How to make your own hardcover landscape version. DIY Coptic binding: master class, interesting ideas

I hope that you love reading books as much as I do. Whether it's technical literature, fiction or anything else, most likely everyone will always have books in in electronic format. I don’t know about you, but for some reason it’s much more convenient for me to read books in in paper form, and even vision decreases when reading a book from screens. All interesting books It’s quite difficult to buy, especially if most of it is English language(one such book in the original can cost as much as 4 books). And simply by printing a 700-800 page book, we end up with a lot of waste paper, which gets lost, gets wrinkled, etc. About a year ago I found one interesting article, which described the method of creating the so-called “home printing press”. I thought it was very interesting, but somehow I never got around to it. This year I did find the same article, which details the process of creating a hardcover for a printed book. I hope that the author will not be too offended at me for copy-paste. I leave all the text unchanged.

We make hardcover for your favorite books

A short introduction

IN Lately Several articles have appeared on Habré about how you can conveniently read technical and fiction. Heated debates flared up about e-readers and printing methods the required material.
In my article, I would like to dwell in more detail on the issues of printing itself (how to make this process quick and convenient) and making a book from available materials.

Big intro

Some time ago I wanted to read Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I tried to read several translations and was not satisfied with any of them. Therefore, the decision was made to read in English! Finding these books in the original in our bookstores is quite difficult. And if there is, then only the first part of the cycle. It's a little easier to find electronically. But I prefer to read from paper (I’ll definitely buy an E-ink reader - I really like it), so I print out books.

The first two books looked like this:

I read them with great pleasure, but they did not look very good. And I decided that " life, the Universe, and Everything“needs to be made into a book.
Process with pictures and comments under the cut. Be careful, there are really a lot of pictures.

Seal

It would seem that what could be easier than printing a book? But there are several important points.
First, you need to choose the right paper. All paper that is produced industrially at pulp and paper mills has a clearly defined fiber direction. The vast majority of readers have access to only printers that can print on sheets no larger than A4. Almost all paper of this format (I tried about 20 brands) has a grain direction along long side(the short-to-short side bends much worse than the long-to-long side). Try it yourself and you will immediately understand what we are talking about. We ideally want the fibers to be along the short side. Unfortunately, the packaging of ordinary office paper is not marked for this parameter. Of those 20 brands, all were “inappropriate.” It is put in quotes because the result does not deteriorate much, and I believe that if you do not have the necessary paper, then there is no point in worrying and printing on the one that you have.
Secondly, the pages on the book sheets are not in order.
We will make a classic book. This means that in each notebook of the book block we will have 16 A5 pages - 4 A4 sheets printed on both sides and folded in half.
We start by creating a layout. I used OpenOffice Writer (hereinafter referred to as OOW). We select the desired typeface and font size, set the margins, and number the pages. Please note that the size should be larger than desired. A little later it will become clear why. Save and export to PDF.
OOW cannot print pages in random order. That is, if you set the page numbers 16 and 1, then it will print the first page first, and then the sixteenth. But Foxit Reader, which I use to view and work with PDF, does everything as it should. In the printer settings, select landscape sheet orientation, and in the FoxitReader print settings - two pages on one sheet. This is where the increased font size comes in handy, because actual size pages will be reduced.

Every two lines indicate the order in which the pages of one notebook are printed. First we print one side (8 pages), then we turn the paper over and print the second side.
You can borrow a calculator from me.
Printing more than one notebook at a time can be risky. First you need to understand the paper feeding features of a particular printer. And then we’ll have to work with notebooks. So printing one notebook at a time is our choice.

Assembling a book block

Here's what we got:

In my case, this is 8 notebooks.
There are many ways to make binding and stitch a book block; I will talk about those that I use myself.
Let's get started.
First you need to bend the notebooks in half. This is where sheets with the correct direction of the fibers would be especially useful to us. You can bend each sheet separately, or you can fold the entire notebook (4 sheets). I prefer the second option. It seems to me that this way the notebook turns out to be more complete. The spoon in the previous photo was not left over from lunch - it is very convenient for it to press the fold line.

