Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with bookbinding

How to bind handwritten notes with very thin margins into a book?

hoverboards don't work on water — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:30:35 -0800

Is there any bookbinding technique that would be able to nicely bind sheets of paper into a book, with the constraint that some of the sheets have writing going right up to the edge of the paper? I'm concerned that the text would be lost in the spine. The sheets are A4, with holes already punched, but I'd like something a little more robust/"permanent" than a ring binder... if possible.

Making a calendar gift

little_dog_laughing — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:21:17 -0800

I have an idea in mind for what to give my niece as a HS graduation/off-to-college gift, but I'm overwhelmed, not knowing where to start on making it. Any crafty people w/ bookbinding or relevant experience wanna give me some (much needed, much appreciated!) guidance? Here's my vision. My niece will receive a nice, kind of pro-looking, durable planner from me as a gift. I imagine it to be spacious enough that she could jot down a note or two on each day or each week. I'll have a good number of days already marked w/ info like the birthdays of her numerous relatives, holidays, anniversaries, maybe some pop stars' b-days or days of historical significance. I envision some other notes from me in the margins, perhaps some good quotes, or some questions she can ask herself and gauge the way her thinking and experiences are changing throughout her freshman year at school if the questions repeat.

It's supposed to be for fun and to comfort her as she's away from home. I imagine she uses digital media to actually keep track of assignments and whatnot, but to have a personalized calendar that she could keep in her school bag (or whatever) would be nice, and would link the two of us together.

Where do I start? Let's say I have gathered all the dates of note, some quotes, questions, etc. Is there a website with a template for this kind of thing, that will bind a hardcover or a nice spiral-bound book for me in an accessible (user-friendly) way?

I want the calendar to run from August 2013 through July 2014. Ideas, anyone? Trying to have a go at this myself is making me freeze up. Many thanks!

Help me start my new awesome hobby!

Spyder's Game — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:09:34 -0800

I would like to start learning how to make leather journals. I really don't know where to start. More inside. I need a hobby. Badly. I realized a while back that I would like to create something with my hands, and keep off the computer in my spare time. I bought a leather journal for my wife for a Valentine's gift a while back, and as I looked through all the various leather bound journals available, I thought that I could design a cooler leather journal than most of these people. So I'd like to get started learning. I'd like to learn the leatherworking and bookbinding skills first, then as I get more confident, I'd like to learn how to attach metal emblems and decorations to my journals, and eventually, how to make my own paper.

Any thoughts on where there are good tutorials for this? Not general leatherwork, but specifically for leather journal making/bookbinding? I'd like to find places that can walk a newbie through this process. The types of journals that I'm looking to create would be similar to Rogue Journals, but I'd like to incorporate metal pieces into the journals as well.

Also, I'm really not that interested in making money at this, I just need to find a hobby that I can take joy in and work with, and where I have created something at the end of the day that's not on a computer. :)

B2B or not 2B? Wetting beak in manufacture.

evil holiday magic — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 01:50:16 -0800

New to manufacturing. How do I go from making things to having something made? A couple years ago, I developed a line of notebooks to address the shortcomings I saw in existing products. They were handmade, but I only did that out of necessity. Now I'd like to have them manufactured in quantity.

I'm familiar with some of the basics of binding (through experience in graphic design, and the primitive techniques I used while making them myself), but I've never had blank books made, or sought out any kind of manufacturer.

When I say I made them, I mean I cut the stock with an X-Acto knife, clamped them individually, glued the spines, attached the covers and closures, and clamped them again. So there is some leeway in what manufacturing entails -- whether it meant renting access to some cutting or binding equipment, getting certain stages of the process done and doing the rest myself (or sending them elsewhere to be completed), or getting them made somewhere from top to bottom. I just need to make it more practical to continue selling these.

I'm in the Los Angeles area.

How to produce a high-quality hard-backed book?

StephenF — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:08:12 -0800

How do I turn a document into a high-quality hard-backed book? My father's memoirs run to roughly 15,000 words, and I would like to turn the Word documents into a high-quality hard-backed book. I want it to look well done and professional, not cheaply self-published. I only need about five copies of it, and it includes some diagrams.

I'm willing to invest quite a bit of time and money to get the desired end result. The kind of quality I'd like would be something like this, though obviously this project would be quite a bit shorter.

I haven't been able to find a major company or small house that would do this, so suggestions for either welcome.

Old yearbooks: Historical value?

compartment — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:39:45 -0800

Do old yearbooks (mostly 1930s and 40s) have any historical value? I fished about ten of them out of a recycling bin, and intend to reuse their covers in homemade sketchbooks. Some of the yearbooks are really beautiful, others are just interesting. Am I about to destroy something I shouldn't?

