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DO-IT-YOURSELF – Book Publishing on a reduced budget. (Perfect Binding, printer's term) Your book of poems, genealogy or stories that you want to publish. |
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That's exactly what was handed to me for a project. I have a background in printing but book binding still was a mystery to me. Researching book construction which I could find very little of, created trial and error, has given me some insight and alternatives that I will try to pass on. In this case 150 page book 5.5 inch by 8.5 |
inch page or half the common letterhead page that will have a square back and look like a paper back novel that you purchase in a store. A 70 page booklet or less, you may want to consider the easier pamphlet technique to construct. but that's another topic that I touched briefly on. What I have are options to the high cost of publishing by doing some or most yourself. |
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1. Computer: You need to get the text or data you want printed on a computer. Do this yourself or have a friend do it or hire a student to do it for you. This really is a must so it can be easily edited, copied and transferred to the right format and/or application. Make sure you have at least a backup or copy on a CD or Floppies in case your computer crashes. It will also be necessary to run a spell checker through the text for misspellings plus some one will have to proof read to pick up other misspellings the spell checker misses because the word is spelled correctly but is the wrong word. Once this is done, you are ready to look
into publishing or constructing the book. 2. Application: Choice of computer application is the next step and if you want page numbers, table of contents, title page , pictures or images included and sundry other items pertinent to the book that you want included. PageMaker is my first choice of laying out the book and designed for the printing industry. However, it can be laid out in applications like Word, WordPerfect and other Word processing applications. A little more difficult but may be easier especially if you are using a familiar application and know how to set margins, tables and other settings The size of book based on common paper
size of 11 x 8.5 and the book is normally half that size or about 5.5 x
8.5 or printing two pages up or two pages of the book on one sheet of
paper. There's a several different ways to align the
pages. I chose the text to be right side up on the right panel and upside down on the
left side of the paper on odd pages and
the reverse on the even pages. Test print a couple of pages to
make sure you are aligning correctly before continuing. Page 1 PageMaker Application layout
sample that's easy to add additional pages and set up for the Perfect
Binding method. However a short 36 page book could be laid out differently if you decide to bind by folding and a couple of staples at the spine. The layout for two up would be the first and last page would be on the same side of the sheet. The second and next to last would be on the backside or page 2 and etc. I found that all you have to do is gather the pages and mark the center of the cover and with a long reach stapler, staple the book together and fold the book at the staples. You can even get by with trimming just the turning edge to even out the pages caused by the folding. 3. Typestyles: Selection of typestyles for a book is normally Bookman, Century School Book and other serif faces for easy reading. Times was developed for the newspaper short column of 11 picas and not recommended for a reading column in excess of 2 inches. I know it's popular as is Helvetica but both have been proven unsatisfactory for books or reports of wide columns. Cursive has the same problem but for emphasis or poetry of short column width is quite permissible. This is for your own information only and you can use whatever style you want since it is your book. 4. Pictures: Images make any book more interesting especially for the cover. However you will need some vehicle to change the picture to digital and add to the computer in the form of a rastorized image like JPG. JPG is becoming the standard in the digital world but printers are not always familiar with the format and are used to old images like TIF and BMP which are memory heavy and takes a long time to load. The common way to add to your computer is by scanning the image and then cropping, sizing, toning and changing to a grey scale image. Adobe Photoshop is the recommended application to use for this purpose with a minimum 600 dpi print scale if 1200 dpi is not available. |
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5. Paper: Normally a book is printed on 70 lb. Text paper which is designed to be more opaque and able to print on both sides of the paper without showing through. 20 lb. Bond paper is designed for printing on one side of the paper and absorb fountain pen ink controlling spreading or bleeding excess. However times are changing and bond papers are becoming more opaque for the computer printers and the use of back side printing. I believe "Multipurpose paper" is more opaque than bond and thus is being used for multiple side printing more frequently and satisfactorily especially for those that are not aware of the different qualities and uses of specific papers. Pictures present another paper problem and they are called half tone images that the quality of the dot construction of the picture can be heavily influenced on the roughness of the paper. Paper companies answered the call by giving special paper a clay coating often glossy in appearance so when the image is printed, picture loss is eliminated. There are some laser printing papers that are called glossy that are smooth with a special coating for sharper imagery but lack the whiteness that other papers have but do a nice job on pictures and are an economical choice. Cover: is usually an index stock or stiffer paper of a greater thickness and called cover stock. My experience of hand feeding cover stock for laser printing through my inexpensive laser printer is quite satisfactory for just line art and lettering but not satisfactory for rastorized images or half tone pictures like my example above. Since my laser printer only prints in black which would be okay for a black and white half tone if the quality was satisfactory but it wasn't. I had to go through a lengthy trial and error process of getting a color cover that included a color halftone printed at Kinko's for $1.50 each. They could do a black and white on my own stock for 30 cents each. This was a good economical choice but in this special case the color cover was worth the extra money. Several color and toning adjustments had to be made to compensate for Kinko's Printer. It wanted to print dark with too much bright red. 6. Printer: I suggest using a laser printer preferably at least 600 dpi if 1200 dpi is not available. Ink jet printers as far as I know are not as archival as laser especially color ink jet that isn't color fast and likely to have a color shift. It would be nice to have a duplex printer but single side would work. Printers will collate the printing for you. All you have to do is keep it in order. 7.Paper Cutter: This is an essential part of the bindery process of a book. You need access to or have available a paper cutter capable of cutting a ream of paper 1/2 inch thick or more. Normally not available to the average but printers or other data processing centers like Kinko's have them and can be hired to cut the printed pages in half. You will have to use the paper cutter again to trim the edges and give that finished professional look. I would suggest that you also place a blank sheet of paper to separate each book and be a buffer when assembled to bind.
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Anderson Graphic Division PO Box 70, Salem, OR 97308 - 503/585-2528 |
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