Print finishing / Collating, assembling and signing off
Corner stapling, and the content the staple goes through
A single staple through the top corner, which is how most office documents are fastened and which occupies a specific area of every page.
What is physically going on
A corner staple is the least considered form of binding and the most common. It goes through every sheet at roughly the same place, it is applied by a person or a machine with only moderate precision, and it takes a small area of the top corner permanently out of use. Anything printed there is punctured, and anything close to it is obscured when the pages are fanned. Because it is applied after printing, and often by whoever is sending the document rather than by a printer, it is never on a proof, so a design that puts a logo or a document reference in that corner discovers the problem only in the field.
The decisions
Reasons rather than a description of the code. Where a number depends on the stock or the press, the instruction is to get it from the printer rather than to quote one here, because spine width, creep and bulk are not constants.
- Keep a clear area in the top corner on the bound side, and keep it clear on every page rather than only on the first.
- Do not put the document reference in the stapled corner. It is the field most likely to be needed and the one most likely to be punctured.
- Allow for imprecision. A staple applied by hand lands within a range rather than at a point, so the clear area is larger than the staple.
- Remember which corner. For a left-bound document it is the top left, and mirroring the layout for a right-bound one moves it.
- Fan a stapled set when checking, because content near the staple is legible flat and hidden once the pages splay.
- If the corner really has to carry something, put it on the opposite corner instead. There is rarely a reason it has to be that one.
What it means for the page rule
The page rule is the part of this a document author controls. The binder decides the gutter and the printer decides the creep allowance; the document's job is to leave the room those decisions need.
/* Reserve the stapled corner on every page, not just the first. */
@page {
size: A4;
/* generous top margin on the bound side, for the staple and the
imprecision of whoever applies it */
margin: 26mm 20mm 26mm 24mm;
@top-left { content: ""; } /* nothing in the stapled corner */
@top-right {
content: "QMS-PR-014, rev C"; /* the reference on the far corner */
font-size: 7.5pt;
color: #666;
}
}
/* Anything positioned absolutely also has to respect the corner, since
it does not inherit the margin box reasoning. */
.letterhead .mark { top: 18mm; right: 20mm; left: auto; }What people do instead
Putting the logo in the top left because that is where logos go, on a document that will be stapled top left. The staple goes through it on every copy, and nobody sees this before the document is in use because a proof is never stapled.
How to find out rather than assume
Print five pages, staple them the way they will actually be stapled, and fan them. Nothing you need should be punctured or hidden. Then check the last page as well as the first, since the staple goes through all of them.
Where this API sits in it
Outside it. This API renders HTML to PDF: it produces a sequence of pages at the size and margins your CSS and the render options set, and everything on this page happens afterwards, to paper, in a bindery. There is no imposition option, no binding option and no finishing option, and there could not be, because none of those are properties of a file. What the render does decide is the two things finishing cares about most: how many pages there are, and how much room is left at the edges. Both of those are set before anything is printed, which is why a finishing constraint discovered late is expensive and one designed for is free.
Frequently asked
Can the API impose the pages into printer spreads?
No, and you should not want it to. Imposition is done by the printer with tooling built for it, against the specific press, stock and folding scheme, and the input that tooling wants is single pages in reading order, which is what a render naturally produces. Supplying anything else means somebody has to undo it first.
How do I get the page count to a multiple of four?
By deciding where the padding goes rather than letting it land at the end. Add the blanks deliberately, style them with the blank page rule so they carry no folio or running header, and mark them as intentionally blank if the document is formal. Counting the covers into the total is the step people miss.
Do any of these apply to a document that is only ever read on screen?
No. This cluster is about physical operations on paper, so if a document is genuinely never printed, none of it is your problem. It is worth checking that assumption rather than making it: delivery notes, permits, method statements and invoices all end up on paper more often than the people generating them expect.
Related finishing topics
The operations that constrain each other, then the rest of the same group.
The inner margin a bound document needs and the outer one it does not
The extra width on the bound edge, which exists because a fastened document does not open flat and the innermost part of the page curves away from the reader.
Blank pages in a double-sided document, and making them deliberate
The empty sides that appear in any double-sided document, which are either chosen by you or produced by accident.
Proofing a document on the stock and device it will actually use
The check before a run, which is only worth anything if it is done on the material and the machine the real thing will use.
Tab dividers in a printed manual, and where the tabs actually sit
Divider sheets whose tabs extend beyond the edge of the document, cycling down the page so that every tab is visible at once.
Fold and punch guides, as a layout problem
The block in the document that this constraint lands on.
Every finishing topic
The full list, grouped by binding, folding and trimming, and collation.
None of this is a render option, and none of it could be. What the render controls is that the page count and the margins are the ones the finishing needs.