Gilt Edging

A great way to give your notebook a sophisticated edge…

Originally, the term gilding covered a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. In the context of bookbinding, producing a gilt-edged book refers to applying a foil or transfer around the outside of the book block.  In traditional bookbinding, real gold leaf is applied to the books by hand in a painstaking process highlighting the significance or value of the book. Whilst this is very expensive, we have a few other options available at a lower cost, most of which are not technically ‘gilding’ but give a similar effect.

Whilst we can apply gilt-edging by hand for those luxury products we also have semi-automatic and automatic machinery to bring costs down across larger runs. Metallic gilding in gold, silver or copper is most popular, but we are also able to add matt colours. This can be done either with foil, with spray paint or with powder. We can also produce a marbled effect across books, and if the order is large enough we are also able to order in a heat transfer with your logo or text on the book. On shorter runs it is also possible to UV print the edge of the books.

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