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Fugitive glue is a sticky issue.
March 26, 2008

I know I don't pay for this magazine, so I have no right to complain, but I have to tell you: All these glued in inserts are the most obnoxious thing ever. You can't pull them out without tearing the pages, and if you leave them in they make it impossible to read the page they are glued onto. Maybe you don't ever get a finished copy and try to pull the glue pages out, so you don't see how hard it makes it to use the magazine. I've gotten to the place where I just don't even try to read it if it has glued inserts.

I just thought you should know.

Wes Cornwell
Sundance Printing Co., Parker, CO

GAM editor-in-chief Bill Esler responds:

Thanks, Wes—I completely understand. We really do appreciate your being a reader; and since you are a printer, too, your opinion carries a lot of weight with us.

The publisher did move to using removable glue instead of standard spot glue, so the pages shouldn’t tear. But we don’t have that many inserts, really. Feb. had two: one on top of page 41—for NextDayFlyers. It used the removeable glue and came off okay for me. That issue also carried Kalima, bound in between forms (not glued )between pages 16 and 17—so no issues with tearing off editorial stuff there.

March had that NextDayFlyers ad again, in the middle of the directory of FSC printers on p. 35—and this time it did tear the page. So the glue may be too strong. Then we had the Domtar insert bound in, not glued, with a nice perf, so it turns okay. Kallima is on p. 51, and it’s not glued but bound in between forms. Plus the front cover's removable bioplastic tip on. 

So maybe what you're experiencing is the nuisance factor: the issue tends to spring open to those inserts. If the binding glue was a little softer and more flexible, that would make the reading experience better. So we’ll tell our printer that.

Posted by Mark Vruno on March 26, 2008 | Comments (0)