Are most softcover books cut on three sides, or are the sheets usually cut precisely beforehand and then just the one edge trimmed after binding?

How about most magazines? Booklets?

How widely used are device like http://www.challengemachinery.com/products/cmt330.htm ?

What are the alternatives for producing perfectly square booklets/magazines in short runs?

HI,

Most are done on gather, stitcher and cutter lines. it does everything, collate, stitch, fold and 3 nife cut all inline

It really depends on the run length you are working with. Long run yes it would all be done through a gather, stitcher and trimming lines. We see that paper cutters are much more commonly used for trimming than three knife trimmers especially for short run work. This is similar to having a business card slitter vs. a paper cutter. When one has two perfect binders or is running constant jobs through them then the three knife trimmer can be used to free time from the paper cutters and automate the process more. That said three knife trimmers in the shorter run world of book binding are not that common from what I see.

As for magazines in short run it is much more common to see only a face trimmer. The budget simply cannot justify a three knife trimming solution when one is only producing 3,000 books per month for example.

Agree with you their. But if you think about it, a 25 yr old G/S/T that is in a good enough conditon, will cost peanuts and then may help draw in work, whilst still running the little work they have.