The next step is desirable, but not required. It would be a good idea to press the folded edge of all notebooks into a special press. But without fanaticism, otherwise there is a risk of denting the notebooks.

While the notebooks are under pressure, we need to mark a template for punching holes. Take a piece of cardboard. We mark the edges (210 mm - according to the sheet format). To sew the book block we will use a 5 mm wide ribbon. In order for the book block to be very strong, we will sew it with three ribbons. Let's take the distance between the holes for the tapes to be 6-7 mm. And along the hole at a distance of 10 mm from the edge. Everything is clearly visible in the picture.

We mark each notebook along the fold.

We pierce holes from the inside with an awl. This is what we get on the outside.

We take pieces of tape and glue them at the required distance from each other with tape. We glue it to the very edge of the table. This is the most convenient way.

It doesn’t matter which notebook (first or last) to start with. The main thing is not to confuse their order. You need to pay close attention to page numbers. Otherwise you will have to redo it. I would like to immediately draw your attention to the fact that until the very moment of gluing the book block together, we can change whatever we want.
Here you can take a break and relax a little. Because sewing the block is a very important part of assembling the book.
Let's sew! For sewing I use embroidery thread. They are durable, obedient, colorful, quite thick and very easy to find. Have you ever seen a book sewn with lilac thread? I didn't see it either. That's why we take the bright one. Individuality is one of the reasons to do all this.

The use of weight is highly desirable. The notebooks will not move relative to each other.
The tapes are sheathed on the outside.

We've almost sewn two notebooks together. We secure the thread with a regular double knot.

From the third to the last notebook we fasten the thread in this way.

We secure the last notebook with a knot again.

Our book block is almost ready!

We use either a clamp like mine or a regular heavy weight on top.
We fix the block so that the edge protrudes slightly. We coat it with PVA glue (stationery glue is quite suitable). You need very little glue, just enough so that it penetrates slightly between the notebooks. And we press it under a weight so that the notebooks stick together. There is no need to tighten too much.

It is important here that everything is completely dry. While this is drying, we need to get ready to cut the block.

An old plastic folder, a piece of laminate, a clamp and a knife. If you have the same knife, be sure to replace the blade with a fresh one. The knife must be very sharp. No, not spicy, but SPICY. We clamp the completely dry block as shown in the photo. We press with all our weight on the edge of the laminate where the knife lies. Using clear movements, trim the edge. 3-4 sheets per pass. You can’t relax, otherwise the block will “leave.” It may not work out neatly the first time. And I’m afraid that it will be difficult to do without such a design. A simple ruler cannot be held. If you have friends in the printing house, you can ask them to cut it on the guillotine.

This is how beautiful it turned out.

The next stage is completing the assembly of the book block. First, glue a layer of gauze onto the end. It is also good to use filter paper. The goal is to reinforce the end so that the book lasts a long time.

To protect the corners of the book block, you need to stick captals on them. These are pieces of tape with one edge thicker than the other. You can stick a little more than you need. Then we'll trim it.

We leave everything to dry.

Making the binding

For binding we need two cardboards. They should be a few millimeters larger on each side than the trimmed book block. Binding cardboard can be bought in art stores (though they sell out quickly there), or you can take apart an archival folder. That's what I did. Strictly speaking, these cardboard boxes were left over from one of my previous bindings.

This time I decided to make a binding with fabric. For the first time, you can (and should) take a piece of old wallpaper. It will be beautiful and everything will stick perfectly. If you decide to take fabric, do not forget to iron it.

Between the thick cardboards lies a strip of thin cardboard. This will be the end of the book. The distance between them is 4–5 mm. For reliability, we glue the middle of the structure with filter paper. The fabric is marked. The cardboard is glued to the fabric.

The binding is ready!

Putting the book together

Oddly enough, this is one of the easiest stages.
We try the book block and the binding next to each other. We mark the best position.
We insert sheets of clean paper between the folds of the endpaper so that the glue does not bleed. Apply glue to the endpaper and cover. We use a brush to avoid dry spots.