Iron-Bound Books: Fact or Fiction?

curious nu — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 09:31:39 -0800

Did "iron-bound books" ever exist? If they're a modern idea, has anyone gone ahead and made these? If they are completely non-existent, where did this notion originate? Every fantasy novel on the face of the earth has, somewhere, a reference to "iron-bound books". Often these books are locked (typically with wizardly magics but we'll put those aside for now). On a lark this morning I decided to google around to see examples of these much-vaunted books.. except I couldn't find any. What I did find (after angling my search a bit) is reference to occasional silver or gold clasps, used to prevent the early vellum from swelling, and some modern examples using things like nickel or brass or copper for decoration.

So in the process I (barely) managed to uncover examples of metal-bound/locked books in general.. but still no evidence of iron-bound books. Is the iron-bound fantasy-invented, or are there historical examples?

[bookbinding/craft filter] Should I switch from PVA to wheat paste or some other adhesive?

faeuboulanger — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:20:17 -0800

wheat paste vs. PVA for adhering paper and book cloth to binder's board There is such a tragic dearth of bookbinding information on the internet for us serious amateurs!

I was wondering if any of y'all can explain the various benefits and drawbacks of both wheat paste and PVA for adhering book cloth and paper to binder's board (no leather just yet!).

For the past year or so, I've been using PVA exclusively, but I find it rather difficult. Despite being extremely careful, I always end up with an unwanted PVA smudge SOMEWHERE on my books... even if I only know it's there. I've heard wheat paste offers a little more flexibility and won't mark paper/cloth in the same way PVA does. But are there any reasons I shouldn't use it? Are there any other good adhesives I might want to consider using? Please, share your knowledge; I know nothing.

Mount a small object in front cover of hardback book? Please/

waxbanks — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:09:35 -0800

How can I insert a small mirror or peephole into the front cover of a handmade hardcover book? What kind of material is appropriate for the cover? Will cardboard/cloth do? What about leather? Is there a tutorial anywhere to show how this is done? Hi all -

I'd like to make a short blank book as a Christmas gift. I know how to cut/sew/glue the signatures and assemble a basic hardcover. I don't know how to...

1) ...use leather, rather than cloth/paper, to wrap the front and back covers;

2) ...insert into the front cover a small mirror, gear, or (ideally) fisheye peephole. I wanna make this book not only by hand but awesome.

3) THERE IS NO THREE.

OK, craft MeFites: help me, help me, help me please!!! Thanks lovers.

How can I repair the spines of paperback books?

cranberrymonger — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:46:18 -0800

How can I repair used paperback books -- and keep them out of the recycling bin? I tend to buy sad-looking used paperbacks and though the pages themselves are in good condition, they are often old and worn on the spine.

The main problem is that the glue is not sticky or flexible any more - it is dry and flaky - and chunks of pages fall out as I handle them.

I did find some bookbinding resources online but they seem geared to people who are professional or serious ameteur bookbinders.

How can I re-do the spines of these books and save them from the recycling bin?

Tanner/binder wanted for anthropodermic bibliopegy (future)

mdoar — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:59:43 -0800

I'd like to have a book bound in my tanned skin after I die, as a present for my family. Does anyone know of any legal issues with asking a tanner and binder to do this? Any other suggestions for how to go about it? More background and history at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropodermic_bibliopegy

I've not yet decided exactly what to wrap myself around, but am open to suggestions. This is a long-term idea.

Bookbinder's blues

Nattie — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:13:02 -0800

How/where can I trim the edges of more than 200 pieces of paper at once so that they are even with each other? I like to bind books by hand, but I'm having trouble trimming the outside edge of the pages flush once they're sewed and glued together. I'm in the Los Angeles area. - For anyone who hasn't bound a book before: cutting the pages beforehand or cutting them individually isn't an option because the purpose of trimming it is to adjust for all the tiny imperfections made when folding, sewing, and gluing the pages. Even if I were superhuman, the simple act of nesting the folded pages means that the edges of the innermost pages stick out further than the outermost. Whatever method I use must cut the edge of a stack of papers simultaneously.

- I do not want to simply leave the outside edges uneven. I don't like how it looks or feels. I know some people like this, but please do not try to change my mind.

- Kinko's does a great job of cutting the edge even, but their machine can't handle more than 200 pages at once. I'd prefer something that can handle up to 500 pages, but even 400 would be okay for now.

- I have tried using a press to hold the pages and a sharpened chisel to trim the edge, but it simply isn't happening: it's uncomfortable and tedious, and it's still uneven because the chisel just eats into the press.

Is there a place I can go? Is there a device I can buy? Is there a method that won't take hours?

