How to bind your own Hardback Book

Step 3 Unfold the paper and turn over

Making sure you keep the paper nice and straight, unfold each stack of 8 sheets and turn over.

Comments

[zscott1]

why not use whole pages, instead of folding them, and punch holes in the folios and sew them with a thick thread? Then attach all the folios to the spine and such later? I'm just curious because I don't really like using glue or staples, and sewing would seem to last longer, to me anyway.

[KaptinScarlet]

You can do this, and there are other instructables that show you how. I just wanted to make and bind a book in a more traditional way. You can always stitch the folios together with thread. This would be much more authentic stapling.

[seeker4]

Hello,

Great resource. Thanks a lot.

I'm just researching at the moment for a first-time, DIY binding project. Two questions, one on Step 3 and one on Step 5.

Step 3: It seems that flipping the folio over before stapling will result in the open part of the staples facing the inside of the book, and not the spine. If that is right, wouldn't it be a bit more secure if the open part of each staple faced the spine? I'm thinking that the latter arrangement would help to prevent the staples from ever coming open.

Step 5: Maybe I missed something. After gluing the fabric strip to the spines of the combined folios, when and how does that same fabric strip get attached to both sides of the folios? Step 6 seems to show the fabric securely fastened to the sides of the folios as well.

Again, thanks and any tips would be great.

[KaptinScarlet]

Hi, yes step 3 the staples. That's an excellent idea. reversing them would make them neat on the inside and is a real bit of lateral thinking. normally the smooth part goes on the outside so as to look neat and not catch any fingers, but seeing as you are gluing it altogether, your idea would work well. Step 6, the material does NOT get stuck to the folios, look at step 7 where it is shown flapped back again. I only folded it over so that I could trim it and the pages neatly. In fact you must NOT stick those flaps to the folios, because they are what holds the whole book to the cover board. Post a pic when you're done. ta

[seeker4]

Hi. Thanks for explaining. I took another look at Steps 7 and 12 in detail. Much clearer now.

A related question about page formatting:
Do you have any recommendation for determining the proper margin (white space) on the inside edge of the printed pages, between the text and the fold of the folio? I know that the visible margin around the page text is according to the taste of the author, but the hidden margin probably needs to be a certain width to be effective, to ensure that the text isn't hidden down in the fold near the spine after the binding is completed.

Using my terms, hidden margin plus visible margin equals total inside page margin.

Thanks.

[KaptinScarlet]

Firstly, I'm sure you know, but you can paginate for proper book folds in MS Word. I haven't looked at it in detail, and I'm like all other Word thing it occasionally likes to do its own stuff if given half a chance, but the functionality is there. Secondly, with regard to margins, I don't know what the hard a fast rule is. I am sure in antiquity, when things were done as a proper craft, there was probably an accepted rule. My advixe would be to go an look at some old books... ones that have been properly bound and stitched (i.e. not perfect bound) and open them out flat carefully and measure to see if there is any difference. White space on a page does make the whole thing look more elegant. I would go for a traditional face set on quite an open line spacing (130-140% or say 10pt set on 13pt or 11pt set on 14pt) and then give the inner margin, I think called the gutter, about 10 to 15% more space than the outer margin. Also it might be worth noting that the position of the text block on the page should be visually centered (vertically) this always means that there will be a slightly bigger margin at the bottom, otherwise the text block will look like it is falling off the bottom of the page, even if it is dead centered. of course if you want you can exaggerate any of these basic principles, but ignoring them will leave your page looking a bit dull. For an old fashioned look, choose a type face with a smaller x height (the height of the little letters) in relation to the Cap height. Modern type faces use much bigger x height which is easier to read for any given font size, but does look very modern. Hope this helps

[karingteacher]

Do you think one could make this book without this step (folding the pages in half)? (I made an ABC book for my classroom and I want to put it in a hardback binding so it is more durable...but I already have my full pages printed out...if that makes any sense)

[KaptinScarlet]

Yes I think that you can. You will be perfect binding the pages, i.e. gluing the pages by their edges. This is how all paperbacks are made. You might want to use white glue to stick the single pages together onto the fabric strip. This means that the pages will take longer to dry (overnight would be good) because white glue (PVA or ELMAs) will soak into the edges of the pages better and make better join. good luck and let us know how you get on.