Finishing:

Finishing is the final process of making the binding more artistic and attractive. This includes:

• preparation of the leather covering 
• imaginative design for the cover
• tooling i.e. fixing the title, call number of the book, etc. On the spine or at any other place on the cover decoration i.e. giving the final touches to get a finish Generally leather is used to provide fine covering for the bound book, but cloth or canvas is also used for this purpose.

These covering materials have to be prepared for tooling. Tooling is the process of fixing the letters of titles, call numbers, etc.On the leather or cloth binding with special lettering tools. This is done to make the lettering on the spine stand out in relief not only to make the binding more attractive but also to read them easily when they are kept on library shelves. When tooling is done through gold leaf, it is called `gold tooling'. When neither gold not any colouring matter is used, it is called `blind tooling'. Lettering may also be done by writing individual letters using an electric stylus.

Finally the outer leather or cloth binding is given a polish and the lettering is given an embellishment needed to get an artistic finish.