What it means
A casewrap hardcover (also case-wrap, printed case, or PLC — printed laminated case) is a hardcover whose printed cover sheet is glued over the boards and spine, then laminated in matte or gloss. The image is the case; there is nothing to take off. It is the construction of most children's picture books, textbooks, cookbooks and, today, most print-on-demand hardcovers.
The alternative is the traditional trade hardcover: boards covered in cloth or paper with a stamped spine, protected and sold by a separate dust jacket. A casewrap costs less to make, has no jacket to tear or lose, and shows the artwork on the shelf — but it also cannot carry jacket flaps for blurb and biography, so that copy moves to the back cover.
Inside, a casewrap is built like any hardcover: a book block (glued or sewn), endpapers attaching it to the case, and a square or rounded spine.
In Bindery
Bindery’s hardcover preset is casewrap, printed on demand by Lulu for 24–800 pages; picture books print as an 8.5 × 8.5 in colour casewrap from a single copy.
Make the book, not the checklist
Describe a book or upload a manuscript. Bindery writes with you, typesets in LaTeX, sizes the spine from the real page count and produces printer-validated files — the watermarked proof is always free.
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