We perform the same operation on the other side.

We place the book under the weight.

After a couple of hours, take it out and let it dry completely.
Our book is ready.

Read, enjoy and remember the main rule “Don’t panic!”

Mai ashipki

Or what could have been done differently to make the result better.
I took a fabric that was too light and loose. Darker and denser would be more elegant.
The endpaper turned out to be folded.

I poured too much glue. And the paper for the endpaper was not thick enough. Ideally, only traces of the tapes on which the block was sewn would be visible.
The first pages were a little wobbly on the outer edges. This is due to the large amount of glue and the direction of the fibers.

Conclusion

Of course, it would be easier to just type and read. Or read from the screen. But I just love the process of creating a book. You can choose the font, paper, binding design, and not use what the publisher offers. It turns out to be a unique book. This, from my point of view, is one big plus.
The disadvantages include sufficient labor intensity. It took me almost the whole day to write one book.
And I apologize for the uneven photo quality. Lighting varied greatly throughout the day.

How do you print and bind your books?

Hello, habrapeople!
I read on Habré about stitching together a book and realized that I’m not the only one interested in the topic. The soul perked up: the proposed method of classical firmware produces a high-quality book, but not everyone can handle the effort and time invested in this labor feat. Plus, you need a lot of skill - no one can make a more or less high-quality book the first time. What does it cost to cut a block alone - do you really think that at least once in your life you will be able to do this exactly for a block of 200 sheets or more using a stationery knife? What if you want to make not just one book a year, but at least 2-3 a week? We would like simpler methods, and preferably no less effective. I'm sharing!

Method 1
If the volume is up to 40 sheets (and that’s already 80 pages!), we sew them together with a simple rotary stapler in the middle of the sheets, making a regular notebook (like a student’s notebook). To do this, we buy a rotary stapler designed for staples great depth. Its working part is capable of rotating 90 degrees, and a staple of great depth (not width, but depth) can easily pierce up to 40 sheets. In a few seconds we have a neatly stitched book.

Method 2 (virtually no limitation on book size)
Print the book on A4 paper or smaller. We take a stationery hole punch, and selecting 20-25 sheets from a stack, make holes in them. It is very important here that the holes are at the same distance on all sheets, both from the edge of the sheet and from top to bottom. To do this, you need to have a hole punch with a built-in alignment ruler. Such a hole punch costs exactly the same as without a ruler, but it will allow your future book to look quite neat. We simply insert the sheets with holes obtained in this way into a pre-purchased folder. The whole variety of such folders comes down to the following types: binders on sliders, on ropes, on staples. We select a folder on staples, paying attention to the following:
:: The size of the staple should be slightly larger than you need to insert all the sheets. Sheets should not fit end to end! The pages should turn freely after insertion.
:: The staples should be pulled apart as tightly as possible.
:: When the staples are connected, there should not be the slightest gap between them, otherwise the sheet will not fall out, but will cling when turned over, which is very annoying.
:: It is advisable that the staples be separated by hand - by tearing, or using the tabs at the bottom and top of the folder. Do not buy a folder where the staples are moved apart by a cumbersome mechanism - it will not be convenient to use, and the feeling of a “book” will disappear.
:: It is advisable to choose a soft cover for the folder. Its size must be larger than the sheets placed there. The best cover is made of plastic.
Just insert the sheets into such a folder - and the book is ready. And you don’t need to think that this is primitive: I’ve come across such books published by foreign publishing houses (though the staples are permanent). At first I thought they were just laughing at me. But no - foreigners perceive such “books” as books. Well, for them McDonald's is a restaurant.

Method 3
Buy a notebook for notes of a suitable size and volume (they come in up to 200 sheets, that’s 400 pages), on a plastic or metal spring, always with clean sheets(no “plaid” or “striped”). Carefully remove the spring (without any tools). You print a book on the received sheets. You put it back. Very carefully compress the spring with your fingers, pressing evenly on each “teeth”. Do not pinch or crush the teeth (otherwise the book will look untidy), the sheets will not fall out. A book of decent quality is ready.