Book binding service recommendations

jedicus — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:38:18 -0800

Can you recommend a company for an affordable, one-off library binding? I would like to rebind a copy of Das Parfum: Die Geschichte eines Mörders with a plain library binding. The binding services I've found online seem to deal in bulk orders. Bonus points if it's in the St. Louis area, but I don't mind shipping it.

lorem ipsum

luriete — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:23:06 -0800

I need a book printer & binder - ideally the same company - in Northern California who is familiar with photography books. The publication may involve 4-color blacks, or black/silver traditionally litho-printed photographs and text on good paper, Mohawk superfine or something like that; hard and soft bindings may be necessary. Any ideas?

Oh. My. God. Becky. Look at that book. It's just so... BIG!

Nattie — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:56:18 -0800

DIY bookbinding question - I need help figuring out: what supplies I will need for this particular project; if I will need a different sewing method than the one in the tutorial I'm using; how much more difficult it would be to bind it in leather, etc. I am following this bookbinding tutorial, but given the length of the book I wish to bind -- essentially a novel -- I have had to deviate from it in one important way:

The tutorial uses octavo imposition on normal letter-sized paper. This is far too narrow to comfortably read a novel on, and more than that, this work is particularly long so the book would be ridiculously thick.

Instead I've formatted it into folio imposition on normal letter-sized paper -- the individual pages are 5.5 inches by 8.5 inches -- which is much more reasonable for readability and thickness of the book. However, it will still be a thick book: 174 leafs, or 348 pages -- perhaps a bit over 400 pages if I add in this other thing that I'm considering binding separately.

The conflict here is that the tutorial is centered around rather small books, so I have some questions about what will work and what I will need to change. I've never bound a book before and I expect to make some mistakes, but of course I'd like to minimize them.

1. I'm currently using plain white printer paper for the few test leafs I've printed. For a book this size, should I use something else for the final product? Something thinner? Something sturdier? I am leaning toward something not such a bright white color regardless, but any input here is appreciated.

2. The author of the tutorial notes on the page about sewing that "for much larger books, there are more complex sewing patterns that increase the stability signatures so they won't sag when the book is shelved." Is the book I'm binding too large for the sewing method he uses? If so, what pattern should I use?

3. Should I buy a sewing frame for a book this size? The one I found online is over $100 but I'm willing to shell out the money if it's worth it.

4. Is there any particular kind of thread or needle I should get for this? The tutorial isn't very specific, but the bookbinding supply sites list a lot of options.

5. How much more difficult is it to bind the book in leather? (I would be using imitation leather, if it matters.) Do I just use leather instead of cover material in this step, or is there more to it?

I'm going to order materials soon but I want to have this sorted out first. Thanks for any help or input or suggestions, even if it's about something I haven't considered yet.

i can has bookbinding?

MaddyRex — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:56:06 -0800

Resources for a beginning bookbinder? (In New York City) I've just started getting into bookbinding. There seems to be a lot of literature out there about it but I'd like to just get the lowdown of how and where to start.

I'm mostly interested in learning stitches and binding the actual pages, less interested in special boards/clothe.

1. What materials should I buy?
2. What are the bindings I should learn?
3. What are some good books on the topic?
4. Are there (inexpensive) places in NYC to learn about this?

Share your PoD wisdom with me!

Corvidae — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:06:30 -0800

I'm looking to get 3 or 4 copies of an illustrated book printed and bound. It's a project for my Illustration class this semester, so the print quality of the images is my highest priority, but cost is key as well since I'm your typical broke college student. What print on demand services should I look into? A few more details:
-The book will be approximately 35 pages long, about half text, half full-color illustrations.
-Hardcover vs. paperback pretty much comes down to price, so I'll probably go with paperback, though I don't really have a preference
-I need to do all the layouts and typesetting and whatnot myself, so the sort of service where you just upload a mass of pictures and the printers plug them into a template won't work for me.

I did a search for previous questions like this but everything I found was from 2007 or earlier, and neither dealt with the image-quality issue, so I want to be sure nothing new and awesome has popped up since then.
I've heard of lulu.com and mypublisher.com, but I'd like to hear from anyone who's actually used them before.
It was also mentioned that Kinkos does binding, so I'll be checking out the prices and quality at our local shop tomorrow, but I'm not getting my hopes up as I haven't had great results from them in the past.

Tips for binding my own copies of books in the public domain?

cilantro — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:41:09 -0800

I took a few bookbinding classes in university and really enjoyed them, but I stopped doing it after I had saturated the market (i.e. my friends and family) with blank books to use as journals, notebooks, photo albums, etc. I recently thought that it might be fun to make hand-printed and bound editions of novellas and short stories that are in the public domain. What are some good stories I could use? And what will be the best way to get the text on to the paper? I would consider hand-lettering a very, very short story, but what to do for something a bit longer? I don't have access to a printing press. My first instinct is to lay out the text using photoshop or something, use my home printer to make a mini-mockup of the text block to ensure that everything will be in the right place after the folios are folded, and then take the file to a kinkos-type place to have the folios printed on large sheets of paper (two copies of each folio, natch. I am terrible about tearing my pages when I go to rip the edges). Anyway, my biggest issue with my plan is paper quality - I cringe at the idea of using 'printer' paper instead of good-quality art printmaking paper, but without access to a printmaking studio I can't think of another option. Any other ideas, or anything I might be overlooking in my plan?

