6 ms·

DIY Book Binding

140 points by axiomdata316 3y ago

wraptile 3y ago
I once bound a book as a gift and it was such a fun experience that makes you think how incredibly boring mass produced books are. I bound mine in patterned velvet that was intended for furniture and it turned out to be a great choice as the texture and visuals fit a book - something you hold in your hands in direct light - much better than a sofa or a chair.
- ycombinete 3y ago
  I have found this experience across all kinds of crafts. From making bread, yoghurt, leather work, art in the home etc. The crappy [0] stuff I’ve built with my own hands is so precious to me. [0] my bread is exquisite though!
  - password4321 3y ago
    re: bread, I looked to see if you had commented on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35961590 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35961590 yesterday (first time bread has topped HN?! https://hnrankings.info/35961590 https://hnrankings.info/35961590) and found your recipe on another post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35913260#35913976); https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35913260#35913976); thanks!
    - ycombinete 3y ago
      Hey, thanks for commenting here! Much like the top comment on that thread I completely ignored that post yesterday because I thought that it was “going to be yet another javascript frontend framework with yet another less than descriptive name” So I’m glad you mentioned it :). I’ll check it out for sure as I’ve also spent some time making Sourdoughs. I generally prefer instant yeasts for their agility. You can really experiment with them since the opportunity cost is so low. I.e. if you mess up a sourdough you’ve lost like 12-24 hours of work, vs 2.5 hours.
greggsy 3y ago
If anyone is interested, there is a great write up on the Hobby Drama subreddit about a ruckus in the binding community, which somehow crosses over into the fanfic community. Nice guilt free drama, on a no-stakes issue.
- tantalor 3y ago
  Um okay can we get a link
  - askiiart 3y ago
    I believe they're referring to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/t978w9/fanfictionbook_binding_fanfiction_book_binder/ https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/t978w9/fanficti...
ggambetta 3y ago
For reasons unknown to me, I've adopted book restoration and bookbinding as a hobby a few years ago. It's gotten to the point that I ran out of my own books to restore, I ran out of my GF's books to restore, so I've been offering my services to anyone at the office, usually in exchange for a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates. Extremely relaxing, can get in the zone and work for hours, every book is a different puzzle, and the results are very satisfying. Here's some of my work: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1oNxCfKJp4k6yjoZ9 https://photos.app.goo.gl/1oNxCfKJp4k6yjoZ9
- pthreads 3y ago
  Loved the restorations. Next time I am in your city I would like to come say hello. I have a cherished textbook from my undergraduate days that is coming apart. Perhaps I could bribe you with a suitable offering :-)
  - ggambetta 3y ago
    Let me know! In the meantime, message me, I'm sure shipping can be arranged :)
- vlachen 3y ago
  Do you have any resources for getting started? A friend gave me a great engineering book from the 30s, but I haven't found someone locally who would repair the spine/binding. My next choice is to do it myself.
  - em-bee 3y ago
    i had a book in german about book binding that went through the whole process from start to finish, explaining the process, the material and the tools needed. based on that i bought materials and tools and took a stack of new exercise books, with the intention to bind them into a nice leather bound book. don't remember if i completed the work, as it was decades ago. but the steps weren't to hard. by now i expect there to be some tutorials online. the additional challenge you have with repair is that you want to preserve as much as you can from the original. if this is a precious book i would practice on a few throwaway books first.
Freak_NL 3y ago
Does anyone else get a white empty pop-over which doesn't load anything upon opening that site for the first time? The site owner might want to test it with an ad-blocker.
- immrammc 3y ago
  Yea, I saw the same behavior. Had to refresh to clear it as any interaction didn’t dismiss it.
version_five 3y ago
Sort of related, any advice of how to make a board book, like for babies, and what to make it out of to minimize chemicals that could be leeched out if put in the mouth?
- User23 3y ago
  I can’t think of how one would replicate a board book with resources typically available at home. Not just the binding, but also the printing would be difficult if not impossible without essentially building your own four color press. I imagine that there are printers out there that can print on thick cardboard, but most people don’t have one of those either. If I were making DIY children’s books meant to be durable I’d probably print folio on Tyvek printer paper and use some suitably durable thread to sew a booklet binding.
  - aidenn0 3y ago
    Tyvek is a great idea (some commercial children's books use this), but if you want the "board book" feel, then printing on paper that is glossy only on one side, then gluing to cardboard will work. Just make sure to print the page image slightly larger than the cardboard so you get full-bleed after trimming.
carra 3y ago