Method 4
We print the book. Using a stationery hole punch, as in method No. 2, we make holes. But now we make a row of 4 holes - 2 higher, 3 lower. Don’t forget to prepare the bottom and top covers in the same way. At a hardware store we buy a device for planting rivets or lurex. Through the holes obtained, we connect the pages and covers using rivets or lurex. If the covers are made of cardboard or semi-cardboard, you need to use a ruler to crimp the cover along the opening line until the book opens for the first time. If the cover is made of plastic, you need to scratch half the depth of the plastic along the opening line with a nail - along this line it will open (it may not be possible to make a neat groove the first time). Of course, such a book will not open “all the way to the spine” - this must be taken into account when printing the contents. It turns out very comfortable and beautiful book. With some skill, you can make the cover from a single piece of material - then the “spine” will not be visible from the outside.

Method 5
We buy a binding machine with a plastic spring (this “spring” bears little resemblance to a spring). The machine costs from $30, and it is no more difficult to use than a toaster. Up to 500 sheets can be sewn using plastic springs. There are similar machines for sewing on a metal spring, but they and the springs for them are more expensive, and they will sew you no more than 130 sheets. The resulting books are very convenient to use. Correct name such machines “Binder for binding on a plastic (metal) spring.” When purchasing, pay attention to the following: the body and handles must be metal; knives must be turned off individually - the more, the better; there should be adjustment of the distance from the edge; choose a machine designed for the maximum number of pages to be stitched, and for the maximum of simultaneously perforated pages - do not skimp here; all knives must move synchronously and without the slightest snag; the rest, including the manufacturer, does not have special significance for an individual user.

Method 6
Let's make real books. “Real” ones come in two types: sewn and glued. Sewn ones are the highest quality, but also the most difficult to manufacture, which means they are not the topic of this article. Glued - the most common, look at yours bookshelf: if the pages of a book in the spine area, under the cover, are connected by a half-millimeter layer of hardened glue, this is it. These are the books, and professional quality, and without any problems we will do it at home. To do this, you will need to buy a thermal binding machine for $50 and hot glue. The machine melts the initially hard hot melt adhesive. After printing and cutting, the block of sheets is inserted inside into the machine and squeezes it. The cover is manually glued onto the finished block of the book. That's all. This method can staple up to 700 sheets (depending on paper thickness).

Method 7
Metal channel binding (metalbind) promises high quality, instantaneous and inexpensive binding of up to 300-600 sheets of A4 80g/sq.m at home. The device, which costs about $200, compresses the block with a metal clamp along the entire block. According to reviews - very reliable. Interesting feature- the bracket can be unclenched and reused up to 10-20 times.

Note:
I tried all these methods (except metalbind) myself. I have a lot of books sewn this way. It's simple, fast, and truly accessible to everyone. Good luck!

Tags: binding, books

Take a piece of binding tape 5cm longer than the height of your book. Adhesive tape can be colored or regular. It should be strong enough to hold the pages together securely. Avoid masking or clear tape. Buy linen or cotton adhesive binding tape to achieve the required strength.

Lay a piece of tape on a flat surface, then lay the binding of your book against it. This will make it easier for you to achieve an even result than if you try to stick the tape on the book. Make sure that the spine of the book lies strictly in the middle of the binding tape, since its second edge will need to be folded over the opposite side books.

• If you have a fairly thick book, leave a larger margin so that you have enough width of tape to glue the spine and wrap the tape a little on the opposite side of the book.

Wrap binding tape around the spine of the book. Use your fingers to wrap the binding tape so that it sticks to the spine of the book. Next, wrap the tape to the very end so that it secures the spine of the book, and its edges stick out slightly on the first and last pages books.

Reinforce the binding of a thick book with several layers of adhesive binding tape. If your book has many pages or consists of several blocks, you can try covering it with several layers of binding tape. Repeat the gluing process several times until the binding is strong enough.

