A perfect binding machine is the piece of print-finishing equipment responsible for creating the standard paperback books, thick magazines, catalogs, and graphic novels you see in bookstores.

Perfect binding is a continuous, multi-step process. In massive commercial binderies, these machines can be over 100 feet long and process thousands of books an hour. In a smaller print-on-demand shop, a tabletop unit performs the exact same steps on one book at a time.