Questions tagged [book-binding]
For questions on the process of book binding, including preparing covers and pages, assembly, and using book binding tools.
42
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Advantages of a guillotine over a bookbinder's plough?
What can a guillotine (AKA paper cutter) do that a bookbinder's plough can't, if anything?
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In bookbinding, how to make the fore-edge form a concave crescent?
I have a hardcover from Everyman's Library whose fore-edge is a concave crescent. (See first picture.) Is there a word for this effect? Second, and more importantly, how might I achieve this effect in ...
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Are case-bound books sized to the number of pages they contain?
Context for this question is that we're thinking of using a hard-cover book as a guestbook for an upcoming wedding. We would be putting polaroid pictures inside this guestbook. The hard-cover book is ...
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Is it possible to print directly into a bound journal?
I love my journal, but I wish there was a better way to get stuff from my computer into it without the hassle of printing onto paper, cutting it out and gluing it in (not to mention the warping...)
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Is there a bookbinding technique that will work with sheet protectors?
I have a recipe booklet I disassembled and put into sheet protectors (I'm a bit of a messy cook at times), and the 3-ring binder I put the sheets in is a bit bulky and prone to popping open.
Is there ...
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How to preserve/care for a leather book?
This is not exactly a craft made by me, but this is the best thing I can find to ask this question. I am a new owner of a nice leather bound book, got it a few days ago, and I am wondering how exactly ...
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Binding a book against the grain
I have stack of nice paper, but it runs against the grain, when used for handbook binding. When binding, the paper grain needs to be parallel to the book binding edge. What happens if a book is bound ...
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What happened to this book?
Is what happened a rare anomaly or common? (Apologies if this is the wrong substack; I couldn't find a more relevant one.)
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What is the best ribbon to make multi-bookmarks?
People often ask me to rebind their Missals (the books that Catholics use at Church), and they always have a special bookmark system of 5 different coloured 1/4" wide, solid-colour ribbons.
Now, ...
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What binding options are there for an A3 sketchbook that I can rearrange or add pages to?
I want to start a project sketchbook where I will put all of my existing notes for 1 specific project, separated into different sections, and with a table of contents, to arrange them and have a ...
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Methyl cellulose paste mixing mix-up
I’m making MC (Methyl Cellulose) paste for origami, and it’s not mixing. When I stop stirring, all the MC just sinks. What am I doing wrong?
(If you need more info please comment, I’ve looked all over ...
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How to print the cover of an eBook for binding?
I want to bind (or have bound) my own eBooks and I don't know how to print the designed covers (with a cover size of B4 paper). I want to replicate the kind of cover used by Amazon for paperback books ...
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How can I best repair or protect this torn cover?
I recently received a large hardback book I ordered online, only to find it was damaged during the mail process. There's a tear in the cover just on the back edge of the spine. It's not a huge tear, ...
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Drying properties of corn starch paste
In bookbinding different glues are used and the choice depends on their drying properties. From what I have read wheat starch paste is the traditional way to go. I want to produce my own paste and ...
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Printing a PDF for proper book binding
I have a 600 pages e-book (PDF format). The size of its pages is 155 mm x 235 mm, and the left and right margins are of equal size (see the following image).
I want to print it (on A4 paper and in ...
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Book binding with hot glue
I watched a couple of videos on YouTube regarding book binding with hot glue: in short, they were presenting that the pages should be put together in a press and then hot glue is applied on the side.
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How do I repair the binding of the book where the spine of the cover is too wide?
I ordered a print-on-demand textbook, and here is what I received:
However, when I opened it, this is what I saw:
There are two evident problems with this book. The first, that it’s the wrong book, ...
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Bind a back with its pages without stains
I started doing some perfect binding tests. I'm using a vinyl glue. Gluing the pages together worked fine so far.
I'm having some trouble however in binding the cover with the pages. The binding is ...
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How do I attach the back of sheets of paper when layflat binding a book?
I want to attempt to bind some booklets myself. An issue is that the paper I will be using (darkroom paper, to be exact), has only one printable side. Therefore, were I to bind the booklets the ...
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What's a good non-adhesive plastic sheet to protect soft-back books?
I'd like to use non-adhesive transparent plastic sheet to wrap a soft-back book to protect it for long-term frequent use.
I'd like to try the method #3 described in
https://www.wikihow.com/Cover-a-...
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Laminating with pouches or plastic under 75 micron
I'm trying for my project to create some professional looking covers for handmade books and booklets, so I recently bough an electrical plastificator / laminator machine that support both hot and cold ...