Trim the excess ends of the tape. Since you originally used longer pieces of binding tape, the ends will stick out at the top and bottom of your binding. Take scissors or a craft knife and trim the excess tape as close to the pages of the book as possible.

• All excess should be cut off. Don't try to wrap up any excess tape as this will make your book harder to open.

Making a Binding Using a Hole Punch and Tape

Creating a stitched binding

1. Fold the sheets in half. Use the edge of a ruler or your fingernail to mark the fold. Sheets can be bent individually or in groups (depending on their number).

   Use a ruler to measure the height future book. If you initially know the dimensions of the sheets, then there is no need to measure them. Otherwise, or if you are using non-standard paper, take accurate measurements.

   Divide the measurement by six. This method binding will require you to make five holes along the fold line of the sheets being stitched. They should be the same distance from each other, but this distance will depend on the size of the paper itself.

   • For example, if you used standard A4 printer paper, the height of the book would be 21cm, and if divided by six it would be 3.5cm.

2. Mark five points along the fold line of the sheets with a pencil. Do this from the inside of the fold. Use a ruler to ensure everything is accurate. The first point should be located at the bottom of the fold, and the fifth at the top.

   • For example, if you are working with A4 paper, the first point will be located 3.5 cm from the bottom edge of the fold. Each subsequent point should also be located 3.5 cm from the previous one. The fifth point will be 3.5 cm from the top edge of the fold.

3. Use an awl to make holes at the marked points. An awl is a special tool used to create small holes in various materials, ranging from paper to leather and wood. Make sure the awl you are using is designed for paper. If you don't have an awl, you can use a large needle.

   Pass the needle and thread through the third hole from the inside of the fold to the outside. First, pull only about 5 cm of thread behind the needle. Hold the rest of the thread with your other hand so you don't accidentally lose it.

   • The threads can be any color, just remember that they will remain visible!

4. Pass the needle and thread through the fourth hole. Now the needle and thread will again be on the inside of the fold. Release the non-working end of the thread and pull it by the needle as required.

   Pass the needle and thread through the fifth hole and back through the fourth. The thread should come out of the fifth hole and loop back to the fourth hole, again ending up inside the fold.

In this article I will show my master class on how to make a binding with your own hands... a hard hard binding for a photo album using the scrapbooking technique.

Scrapbooking has fascinated me for a long time; mixed with cardboard, you can make all sorts of boxes, caskets, etc. And in scrapbooking you can make wonderful family photo albums... for this we need a hardcover. Let’s learn how to make binding with your own hands:

Let's start by preparing these strips, 30 by 2.5 cm for binding. I made them from 200g drawing paper.

We line the inside so that we have 4 mm in volume. That is, inside, there will be a 4mm gap between the pages.

We run a knitting needle along them... so that it is convenient for us to bend.

Now we bend our blanks like this.

Now let's take on the sheets themselves... I have them from 2mm cardboard, I cut it into sheets 30 by 30 and sanded the edges. The corners were rounded.

Now we begin to glue our blanks to the sheets. Making binding with your own hands is not at all difficult. We take the workpiece and glue it to the sheet on one side, then we put the sheet on the table, glue the second one on top of the workpiece, iron it... or rather, iron it to the top, and we will glue the trace on top! This sheet, just indent our 4 mm, for the volume... remember? Everything will become clear when you start making the binding yourself, with your own hands.

Here you can see it better.

And we continue with this step. Careful... Scrapbooking generally requires careful work.

Then we let it dry and bend it in the other direction... and also under pressure.

This is what we ended up with. Make sure that when gluing the sheets, everything is smooth without distortions!

This is exactly how it should be.

Now we’ll make a spine, we need it so that our homemade binding does not fall apart. We take a bandage or gauze and put it on the binding from the end and coat it well with moment or titanium glue. I liked the Titan better.

I secured more PVA on top and dried everything well.