I have actually used this to make for myself a physical copy of a couple of non-existing books. One was a manga I had translated into English (Super Aleste). The other is a book one of my friends wrote in Word. It is easy enough if you print in a standard paper size, like A5, and do glue-only binding. If you want to use booklets and sew them it gets quite more involved.
cmrdporcupine 3y ago
Ooo, awesome, I'm going to mine this for tips. I ordered a physical copy of the classic "Alice" DB book some months back: http://webdam.inria.fr/Alice/ http://webdam.inria.fr/Alice/ ; this is increasingly very hard to find in print, and copies are very expensive. I paid good money for it. It shipped all the way from Germany, took weeks. And when it got here the whole spine was broken and it was basically almost completely unbound. I have thought about taking it somewhere to get it repaired, but also about just trying my hand at rebinding it myself (not that I need any more hobbies).
h2odragon 3y ago
There used to be a market for small press bookbinding equipment; spiral binders and glue strip perfect binders both existed and should still be around to refurbish. Spent many hours assembling books with those. Print runs of 500 to 2000.
sborra 3y ago
The piece of software I miss the most since moving from MacOS to Windows is Cheap Impostor: http://cheapimpostor.com http://cheapimpostor.com. It lets you turn any PDF into a correctly imposed 2-up/magazine/n-signature PDF ready for printing and assembling. It does it all with total control over margins, gutters, zoom lever, with an instant preview. It was so nice to have it during university. I would use it for printing out papers as A5 "magazines" that I would bind myself. Very satisfying. I never found anything quite like it for Windows
- aidenn0 3y ago
  There is a linux command-line tool for that as well; I used it once a few years ago, but I cannot for the life of me find it now.
- specialist 3y ago
  Is there any demand for such a tool? Ages ago, I created an n-up imposition engine for bookwork. Also adjusted pages for creep and shift. And very basic printer marks. It was just a simple UI form, not a graphical app (Illustrator, QuarkXpress, Preps). It'd output both a Preps template (for imposition) and a JDF with the fold and binding specs. Though the plan was to impose PDFs natively. Alas, we were bought (by Creo), and my work was abandoned, then lost. Billion dollar company had no interest in a $50 utility (or InDesign plugin). FWIW, Rohan Holt recreated the bookwork engine for his Metrix product. So my algorithmic innovation wasn't lost completely. Metrix is a professional general purpose tool, whereas mine was just for bookwork. With the shift from litho to digital printing, on top of the decline of print work industry, I've assumed there's no commercial market. But maybe with nostalgia, there's now makers and tinkerers who'd use a simple tool. Thoughts?
- mcphage 3y ago
  Oh, perfect—thanks! I was wondering if such a tool existed.
vhodges 3y ago
I'll have to check this out later. Some of my older paperbacks are falling apart. I've done some coptic stitch binding in the past (journals and Alice in wonderland) and enjoyed the process very much. I would need to re-find some imposition software for Linux though to pick it back up.
rig777 3y ago
My daily notebook is just a collection of cotton A5 pages(half of a normal sheet of paper) and a binder clip. As a section of my notes become to big I either throw it out or file it away. My goal is to take my files away notes that are important and bind them some day. Especially the journaling section.
icepopo 3y ago
Another interesting youtube channel about bookbinding: https://www.youtube.com/@DASBookbinding https://www.youtube.com/@DASBookbinding
chrsw 3y ago
Anyone know where I can turn a PDF into a single hardcover or softcover book with lay-flat binding? Like RepKover or O'Reilly books back in the day. Obviously it's not going to be cheap but as far as I can find, there aren't any options.
- varikin 3y ago
  There's several options depending on how simple to If you want it as a reference that gets thrown around, you could do a simple saddle stitch. This is commonly used for zines. But this doesn't work well if there are over 30* or so pages as it gets too thick. https://youtu.be/PncuvEajyWI https://youtu.be/PncuvEajyWI If you want it looking a little bit better with a hard cover, check out this link. It is still the same basic saddle stitch, but then adds a cover and a lot of finishing work. https://youtu.be/BfW0OiAFLkU https://youtu.be/BfW0OiAFLkU If it's longer than 30 or so pages, you will probably need multiple signatures. A signature is basically 30 pages stitched together and then the signatures are stitched together. There are a ton of options at this point. You could even get into the non-stitched bindings that just use glue, like a drum leaf. I recommend the videos at https://www.youtube.com/@DASBookbinding https://www.youtube.com/@DASBookbinding for a lot of options. If you want something beautiful and you don't want to make it yourself, I'd recommend finding a local book artist who can make it for you. Or one online. Call you local art centers and ask around. * The actual number is dependent on the the paper, the method, the tools available, etc. But 30 isn't a bad average.
  - chrsw 3y ago
    Interesting. I don't think DIY is an option for me then. I'll have to find a service to pay to do it. I'm talking about 300 pages. I'm looking to bind computer books and technical reference information so I can read and use the computer comfortably without accelerating damage to my eyes. I guess large e-readers are another option but they're not a quick, comfortable or satisfying to flip through. Thanks!
- itsrobforreal 3y ago
  https://www.lulu.com/ https://www.lulu.com/

