What is the difference between wire and spiral binding?

In our Academy 101 posts, we try to make the printing world easier for you to understand.

QUESTION FROM OUR CLIENTS: In this case, a question that we often get from our customers is when to use a spiral or wire binding.

Ways of binding sheets: There are many ways to get sheets of paper together. It depends on the quality of the product, the level of the presentation, expected durability, amount of pages, etc.

Wire and spiral binding are used to put many sheets together , especially when you have to use it repeatedly (just like school books copies, price lists in a shop, etc.)
Both methods use a different element to achieve the goal:  1 - Wire Rings or 2 - Plastic coil that is inserted into holes by one of the edges of the  perforated paper.

Let's explain how wire binding is different and similar to coil binding. Let's review one by one.

What is wire binding?

Wire binding is one of the many ways to get pages together. You can find it written as "wire-o" too.

It gives a more professional look and feel than the spiral coil. You can use it for presentations, training books, and field manuals.

 It is made of metal with a plastic coat.

There are different sizes of wires to accommodate to different number of sheets, but there is not such a big range of sizes as when using coil binding

Life span: Because it is metal, it tends to stay in good shape for longer periods, especially if the book is carried in bags, used in the field, etc.

What is spiral binding?

Getting a book spiral bound requires a  plastic coil that threads into the holes that have been made to a group of sheets of paper.

The coil is usually more fragile than the metal used in the wire-o method.

A positive is that coils can be custom-made in a nice assortment of colors.  This allows for presentations to look fancier.

Rigid plastics as the ones used for the coil tend to be more fragile, so if you need your book to be moved from here to there all the time, just know that it is more exposed.

Aesthetics: Our clients tend to like  wire-o more than the coil.

It is generally used for booklets, catalogs, and school readings. It is made usually on plastic.

And what is comb binding?

It is a wider plastic ring, a little rustic but allows to get together many pages.

Check more info about it at "Spiral Bound Books"