Now let's make the cover. I took fabric for the cover. Glue it to the fabric and cut it out. In the middle, under the spine, I did not take cardboard, but kraft paper, it is softer and better for folding.

Before gluing the cover, you need to make small stripes from the end of the album so that the edge is beautiful, like here:

Then, using our blanks, we glue our crust to the album and the binding for the album with our own hands is ready!

Attention! We do not glue the spine!!!

Here is my finished album,

Thick... 10 sheets... 7.5 cm thick... I fit 200 photos in there!

If anything is unclear, ask in the comments, I will answer all questions, of course. Thank you for your attention!

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How to bind a book yourself

(Hard cover)

Z Why bind books yourself? Well, for example, you wrote a novel, a collection of poems or memoirs, and you want to give them to friends, but you don’t have money for printing. Or you downloaded your favorite book from the Internet and want to have it not only in electronic form, but also in regular paper form.

I encountered the problem of hardcover when I prepared for publication a collection of local history by I.M. Ulyanov in two volumes (about the village of Unezhma on the White Sea) and wanted to print it in a printing house at her own expense in a small edition - no more than 50 copies. The collection had a large number of color pictures, and it turned out that it would be unreasonably expensive. Then I decided to print it myself - at home, on my own laser printer. The cost of printing turned out to be quite reasonable and I successfully printed the first few copies, intending to send them to a bindery. I definitely wanted a hard binding, always with a dust jacket, so that the book would look beautiful. It turned out, however, that the cost of hardcover exceeded the cost of printing, and then I had to think about it. Everything together (printing + binding) turned out to be too expensive...

There was only one way out - to weave it yourself. After listening to the advice of my husband, Alexei Pilipenok, who had the “Young Bookbinder” set as a child, and having found a couple of articles on the Internet (which, as experience has shown, were not very good), I got down to business. The first pancake came out lumpy (some essential details were not reflected in the found articles), but the second one turned out to be quite durable and beautiful, at least I was pleased with the result.

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Books you can make yourself.

Of course, it is impossible to achieve typographic quality at home, but if you need a book not for sale, but as a gift option (as was the case in my case) or for home use, then it is quite suitable. In addition, its “gift” quality can be emphasized by playing with the color of the cover and its design - there is a lot of room for imagination here.

Required Tools:

1. Two boards

2. Two clamps

3. Metal file

4. Glue brush

5. Scissors

6. Paper knife

Necessary materials:

PVA glue.

Thick white threads or not too thick white rope.

The material is like gauze, but more rigid. You can buy it at the Fabric store - similar material is used to strengthen the sides of jackets, etc. Gauze is also good, but it is difficult to cut evenly.

Cardboard (any color) – for a hard cover. The cardboard should be very dense and almost rigid. If such cardboard is difficult to buy, you can use regular cardboard, but then you need to glue it in two or three layers.

Colored paper (for covering the cover). Any paper will do. The best one is not too thin and not too thick. Let's say something between whatman paper and wrapping paper (in terms of density).

A fabric roller for the spine (it's called a captal). Look at the spine of any hardcover book you buy and you'll see exactly what's needed. You can buy it in online stores that sell printing products, or in specialized stores for applied creativity. At first, in the absence of captal, I used braid with a similar canvas from the Fabric store. Then I managed to buy what I needed. The captal is a purely decorative detail that covers the inside of the spine, so you can do without it.

Spine with roller (captal); captal purchased in a specialized store.

Before starting work, carefully See how a store-bought hardcover book is made. Look inside the spine, you can even take apart an old unnecessary book. For the first time, I advise you to try it on “waste” so that you don’t feel sorry for throwing it away. The second one can be done completely.

Stage No. 1

So you have a thick stack of printed pages. They can be of any format (in my case - A5). Now you need to align the edge as evenly as possible. You can level it by tapping different sides of the stack on a level table, making sure that no page sticks out.

