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Stitching or Binding Magazines are generally saddle-stitched or perfect-bound. Saddle-stitched means the pages are folded together and the magazine is held together with two or three staples on the spine. Perfect-bound means the magazine pages are held together by attaching them to the spine with a strip of glue, just like a book. Generally speaking, magazines less than 100 pages are saddle-stitched, and magazines with more than 100 pages are perfect bound. Some magazines up to 160 pages have been saddle-stitched, though. Determine what the printer can accommodate.
Forms Magazines are generally printed on presses that can print, 4-, 8-, and/or 16-page forms. The full magazine is created by assembling these forms and stitching or binding them together. The cover is typically a separate 4-page form so it can be glossier than the interior pages, use a spot color of some sort, etc. The contents of the magazine are usually combinations of 8- and 16-page forms with 16-page forms more desirable. It costs just as much to run a press with a 16-page form as it does with an 8-page form, so you get more for your money with 16-page forms. Smaller forms use less paper and ink, though, so cost-to-benefit ratio is small unless you’re printing huge quantities.
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