saddle stitch is the default for short runs; perfect binding starts to make sense past about sixty pages.

Printing

The riso is the classic chapbook press: it prints in flat spot colours, cheaply, with a texture that photocopiers and laser printers cannot match. A photocopier is cheaper still and entirely legitimate. Print-on-demand is cleaner but loses the handmade feel. Costs are covered in what it costs to publish a chapbook.

Binding

Choosing a binding
Binding	Page range	Notes
Saddle stitch	up to ~48pp	Two staples on the fold; the chapbook default
Pamphlet stitch	up to ~48pp	Thread instead of staples; no metal
Perfect bound	60pp and up	Glued square spine; needs the page count to hold

Trimming

Folded signatures push the inner pages out, so the fore-edge needs trimming flush after binding. A guillotine does it cleanly; a craft knife and steel rule will do for a short run.