When the edges have become fairly even, very carefully (so as not to knock them down) place the stack on the table or board (so as not to stain the table with glue), with the spine facing you, so that the edge of the stack protrudes slightly beyond the table (then it is more convenient to smear it ). Very carefully (again, so as not to knock down the edges) place some temporary weight on top. Then thickly coat the spine with PVA glue and let it dry slightly (2-3 minutes is enough).

You can, of course, print a book from notebooks, as is done in printing houses - most printers allow this. But then two problems will arise.

You will need to sew each notebook by hand, which will take time, especially if the book is thick and each has, say, 10 notebooks (one notebook usually has 16 sheets).

It will be necessary to trim the edges because... in notebooks they will never be even. My experience has shown that it is impossible to trim the edge evenly at home, so I settled on printing in separate sheets - then the edges look much better. The binding turns out to be quite strong, does not “break”, and practically does not “eat up” the left margin (so when printing, the left and right margins can be left the same).

When the glue has dried slightly and moving the pack is no longer so scary, remove the temporary weight and carefully move the future book a little further from the edge of the table or board so that the spine no longer hangs. Place the second board on top (so that the spine does not stick out, but is pressed on top), clamp everything tightly with two clamps and leave it to dry for several hours. (It is believed that PVA glue dries completely in 12 hours, but at this stage 3-4 hours will be enough). This initial gluing is necessary to make sawing easier - so that the stack of sheets holds together more firmly and does not move.

Stage No. 2.

Remove the clamps and again move everything to the edge of the table, so that the boards protrude 3 centimeters beyond the edge of the table (so as not to accidentally saw the table), and the edge of the paper stack protrudes beyond the edge of the boards by 2 millimeters. Clamp everything with clamps. Mark the protruding edge with a pencil at even intervals (I do them at 2 cm). In the marking areas, use a metal file to make cuts 1 mm deep. Make sure that the cuts are smooth and strictly perpendicular to the spine.

Now you will need glue, a brush and rope. The rope is inserted into the cuts; its thickness should be such that it fits into the cuts quite tightly. If you use threads, you need to twist them 5-6 times. If the rope is too thick, you can unravel it into pieces. Saws and rope are needed to strengthen the spine - they hold it firmly enough and the spine does not “break”, as often happens in glued store-bought books. Without this, your book may fall apart.

At this stage, you need to have pre-cut gauze and rollers (captals) ready. Cut the gauze like this: the length should be 1 cm less than the length of your spine. The width is equal to the width of the spine + 2 cm on both edges. If, say, your spine is 21 x 2 cm, then the gauze should be 20 x 6 cm. Rollers (captals) are needed but two, the width of each equal to the width of the spine. I lightly coat the edges of the captals with glue to prevent them from falling out.

You should also have a strip of paper at the ready, which is glued to the spine over the gauze and captals, so as not to stain your hands with glue when smoothing the gauze to the spine. This paper can be anything, it will not be visible. I use brown wrapping paper. Its length dimensions are 7-8 mm less than the length of the spine, and its width is equal to the width of the spine.

When everything is ready, start the process:

Thickly coat the spine with the cuts with glue, making sure that the glue flows into each cut. Insert ropes into each cut (I also coat them with glue beforehand), so that their ends stick out 2-3 cm. Pull the ropes by the protruding ends so that they sit tightly in the cuts. Again, coat everything with glue and stick on the gauze, then the captals. You again coat the outside of the whole thing with glue and glue a strip of paper, smoothing it to the spine so that everything is well glued together. Everything needs to be left in this form overnight to dry thoroughly.

Stage No. 3 (next day)

The internal block of the future book is ready. Remove the clamps and cut off the excess ends of the ropes with a knife.

Endpapers

Next, let's move on to the endpapers. They should be made of thick Whatman paper, because... carry half the structural load - it is on them (and also on the gauze or border) that the cover is held. (By the way, they can be colored, not necessarily white). If your to The book is in A5 format, then the endpaper is in A4 format, folded in half. The outer edge needs to be trimmed a little, because... the ends of the ropes protrude slightly from the spine; they will interfere with the endpaper gluing (it is impossible to cut them completely flush with the paper).

