Perfect Bound Book Printing
Paperback books, catalogs, manuals, directories, and annual reports with a clean, square spine — printed in full color and bound in our own Phoenix shop on two C.P. Bourg perfect binders. Short runs from a handful of copies to 3,000, with your delivery date confirmed before you pay.
menu_book Bound in-house, not farmed out. The same shop that prints your pages binds, trims, and ships them.
One price. Printing, paper, binding, and delivery included. No hidden fees.
How We Bind Your Books
Watch our C.P. Bourg BB3102 perfect binder at work (57 seconds).
- Two C.P. Bourg BB3102 perfect binders in our Phoenix shop — together they can bind roughly 400–500 books an hour, so short runs don’t wait in line behind long ones.
- Premium European binding glue — we import Planatol HM 9925 hot-melt adhesive, the best we’ve found for strong, flexible spines.
- Side-glued for strength — the binders apply glue along the sides of the spine, not just the back, so the cover grips the book block.
- Hinge-scored covers — every cover is scored ¼″ inside the spine folds, so it opens and closes cleanly without cracking or pulling away from the spine.
- Three-knife trimmed — books are trimmed on all three open sides on a Challenge CMT-330 inline trimmer or a Standard Horizon HT-30C, for clean, square edges.
From Binder to Trimmer
Perfect Binding Specs
Sizes & Pages
- Finished sizes from 4″ × 4″ up to 12″ × 12″ — most popular: 8.5″ × 11″, 5.5″ × 8.5″, and 6″ × 9″
- 40 pages minimum, up to a 2″ thick spine (roughly 700 pages, depending on paper)
- Printed spine available — the quote calculator shows your exact spine width
Papers & Covers
- Full-color or black & white interiors on gloss, matte, or uncoated text stocks
- Heavyweight gloss or matte covers with optional UV coating
- Quantities for short runs up to 3,000 copies
What Our Customers Perfect Bind
- Catalogs & product guides — a professional square spine that stands out on a shelf
- Manuals, handbooks & training guides — thick page counts in one durable book
- Church directories, program books & annual reports — a polished finish for the people who matter
- Novels, memoirs & self-published books — bookstore-quality paperbacks in short runs
- Cookbooks, yearbooks & conference proceedings — keepsakes built to last
Designers and resellers: our trade program offers professional pricing with blind shipping — your label on the box, not ours.
How to Order
Get your quote
Pick perfect bound in the quote tool. See your all-in price, spine width, and delivery date instantly.
Order & upload
Pay, then upload your print-ready PDFs on the very next screen — no email needed.
Approve your proof
We send a proof of your book. Nothing prints until you approve it.
Printed, bound & shipped
We print, perfect bind, trim, and ship from our Phoenix shop.
Preparing Your Files
- Interior: one PDF of single pages (not spreads), with 1/8″ (0.125″) bleed on all sides.
- Cover: for a printed spine, set it up as one spread — back cover, spine, front cover — using the spine width from your quote.
- Inside cover: keep the spine and the first 0.2″ on each side white. That’s where the glue bonds.
- No printed spine? Send your cover as regular single pages.
Full details: File Setup Requirements · Paper Guide
Perfect Binding Questions
What is perfect binding?
Perfect binding glues the printed pages and a wraparound cover together at the spine, then trims the book on three sides — the square-spine paperback style used for most softcover books, catalogs, and manuals.
How many pages do I need?
At least 40 pages, which gives the glue enough spine to hold. The maximum is a 2″ thick spine, roughly 700 pages depending on the paper. For fewer than 40 pages, saddle stitch or coil binding is the better fit.
What sizes can you perfect bind?
Any finished size from 4″ × 4″ up to 12″ × 12″, in portrait or landscape. Enter your exact size in the quote tool.
What glue do you use?
Planatol HM 9925, a premium hot-melt binding adhesive we import from Europe, applied to the spine and sides of the book block by our C.P. Bourg BB3102 binders.
Is the binding done in-house?
Yes. Your books are printed, perfect bound, trimmed, and shipped from our shop at 3128 West Thomas Road in Phoenix, Arizona.
What Our Customers Say
4.8 on Google
67 reviews
4.9 on Facebook
55 votes
Ready to Get Started?
Get an accurate, all-inclusive quote in under 30 seconds.
No hidden fees. No surprises. Shipping included.
call 480.629.5162 | mail info@shortrunprinting.com
Why Short Run Printing?
All-inclusive pricing — print, bindery, and shipping are all included in your quote. No setup fees, no file upload fees, no surprises at checkout.
Quality guaranteed — we use only premium, ream-wrapped papers specifically engineered for digital printing. 2400 DPI full-color output on every job.
Fast turnaround — most jobs ship within 3–5 business days, with rush options available.