140 points by axiomdata316 3y ago

I once bound a book as a gift and it was such a fun experience that makes you think how incredibly boring mass produced books are. I bound mine in patterned velvet that was intended for furniture and it turned out to be a great choice as the texture and visuals fit a book - something you hold in your hands in direct light - much better than a sofa or a chair.

ycombinete 3y ago
I have found this experience across all kinds of crafts. From making bread, yoghurt, leather work, art in the home etc. The crappy [0] stuff I’ve built with my own hands is so precious to me. [0] my bread is exquisite though!
- password4321 3y ago
  re: bread, I looked to see if you had commented on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35961590 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35961590 yesterday (first time bread has topped HN?! https://hnrankings.info/35961590 https://hnrankings.info/35961590) and found your recipe on another post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35913260#35913976); https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35913260#35913976); thanks!
  - ycombinete 3y ago
    Hey, thanks for commenting here! Much like the top comment on that thread I completely ignored that post yesterday because I thought that it was “going to be yet another javascript frontend framework with yet another less than descriptive name” So I’m glad you mentioned it :). I’ll check it out for sure as I’ve also spent some time making Sourdoughs. I generally prefer instant yeasts for their agility. You can really experiment with them since the opportunity cost is so low. I.e. if you mess up a sourdough you’ve lost like 12-24 hours of work, vs 2.5 hours.

greggsy 3y ago

If anyone is interested, there is a great write up on the Hobby Drama subreddit about a ruckus in the binding community, which somehow crosses over into the fanfic community. Nice guilt free drama, on a no-stakes issue.

tantalor 3y ago
Um okay can we get a link
- askiiart 3y ago
  I believe they're referring to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/t978w9/fanfictionbook_binding_fanfiction_book_binder/ https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/t978w9/fanficti...

ggambetta 3y ago

For reasons unknown to me, I've adopted book restoration and bookbinding as a hobby a few years ago. It's gotten to the point that I ran out of my own books to restore, I ran out of my GF's books to restore, so I've been offering my services to anyone at the office, usually in exchange for a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates. Extremely relaxing, can get in the zone and work for hours, every book is a different puzzle, and the results are very satisfying. Here's some of my work: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1oNxCfKJp4k6yjoZ9 https://photos.app.goo.gl/1oNxCfKJp4k6yjoZ9

pthreads 3y ago
Loved the restorations. Next time I am in your city I would like to come say hello. I have a cherished textbook from my undergraduate days that is coming apart. Perhaps I could bribe you with a suitable offering :-)
- ggambetta 3y ago
  Let me know! In the meantime, message me, I'm sure shipping can be arranged :)
vlachen 3y ago
Do you have any resources for getting started? A friend gave me a great engineering book from the 30s, but I haven't found someone locally who would repair the spine/binding. My next choice is to do it myself.
- em-bee 3y ago
  i had a book in german about book binding that went through the whole process from start to finish, explaining the process, the material and the tools needed. based on that i bought materials and tools and took a stack of new exercise books, with the intention to bind them into a nice leather bound book. don't remember if i completed the work, as it was decades ago. but the steps weren't to hard. by now i expect there to be some tutorials online. the additional challenge you have with repair is that you want to preserve as much as you can from the original. if this is a precious book i would practice on a few throwaway books first.

Freak_NL 3y ago

Does anyone else get a white empty pop-over which doesn't load anything upon opening that site for the first time? The site owner might want to test it with an ad-blocker.

immrammc 3y ago
Yea, I saw the same behavior. Had to refresh to clear it as any interaction didn’t dismiss it.

version_five 3y ago

Sort of related, any advice of how to make a board book, like for babies, and what to make it out of to minimize chemicals that could be leeched out if put in the mouth?

User23 3y ago
I can’t think of how one would replicate a board book with resources typically available at home. Not just the binding, but also the printing would be difficult if not impossible without essentially building your own four color press. I imagine that there are printers out there that can print on thick cardboard, but most people don’t have one of those either. If I were making DIY children’s books meant to be durable I’d probably print folio on Tyvek printer paper and use some suitably durable thread to sew a booklet binding.
- aidenn0 3y ago
  Tyvek is a great idea (some commercial children's books use this), but if you want the "board book" feel, then printing on paper that is glossy only on one side, then gluing to cardboard will work. Just make sure to print the page image slightly larger than the cardboard so you get full-bleed after trimming.

carra 3y ago

I have actually used this to make for myself a physical copy of a couple of non-existing books. One was a manga I had translated into English (Super Aleste). The other is a book one of my friends wrote in Word. It is easy enough if you print in a standard paper size, like A5, and do glue-only binding. If you want to use booklets and sew them it gets quite more involved.