When the endpaper is folded, fitted to the book and trimmed, apply glue to a strip at the fold (3-4 mm) and stick it on the block. Then turn the book over and stick another one on it. Leave it under pressure for at least half an hour, and in the meantime you can start working on the cover.

Cover

First we cut out the cardboard. This is a hard base cover, consisting of three separate parts - two equal-sized covers and a spine. The crusts should be 8 mm in height more height of your glued block (so that they stick out 4 mm on each side), and are equal in width to the block. Those. if your block is A5 format (21 x 14.8 cm), then the dimensions of the crusts are 21.8 x 14.8 cm. The height of the spine should be equal to the crusts (21.8 cm in the case of A5), and the width should be equal to the thickness of your block. It may be made of thinner cardboard.

Choose paper suitable color, cut it out:

In height, it should protrude beyond the cardboard crusts by 2-3 cm on each side. In width (dancing from the middle): spine width + 8 mm interval on each side, + width of cardboard crusts on each side + 2-3 cm on each side (see photo). On inside It would be good to mark the paper, it makes the layout much easier.

Next comes gluing. Apply glue to one side of the crusts and the spine, stick it on, and press it. Cut the edges of the paper diagonally (with an indentation of 3-4 mm from the corner). Apply glue to the protruding edges, fold them into crusts, smooth them, Special attention paying attention to the corners. At this stage, it is better to leave the cover under weight for at least an hour. In principle, the cover is ready.

Then the question of its design arises. Even if a dust jacket is planned, the author's name and title (or in my case, volume number) should still be written on the cover and spine. How to do it? Not everyone can make an inscription by hand absolutely exactly. I tried to write using a stencil, but it turned out sloppy. The solution came to this: print on a printer a slightly modified fragment of the dust jacket with the author and volume number, and then stick it on. Simple, but it looks, from my point of view, quite decent.

Paste the printed title onto the cover. It is better to do this with pencil markings - so that the inscription on the spine is in the center and nothing moves anywhere. The cover is ready.

Then comes the not difficult, but crucial moment - gluing the inner block and the cover together. This moment requires great precision, so fitting is necessary first. Place the block into the cover so that the edges of the cover stick out evenly, and BE SURE to mark the corners of the endpapers with a pencil.

Apply glue to one edge of the gauze and glue it to the endpaper. Now apply glue to the entire endpaper along with the gauze. To prevent excess glue from sticking the pages together, you can place a sheet of paper inside the endpaper. Lift the book (the cover is lying on the table), turn the smeared endpaper down and glue the endpaper to the edge foot, starting from the edges - aligning the edges of the endpaper with the pencil marks. Make sure that the book does not turn out “upside down” in relation to the cover!

The cover with the block glued to the underside is still lying on the table. Now apply glue to the gauze on the top side, glue it to the endpaper, then apply the entire second endpaper. My experience has shown that it is most convenient to simply “put” the cover on the endpaper without lifting the book from its place. Usually, in this way, the edges of the endpaper are most evenly aligned with the pencil marks, but you still need to check this and align them while the glue is still wet.

You can run a wooden template (or the corner of a plastic ruler) along the spine, but be careful not to tear the paper. This gives the spine a "spiciness".

Now you need to put the book under a heavy press all night so that it dries well.

By morning your book is completely ready.

A dust jacket is just a sheet of paper (its dimensions are easy to calculate). The only point that needs to be taken into account here is that you need to make the final design of the dust jacket after the first hardcover is ready - only then will you know the exact size of your book. (With A5 page format and a height of cardboard crusts of 21.8 mm, the height of the dust jacket is exactly 22 cm (the paper used to cover the cardboard also gives thickness).

With an A5 book format, the length of the dust jacket is slightly longer than A3. I print it on two A4 sheets (the paper is needed good quality) and glue it together from the inside with tape. On the sides (which will be folded inwards) I add white stripes to the required width. Since the dust jacket is variegated, the gluing on the outside is almost invisible.

. year 2009