DigiBook Manufacturing - CD DVD Book Packaging
Hardbound Books with Discs, Book Binding, Heavy Chipboard Core
There are many ways we can make CD & DVD Books. We can vary the dimensions, vary the booklets or inner pages, change the material, and we can hold the disc in a multitude of ways; plastic trays, paper trays, glued on sleeves with printed paper or uncoated solid color, swinging sleeves, or hubs (foam or cork). Did we forget any ways? You let us know if we did! Almost all of our books have some sort of customization. After all, did you really want it to look like everyone else's? We didn't think so. Let us know what you have in mind!
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DVD Digi Book Packaging Examples
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CD Books with Clear Plastic Trays, 5 inch Height
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DVD Books with Clear Plastic Trays, 7.5 inch Height
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CD Books / DigiBooks / Vinyl Books - Types of Trays
Clear Plastic Trays, Paper Trays, and Foam TraysPaper Trays are eco - friendly substitute for plastic tray. They are 100% recycled paper stock with a cork hub. They look like this:Trays are a very popular option for folding the disc. You can choose from the following types:
Clear Plastic or Solid Color
Clear Plastic: 5", 7", 7" Dbl disc ...and you can use two 5" trays to make a 10"
Paper Trays: 5" only, 100% recycled paper cork hub
Foam Tray: awesome for creating a well for the disc or a usb, custom made in any size
Paper Trays
A variation on the plastic tray is the Natural Paper Tray. Paper trays are made from 100% recycled paper and have a cork hub. It's a very earthy look:
Foam trays are a fun way to hold discs and we can create a custom size package. Black is a popular option but we can also apply a printed wrap over it. Check these out:
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Hardbound CD Book and DVD Book Packaging - Basic Features
Keep in mind that everything we do is custom built. There are no pre-existing units sitting on a shelf, waiting to printeries doesn't work that way. These are manufactured to your spec so you can change most features. But, the "classic" hardbound book has a few basic features:
- Thick Chipboard Core
The cover is a lot heavier than the cover on a paperback or a jacket. We use a thick chipboard core. Construction can be one pice or three piece depending on the other features and wrap material. Thickness can be 390gsm, 24oz or 32 oz.. It all has to work together!
- Inner Pages / Booklet
The inner pages can be flush with the book or smaller. They can be stapled and attached to the spine, or glued to a panel. They can also be part of the sleeve mechanism, If you have enough inner pages, you can do a perfect bound book so the booklet has a spine. You need at least 28pp to have a perfect bound book.
Outer Wrap
The outside material that covers the chipboard can be a paper wrap (120gsm) printed 4C with a matte or gloss lamination, kraft paper, uncoated paper, or fabric. Fabrics come in many different types and textures. Linen, leatherette, hemp, etc etc etc. Printing on fabric can be silkscreening, metallic inks or foils depending on how well the fabric can take the print.
Holding the Disc
Lots of options here:
Trays, plastic or paper
Hub, foam or cork.
Sleeves, glued or swinging.
LP style Pockets
Dimensions
Don't they vary! As a very general rule, cd books are about 5inch and dvd books are about 7.5 inch.
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- Thick Chipboard Core
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Simulated Book Binding -- a Budget Friendly Alternative
Simulated Bookbinding is a good alternative approach if the budget will not allow for actual bookbinding. Actual bookbinding uses a chipboard core which is very rigid and a 4C wrap is glued to it. An alternative is to use a heavy stock (18pt or 21pt) and make double wall panels. The main art for all inside and outside panels is printed onto one side of the stock, then, after die cutting, the cover is made by folding panels over and gluing, resulting in double thickness panels (aka: DOUBLE-WALL CONSTRUCTION). Of course, with this method, you can use the double thickness to create disc pockets, or (as in the case of the plum colored example below) a clever way to hold the book in place you still allow it to be removed. If you want to, you can put the inside border that looks like the 4C wrap into your art, like our "Natural Sound of Japan" project!
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Cloth, Fabric, Leatherette Covered CD / DVD Books — Limited Editions!
Silkscreen Printing or Foil StampingWe can do your CD or DVD book with binding cloth and make you a stellar "Limited Edition" release. Printing on binding cloth or binding paper is a lot different from printing on standard paper. Ink is generally silk screened, rather than offset printed, so solid-color designs are generally recommended over art containing halftones.
The inks available include the Pantone™ metallics, or you can even choose hot foil stamping!
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CD & DVD Fabric Wrapped Books
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Perfect Bound Books vs. Saddle Stitch / Stapled Booklets
Saddle stitch is the traditional way to create booklets for disc packaging. Basically, saddle stitch means "stapled". Typical page count for saddle stitch is 8 to 24 panels*, but twice that is not uncommon. The page count for saddle stitch almost always includes the covers. If the cover needs to be a different stock, the inner pages can be run separately. Most of our booklets are full color throughout, including Pantones, although black-only is an option, too.
Perfect binding is the process of creating books by gluing a block of pages at the spine, which gives a square back. As any reader of Dune on paperback can confirm, a perfect bound book can have a nearly unlimited number of pages, but for CD and DVD projects, the higher-end page count is 100 to 200 panels. As an entry point, we'll say 40 panels and up make a good thickness for this type of construction. It gives a square spine and has at least a bit of bulk to it. Page count for perfect-bound books excludes the covers, as the covers are made from heavier stock and provide the spine.
*Note: "Panel" or "Page" both refer to one side of a printed sheet. A single print spread will typically contain 4 panels.
See more examples at our Perfect Bound Book and Spiral Notebook Page -
Options for your Book's Inner Pages - Stapled Booklets, Glued Booklets,
Fly Sheets, Booklets as part of a Swinging Sleeve -
Adding Foil Stamping to your Digibook
Foiling available in many colors - gold, silver, red, teal, copper, etc etc -
Alternative to Trays - Sleeves, Pockets or Hubs
Sleeves are a variation on the pocket, being made from thinner stock, and either attached to an inside cover or made to swing freely like a book page. Multi-disc sets can be made this way, with two discs per page. You can make the sleeves from coated or uncoated stock. You can print them as you would your other book pages or you can have them a single color, like a vintage '78 box set.
Foam hubs are a great way to mount your disc, showing it off in its full glory. Hubs can stick on any surface and are available in black or white. We can also do clear gel hubs. Hubs are great alternative to plastic trays.
Cork hubs are another option:
Pockets are a popular way to hold the discs in many types of CD and DVD packaging, since the standard jacket construction style inherently gives you both sides of a pocket. Pockets in a book package are generally up-facing or out-facing. The out-facing pocket style is also very popular in LP disc packaging / cd albums.
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Making Chipboard Box Set Collections
We can also make a box set for you. This is a great solution if you have multiple discs, a large book, or need strong shelf presence.
Check out our Box Set Collection page for more examples.
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