cmrdporcupine 3y ago

Ooo, awesome, I'm going to mine this for tips. I ordered a physical copy of the classic "Alice" DB book some months back: http://webdam.inria.fr/Alice/ http://webdam.inria.fr/Alice/ ; this is increasingly very hard to find in print, and copies are very expensive. I paid good money for it. It shipped all the way from Germany, took weeks. And when it got here the whole spine was broken and it was basically almost completely unbound. I have thought about taking it somewhere to get it repaired, but also about just trying my hand at rebinding it myself (not that I need any more hobbies).

h2odragon 3y ago

There used to be a market for small press bookbinding equipment; spiral binders and glue strip perfect binders both existed and should still be around to refurbish. Spent many hours assembling books with those. Print runs of 500 to 2000.

sborra 3y ago

The piece of software I miss the most since moving from MacOS to Windows is Cheap Impostor: http://cheapimpostor.com http://cheapimpostor.com. It lets you turn any PDF into a correctly imposed 2-up/magazine/n-signature PDF ready for printing and assembling. It does it all with total control over margins, gutters, zoom lever, with an instant preview. It was so nice to have it during university. I would use it for printing out papers as A5 "magazines" that I would bind myself. Very satisfying. I never found anything quite like it for Windows

aidenn0 3y ago
There is a linux command-line tool for that as well; I used it once a few years ago, but I cannot for the life of me find it now.
specialist 3y ago
Is there any demand for such a tool? Ages ago, I created an n-up imposition engine for bookwork. Also adjusted pages for creep and shift. And very basic printer marks. It was just a simple UI form, not a graphical app (Illustrator, QuarkXpress, Preps). It'd output both a Preps template (for imposition) and a JDF with the fold and binding specs. Though the plan was to impose PDFs natively. Alas, we were bought (by Creo), and my work was abandoned, then lost. Billion dollar company had no interest in a $50 utility (or InDesign plugin). FWIW, Rohan Holt recreated the bookwork engine for his Metrix product. So my algorithmic innovation wasn't lost completely. Metrix is a professional general purpose tool, whereas mine was just for bookwork. With the shift from litho to digital printing, on top of the decline of print work industry, I've assumed there's no commercial market. But maybe with nostalgia, there's now makers and tinkerers who'd use a simple tool. Thoughts?
mcphage 3y ago
Oh, perfect—thanks! I was wondering if such a tool existed.

vhodges 3y ago

I'll have to check this out later. Some of my older paperbacks are falling apart. I've done some coptic stitch binding in the past (journals and Alice in wonderland) and enjoyed the process very much. I would need to re-find some imposition software for Linux though to pick it back up.

rig777 3y ago

My daily notebook is just a collection of cotton A5 pages(half of a normal sheet of paper) and a binder clip. As a section of my notes become to big I either throw it out or file it away. My goal is to take my files away notes that are important and bind them some day. Especially the journaling section.

icepopo 3y ago

Another interesting youtube channel about bookbinding: https://www.youtube.com/@DASBookbinding https://www.youtube.com/@DASBookbinding

chrsw 3y ago

Anyone know where I can turn a PDF into a single hardcover or softcover book with lay-flat binding? Like RepKover or O'Reilly books back in the day. Obviously it's not going to be cheap but as far as I can find, there aren't any options.

varikin 3y ago
There's several options depending on how simple to If you want it as a reference that gets thrown around, you could do a simple saddle stitch. This is commonly used for zines. But this doesn't work well if there are over 30* or so pages as it gets too thick. https://youtu.be/PncuvEajyWI https://youtu.be/PncuvEajyWI If you want it looking a little bit better with a hard cover, check out this link. It is still the same basic saddle stitch, but then adds a cover and a lot of finishing work. https://youtu.be/BfW0OiAFLkU https://youtu.be/BfW0OiAFLkU If it's longer than 30 or so pages, you will probably need multiple signatures. A signature is basically 30 pages stitched together and then the signatures are stitched together. There are a ton of options at this point. You could even get into the non-stitched bindings that just use glue, like a drum leaf. I recommend the videos at https://www.youtube.com/@DASBookbinding https://www.youtube.com/@DASBookbinding for a lot of options. If you want something beautiful and you don't want to make it yourself, I'd recommend finding a local book artist who can make it for you. Or one online. Call you local art centers and ask around. * The actual number is dependent on the the paper, the method, the tools available, etc. But 30 isn't a bad average.
- chrsw 3y ago
  Interesting. I don't think DIY is an option for me then. I'll have to find a service to pay to do it. I'm talking about 300 pages. I'm looking to bind computer books and technical reference information so I can read and use the computer comfortably without accelerating damage to my eyes. I guess large e-readers are another option but they're not a quick, comfortable or satisfying to flip through. Thanks!
itsrobforreal 3y ago
https://www.lulu.com/ https://www.lulu.com/