Paper Chase

ikahime — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:40:38 -0800

PaperFilter - Anyone know where I can buy large sheets of lined paper? Am doing blank journal-binding and have had many requests for lined paper. However, I can't seem to find large sheets (we're talking 25"x38") that I can then chop up into custom sizes. I've considered using graph paper, and I'm sure the reason I can't find it is because of the cleanliness issue of where the lines start and stop on each page/lining up the cut of the paper with the printed line. I'd rather not print my own - just not set up for that. Is this a doomed hunt? Should I just look for already sewn/glued together book blocks that I'd just slap a cover on?

How should I preserve newsprint pages from old literary magazines?

cadge — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:56:53 -0800

How to best preserve pages taken from old issues of *Fantasy and Science Fiction*, a book-sized literary magazine printed on newsprint? I used to have a subscription to *Fantasy and Science-Fiction*, a small paperback-sized magazine printed on newsprint. Now I have a pile of back issues that I want to pitch, but some of them have specific stories that I want to keep. Does anyone have recommendations for preserving just those pages?

I thought about cutting them out with an Xacto knife and then having them all perfectbound into a single volume, but I don't know how feasible that is. And should I do anything to maintain the integrity of the newsprint pages for long-term?

How do find different publications of a book?

tirade — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 19:25:41 -0800

How can I find out what different versions of a book are currently in publication? Especially for older works with open copyrights, how do you find out if some random publisher's putting out a really nice hardbound, vs the paperback that's all you can find on Amazon? I know a few places - Easton, Folio Society, Everyman's Library - that do these sorts of things, but it's inconvenient to check every specialty publisher I can think of individually, and there are probably others I've never heard of. Is there a better way?

Right now, for instance, I'm looking for a version of John Gardner's translation of Gilgamesh. Doesn't seem like that's one of the definitive translations at this point, and Amazon's only got it in paperback. AbeBooks has some used hardcovers in various states of disrepair - is that the best option?

But I'm also asking generally because there are other books I've noticed with the same situation. As another example, Godel, Escher, Bach is only in paperback on Amazon too. I'd rather buy a nice version of these books once, pay more, and have them forever.

Are there better ways of searching? Or is this just one of those things where you have to do some digging and hope you get lucky.

Why do the pages to some hardback books have uneven, ragged edges?

solipsophistocracy — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 11:41:38 -0800

Why do the pages to some hardback books have uneven, ragged edges? I see this occasionally with contemporary hardbacks. It seems like a stylistic thing, perhaps to recall the days when the way books were bound necessitated that some of the pages had to be sliced open before they could be read. Is this purely an aesthetic decision, or is there some underlying functionality?

HT buy a letterpress.

OmieWise — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 10:41:39 -0800

I think I'd like to buy a letterpress, but I know nothing about them. Please help. I'm thinking of getting someone a letterpress as a present. I'm not sure that they've ever used one, and I know I haven't. I'd like to get some sense of how difficult they are to work, what the learning curve is like, price ranges, resources on how to learn more...the whole schmeer, really. The person I'm thinking of this for has done a lot of book making, and that's what I imagine her using it for, but I'd be interested in using it for some pamphletty projects.

(I've poked around Briar Press, but I'm interested in the personal info that AskMe can provide so well.)

What are the Half-Moon dividers in Large Books called?

ktrey — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 17:15:58 -0800

Is there a name for the semi-circle dividers found on the pages of larger books (dictionaries, encyclopedias, and/or bibles)? Inspired by a recent FPP, my girlfriend and I were wondering if the dividers(?) pictured here have a specific name or term used to describe them. They make locating information so handy, I figured there was probably some name for them in the book manufacturing business.

Applying letters to book board.

Sreiny — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 14:34:54 -0800

I need to apply custom type to Davey Board (bookbinding board), is screen printing my only option? I am putting together a portfolio book and case, the main material will be exposed Davey board
and I was wondering if there was a cheaper, and easier way to apply words to the board other than screen printing. Rub-on letters won't work because it is a customized set of letters that I am producing in Illustrator™. Could I get customized rub-on decals made? Is there something like this
that I haven't seen yet, that isn't so expensive/complicated? Thanks for your suggestions.

The reason I am trying to stay away from the whole screenprinting setup is that I'd only apply it at most 4-5 times. So it just doesn't make sense to buy all the supplies for that few times, seems a little inefficient to me. But if that's the best option, that's what I'll do.