Any ideas for binding a book using home-repair tools & materials?

[Martin C.]

Now that is interesting!

I know that Windows Fineprint can convert any PDF ebook to "booklet" imposition, where, for example, you print four pages to each double-sided US "letter" paper where one side contains the first and last page while the other side contains the second and penultimate page. When you fold the paper in half, each page is in the proper order.

I guess I could use this Fineprint feature to print 'sections' of the book. In fact, I even have a stapler that staples deeply inside to keep the sections intact.

Then, I guess, I could BIND the sections together as explained.

As you noted, this technique would be in lieu of printing in 'book imposition' format and then cutting the paper in half and stacking the two halves together.

I LOVE that idea!

It's a true alt.home.repair solution to the problem!

[Pat]

Book binders call this fabric mull.

[HeyBub]

We routinely print a 32-page "Getting Started" guide for our software, 8 sheets of paper, 4 pages to a sheet front and back. The pages are "saddle stitched", which means a single staple fastens the whole shebang together. This results in the edges away from the staple are staggered.

That unsightliness is fixed by trimming the booklet to 5.25" with a suitable paper cutter

[Martin C.]

What do you use to perform the booklet imposition? a) Do you use Fineprint on Windows? b) Do you use fprint or fp on Linux? c) Or do you impose the pages manually as shown below?

Sheet 1 side 1 = pages 01 & 32 Sheet 1 side 2 = pages 02 & 31 Sheet 2 side 1 = pages 03 & 30 Sheet 2 side 2 = pages 04 & 29 Sheet 3 side 1 = pages 05 & 28 Sheet 3 side 2 = pages 06 & 27 Sheet 4 side 1 = pages 07 & 26 Sheet 4 side 2 = pages 08 & 25 Sheet 5 side 1 = pages 09 & 24 Sheet 5 side 2 = pages 10 & 23 Sheet 6 side 1 = pages 11 & 22 Sheet 6 side 2 = pages 12 & 21 Sheet 7 side 1 = pages 13 & 20 Sheet 7 side 2 = pages 14 & 19 Sheet 8 side 1 = pages 15 & 18 Sheet 8 side 2 = pages 16 & 17 etc.

[Pat]

A belt sander will leave the paper edges rough. A paper cutter is the right tool to use. The pages are printed oversize and a half inch or so are trimed off in a large paper cutter after the pages are assembled in a book. Also do a google search on book binding plough.

[clare]

The belt sander left the edges very smooth - you sand with the edge, not across it - and with a fine grit.

[HeyBub]

## Tell you the truth, I don't know. It's been so long. We have a master set that was printed in the distant past. When we need more booklets, we take it to Kinko's and have them run off some two-sided copies on the Xerox.

## Er, no

## For sure, no. Linux is a knock-off of a fifty-year old operating system designed by a money-losing division of your local telephone company.

In the interest of full disclosure, I own a bucket-full of Microsoft stock. But that in no way colors my judgment.

[Martin C.]

Shoe Goop brand?

[Martin C.]

Apparently, these are the available book/booklet imposition printer drivers for Windows & Linux:

a) Fineprint for Windows (the gold standard) b) 'fp' and 'fprint' on Linux (mimic some Fineprint features for free) c) jpdftweak on Windows & Linux (free at

[Martin C.]

For the record, apparently, these are the available book/booklet imposition printer drivers for Windows & Linux:

a) Fineprint for Windows (the gold standard) b) 'fp' and 'fprint' on Linux (mimic some Fineprint features for free) c) JpdfTweak on Windows & Linux (free at

[dennisgauge]

You're thicker than your damn book.

Jog means to take the stack of papers in your hands, stand them up on edge/end/side, and tap them on a flat surface to get the edges perfectly even.

[Peter Flynn]

[snip]

I do this with PDFs generated by LaTeX, in two stages:

1) I do some measurements on the paper thickness, so I can set an adjustment so that the textarea in a 32pp signature gradually moves back towards the spine for pp1-16 and then back towards the foredge for pp17-32. This compensates for the offset caused by the folding.

2) Having typeset the PDF, I use a shell script something like the one below to create the signatures. pstops is your essential friend here: it rearranges the order and orientation of pages in a Postscript file.

# get the number of pages output PP=`grep "Output written on $DOC.pdf" $DOC.log | awk '{print $5}' | tr

-d '('` # set the size of a signature SIG=32 # how many integral signatures SIGS=$[PP/SIG] # how many pages they take PG=$[SIGS*SIG] # what's left in the document LAST=$[PP-PG] # how many blank pages needed FILL=$[SIG-LAST] # add blank pages if required by adding dummies to the .tex file if [ $FILL -gt 0 -a $FILL -ne $SIG ]; then sed -e "s+\\\end{document}+\\\fillup{$FILL}\\\end{document}+" $DOC.tex >$DOC.tmp mv -f $DOC.tmp $DOC.tex fi # reprocess it to generate the dummy pages pdflatex \\nonstopmode\\input $DOC.tex # do a DVI version as well, so we can use Postscript latex \\nonstopmode\\input $DOC.tex # now we have a full number of whole signatures SIGS=$[SIGS+1] COUNT=0 while [ $COUNT -lt $SIGS ]; do START=$[COUNT*SIG+1] # generate a SIG's-worth as Postscript dvips -p =$START -n $SIG -o $DOC.ps $DOC.dvi # calculate the offsetting IMP=`echo|awk -v s=$SIG -f impose.awk v=27 hl=-3 hr=12 thk=.1` SEQ=`echo $COUNT | awk 'BEGIN {ORS=""} {c=$1+1;if(c

[tlvp]

Unless you want p 2 on the verso of p 32 and p 1 on the verso of 31, I'd hope not :-) . Better would be:

(Gee willikers! How could you?? Think!!!)

Cheers, -- tlvp

[tlvp]

Actually, sanding across the edge, and leaving it rough, is perfect for the spine edge if you're planning to use padding glue there for perfect binding

-- the top, bottom, and free edges, of course, you'd sand *with* the edge.

Cheers, -- tlvp

[Fred McKenzie]

It has been interesting following your topics on printing a book. I once looked into doing what you are considering, but never to such depth.

It is my understanding that book publishers often (usually?) use the booklet approach, and bind a collection of booklets using stuff like string, cloth and glue as you mentioned once. I found a program called "Cheap Impostor" that can make the booklets, but never went further than printing one small booklet to see if it worked.

The Cheap Impostor website has links to additional information about printing and binding books, although you may have already found most of the information.

I also have a collection of PDF files that could be printed into books, but only a few might be worth the effort. The method I have settled on is duplex printing the book on my HP Laser Printer, and using Comb Binding to make it into a book. In one case, a service manual for the printer was 250 pages, so 125 sheets of paper made a book just over one half inch thick. At first I used a clear plastic over-size front cover with black plastic oversize sheet for the back cover. Lately I have just printed the first two pages on card stock (manual duplexing), and either did the same for the last two pages or just used blank card stock.

It is definitely a pain punching 125 sheets five at a time, in my inexpensive comb binding machine!

Fred