Material and Cloth covers. We can custom manufacture cases with various different types of finish. There are a wide variety of other materials that range from the beautiful and unusual to the frankly outlandish! If you have a interesting project then please get in touch with the helpdesk and we can discuss options. We love making beautiful things, but bear in mind that these are custom made hardback books using high quality materials specially ordered in to your requirements.
If you'd like to see some pictures of the cover materials, CLICK HERE to go to the swatch page
We're happy to also send you samples, but you will need to speak to the helpdesk on 01452 751900 so that you can discuss what samples you need.
In this help section, we refer to "digital" and "traditional" hot foil printing. You can learn about the differences between these processes in the relevant help section, but in this section we explain which materials are suitable for which process.
Stock materials:
We buy most of our stock materials directly from FiberMark Red Bridge in the UK. The UK has a long history of manufacturing high quality book binding materials and the Fibremark Red Bridge manufacturing plant in Bolton exports over 80% of their production. Over the years, members of Inky's team have visited other book printers and binderies across Europe and interestingly what we call "Library Buckram" here in the UK is sometimes just called "English Buckram" overseas.
Although we stock thousands of kilometers of book cloth and embossed cover paper, there is a lot more available! So, if you have something different in mind, please have a chat with the helpdesk, who can talk you through what is possible. Please bear in mind that it can be expensive to order in a special material for a short run of books, so that may limit what is practical. For some combinations of colours and material, we have to order in a minimum quantity of many thousands of square meters. Thankfully there are many other options where we can obtain smaller quantities!
- Buckram. We stock Arbelave Library Buckram in a wide range of colours, including metallic. Some people call the metallic colours "sparkle" colours for the obvious reason. Library Buckram is one of our most popular materials, but make no mistake, this is the highest possible quality that you can buy. Library Buckram book cloth is a cotton cloth with an acrylic coating, giving the surface a soft lustre. This is a durable and high quality water resistant cover material. Wipe clean with a damp cloth. This material can be hot foil printed both digitally and traditionally. The drop down menu on this page will display our stock colours. We can order in many more colours in this range.
- Book cloth. We stock Cialux, which is a tissue lined Viscose Rayon book cloth with a fine weave. This is a durable, high quality uncoated cloth that is also used for luxury packaging. This is a flat matt cloth finish. It is not wipe clean and cannot be digitally hot foil printed. Hot foil only with traditional brass dies.
- Linen. We stock only heavy Crash Linen, which is a heavy duty book cloth with a coarse weave. Not water resistant or wipe clean. Cannot be digitally hot foil printed, hot foil only with deep etch brass dies.
- Embossed, strengthened paper. We stock Acrolin, an embossed, acrylic coated latex impregnated strengthened paper. We stock a wide range of colours in the Pampilona 29 pattern. If that all sounds like gibberish, fear not, that is book binding techno jargon, but relatively easy to explain. Here we go. Find your passport. Take a look at the cover. That's Acrolin, embossed with a Pampilona 29 pattern. You didn't really think that was real leather did you? Of course, I'm writing this in 2017 and all of us in the EU have pretty much the same lovely passports. We may have to rethink this explanation post Brexit! Pampilona 29 is a fine leather (SEE NOTE 1) embossed texture and it's the one we stock in a variety of colours. It is a durable and high quality water resistant cover material. Wipe clean with a damp cloth. This material can be hot foil printed both digitally and traditionally. The drop down menu on this page will display our stock colours. We can order in many more colours in this range. Acrolin is also available in a linen pattern, heavy leather texture, lizard skin pattern and others!
NOTE 1:
Are you interested in a leather bound book? In general there are varying degrees of what might be loosely called "leather" when binding books.
At the very top, you have genuine leather. High quality book leather is typically made from goatskin or sheepskin. The production of this leather alone is a highly skilled and vanishingly rare craft. When you come to the production of the book cases, that really can only be described as an art form combining leather working and book binding skills. Imagine someone custom making a fine leather handbag for you, then hand decorating it with embossing and gold foil. Making your leather book case (AKA the cover) is a lot more complicated than that! Sadly, these types of books are rarely made anymore as they are just too expensive for most projects. If this is what you want, then we salute you and recommend our friends at the Ludlow Book Binders. They are one of the last bastions of traditional British hand book binding. We would be happy to print the book blocks for you on our shiny state of the art digital presses though, as they don't do that bit.
Somewhere around the middle you have Bonded Leather. This is largely made up from genuine leather fibres, so that it looks, smells and feels quite a lot like genuine leather. It is available embossed with a variety of leather patterns. This material is still expensive, but expensive like a BMW, not expensive like a Rolls Royce. As it is a manufactured product, it can be used with modern case making machinery by skilled book binders. This makes it a product that modern book makers like us here at Inky can manufacture. As you can imagine, there are still wide variations in the quality of bonded leather available, but a reputable UK book binder will use good quality genuine bonded leather. If you are interested in this, speak to the helpdesk and we can discuss the options with you. Incidentally, bonded leather like this is generally a lot higher quality than most of the "leather" goods you will see in the shops (yes, I am talking about sofas).
Sitting slightly below the bonded leather is leathercloth. To a casual observer, this does look and feel like genuine leather and can be a high quality product in it's own right. A good quality version will also stand up to many years of use. It isn't leather though, so will not smell like leather or pass an informed inspection. Again, speak to us if you are interested in this product.
Below that comes a coated paper with an embossed leather pattern. Almost all "leather" bound books you see in the shops are in fact, this. There is generally a acrylic/PVC type coating to the paper and this gives the paper a dull shine and some protection from wear. If material from a quality manufacturer is chosen, this is a good quality product in it's own right. It will not smell like leather or last like leather. It does look quite a lot like leather though! We stock a wide range of colours in a high quality version of this product - Acrolin pattern Pampilona 29.