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Binding variously sized pages into a book
I have a bunch of paper memorabilia which would like to bind into a book. The challenge is that there are two types of pages, each type having a slightly different size; and the pages interleave. I ...
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What kind of glue should I use to create a perfect bound paperback?
I'm an amateur typographer. Until now, I've always printed various sizes of prints, flyers, saddle stitch, and so on.
I would like to move to small perfect bound paperbacks. However, I don't know ...
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Repairing a detached cover on an old leather-bound, sewn book with marbled end papers
I have a beautiful old book from 1869 which, greatly to my chagrin, has been damaged: one of the boards has come off. I would like to repair the book, or at least understand enough about how it ought ...
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Converting a new, large perfect bound paperback to a durable hardback
I bought a book which is paperback and very large: 697 A4 pages. It appears to be what is called perfect bound, that is, where the spine is adhered directly to the back of the pages. At a minimum, I ...
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How to sew in a single page into a book
I am binding a book using the traditional technique of sewing the signatures. In addition to these signatures I have a few single pages which should go between some of the signatures.
Is there a ...
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How to repair scruffed sides of a hardback book cover?
How do you repair scruffed sides of a hardback book cover? Here is an example of what I mean:
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Paper for Custom Book Jackets?
I wanted to make a custom book jacket, but I'm not sure what paper to use. Any help would be great. I live in the UK so if you know what the paper is called over here that would be even more amazing.
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What home printer is capable of printing on board book pages
I am interested in making books myself for my child and for holiday gifts. ; I want to do it all myself and avoid going through a commercial printer. What sort of printer would I need to accomplish ...
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What would be a good way to bind a A8 notebook?
I would like to make a A8 notebook (52mm x 74mm) with about 50 sheets or more, but I'm not sure which binding would be the most suitable to use.
I generally use the Japanese binding for my A4 ...
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How many pages does a book leaf have?
A co-worker asked a riddle that got me wondering about the anatomy of books and book binding methods.
The Riddle:
A leaf is torn from a paperback novel. The sum of the remaining page numbers is 15,...
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What thicknesses of leather are suitable for book binding?
I have a large quantity of veg-tanned 2-3mm (5-8oz) leather, and I would like to try bookbinding with it. One thing that concerns me is that this is much thicker than the leather I normally see used ...
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Can I use Upholstery Vinyl as the fabric for a hardcover book opposed to using Leather?
I’m trying to test out my limits with my book binding skills and am currently looking for an alternative to using leather. While I am not against using leather for my hardcovers, I am just looking for ...
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What material to use for the spine in the binding of a paperback book?
I want to bind a few paperbacks whose sheets have gone loose. Let's say I have already removed all the old glue and I have only loose sheets, with their edges trimmed. I have seen several video ...
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Using leather to bind books with substrate
I have acquired some leather that seems to have been made to be in vehicle interior. I want to use it to bind books with some tooling done to it. This leather seems to be thin compared to the hide ...
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How many two-page spreads (160gsm A4 paper) should be bound together in one signature?
I'm binding a sketch book as a birthday present. This is my first experience in book-binding. I've bought 16 A4 sheets of 160g/m2 black paper and I wonder how big should be one signature of sheets. I ...
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What material can I use for hardcover book panels when binding?
I am getting into book binding, and want to try binding something with faux leather. However, I want to bump up the quality of the binding, and don't want to use cardboard as a backbone in holding the ...
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Acidity of hands when binding books
I was wondering if working bare hand when doing bookbinding could be detrimental for the paper, more specifically when binding a sketchbook or paper intended for watercolor painting or calligraphy.
...
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Crafting a block note with draft papers
I have a staple of draft papers. Typically, these are paper sheets that were printing errors in the sense that the print covers less than 10% of the paper.
I would like to reuse them, but I really ...
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What is a good technique for binding a saddle stitch booklet with a hard-ish cover?
I'm working on a small saddle stitched booklet. The concept involves a relatively hard-ish, see-through cover. The first time around I used 36 pages of 120gsm offset paper in a single booklet. I ...
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Is there an easy way to get my computer/printer to do booklet imposition?
I'm getting into bookbinding, and I'd like to make my own sewn signatures, but I'm having problems with finding a good way to use my computer and printer to print out pages so that I can simply fold ...
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How can I improve my binding process to get a better result?
Haven't done it in a while but I used to bind my own books so that I didn't have to pay extra for really cool ones. Mostly printed computer paper from 150 for 300 pages for the contents. This is what ...
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