<p>Yes, they are, with a bit of slack.  If you stick too much in, the book will become misshapen and eventually the spine will be damaged.</p>
<p>I just happen to have a stack of lab books on my desk.  These are case-bound, and have had printouts stuck in (office paper, so thinner than polaroids).</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ajS5W.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ajS5W.jpg" alt="Lab books" /></a></p>
<p>Even the bottom one on this stack is somewhat stressed.  The middle one is probably twice as thick as a new book, and the top one has got so stressed from being overstuffed and used repeatedly that the spin has come off completely.</p>
<p>If you want to just stick a few photos in, you can get away with it, but if you're thinking of photos on a lot of the pages, a different solution would be better.  I also have holiday note/scrapbooks at home.  These were typically made using notebooks that were themselves a souvenir, and get quite misshapen.  But they're better if you keep the photos away from the spine, and distribute them over the area of the page.  The worst case would be a full-width photo at the top of every page, with writing underneath.  Putting photos face-to-face isn't always a good idea anyway, certainly not with inkjet printed photos, so photos on facing pages should be offset in case they stick together.</p>
<p>If you're starting from a textbook rather than a book designed to be added to, apart from not having much space for writing, you may find the binding is tighter to start with, leaving less room for stretch</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-24T18:15:35.613Z
I was going to suggest that it depends on the amount of weight you use to press the book. With **enough** pressure, you could fit many times the thickness of the book between the pages with the covers still parallel. But you're probably right;  the spine would break before the carbon in the book fused into a diamond.
fixer1234
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-24T20:48:05.973Z
@fixer1234 it looks like they'd actually [explode first ](https://youtu.be/TUOCHuY_xco?t=370) (some crazy Finnish people with a massive hydraulic press tried it)
Chris H
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-24T20:52:24.017Z
ROTFL.  I'm still cracking up at that video.
fixer1234
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-24T21:05:44.573Z
@fixer1234 their [other channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCveB47lgzZJ1WOf4XYVJNBw) is better still
Chris H
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-27T09:23:50.123Z
The simplest solution is probably to remove some pages to compensate for the thickness of the photos. Cutting out a big chunk from some part of the book would probably be ok, but removing pages at regular intervals would be better to preserve the spine.
Stuart F
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-24T11:09:41.250Z
2022-05-24T11:09:41.250Z
Chris H
<p>Context for this question is that we're thinking of using a hard-cover book as a guestbook for an upcoming wedding. We would be putting polaroid pictures inside this guestbook. The hard-cover book is not designed for this, but is a textbook that's relevant to the couple. The worry is that putting polaroids inside the book would prevent the book from closing. I am wondering if case-bound books' binds are perfectly sized to the pages they contain or if there is some wiggle room. Also would placing a weight on top of the book for a couple of days allow things to &quot;squeeze&quot; into place?</p>

<paper><book-binding>
Are case-bound books sized to the number of pages they contain?
ajoseps
# Are case-bound books sized to the number of pages they contain?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-05-23)

Context for this question is that we're thinking of using a hard-cover book as a guestbook for an upcoming wedding. We would be putting polaroid pictures inside this guestbook. The hard-cover book is not designed for this, but is a textbook that's relevant to the couple. The worry is that putting polaroids inside the book would prevent the book from closing. I am wondering if case-bound books' binds are perfectly sized to the pages they contain or if there is some wiggle room. Also would placing a weight on top of the book for a couple of days allow things to "squeeze" into place?

**Tags:** paper, book-binding


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-05-24. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

Yes, they are, with a bit of slack. If you stick too much in, the book will become misshapen and eventually the spine will be damaged.

I just happen to have a stack of lab books on my desk. These are case-bound, and have had printouts stuck in (office paper, so thinner than polaroids).

[![Lab books](https://i.sstatic.net/ajS5W.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/ajS5W.jpg)

Even the bottom one on this stack is somewhat stressed. The middle one is probably twice as thick as a new book, and the top one has got so stressed from being overstuffed and used repeatedly that the spin has come off completely.

If you want to just stick a few photos in, you can get away with it, but if you're thinking of photos on a lot of the pages, a different solution would be better. I also have holiday note/scrapbooks at home. These were typically made using notebooks that were themselves a souvenir, and get quite misshapen. But they're better if you keep the photos away from the spine, and distribute them over the area of the page. The worst case would be a full-width photo at the top of every page, with writing underneath. Putting photos face-to-face isn't always a good idea anyway, certainly not with inkjet printed photos, so photos on facing pages should be offset in case they stick together.

If you're starting from a textbook rather than a book designed to be added to, apart from not having much space for writing, you may find the binding is tighter to start with, leaving less room for stretch

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: I was going to suggest that it depends on the amount of weight you use to press the book. With **enough** pressure, you could fit many times the thickness of the book between the pages with the covers still parallel. But you're probably right;  the spine would break before the carbon in the book fused into a diamond.  
> **username_1**: @username_2 it looks like they'd actually [explode first ](https://youtu.be/TUOCHuY_xco?t=370) (some crazy Finnish people with a massive hydraulic press tried it)  
> **username_2**: ROTFL.  I'm still cracking up at that video.  
> **username_1**: @username_2 their [other channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCveB47lgzZJ1WOf4XYVJNBw) is better still  
> **username_3**: The simplest solution is probably to remove some pages to compensate for the thickness of the photos. Cutting out a big chunk from some part of the book would probably be ok, but removing pages at regular intervals would be better to preserve the spine.  

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