Bookbinding challenges - Folding

Am I folding?

What a question! Have I ever folded?

I have never played poker, so there's that. I do help my better half fold sheets, so there's that. I don't think I have ever given up though. I admit I came close once or twice. But this, thank the powers that be, whoever they may be, is not about giving up.

For those who don't know, bookbinding involves a lot of folding!

The printer I am using offered not only to print the 24 signatures, but possibly to fold the signatures as well. To be honest I am a little conflicted. I want this ultimate version of the book to be as close to perfect as possible, and getting a nice almost perfect series of folds would be a step in the right direction. I also wanted to be 100% behind every step. Hence the conflict in my mind.

As I pondered, I decided.

I will not fold... well... what I mean is, I am persisting, not giving up... I will do the folding and you are joining me on this journey of twenty-four folds. All you need to do is read on.

The key to this journey is first to get your hands on the first signature. In this case it will be four sheets of letter-size paper (8 1/2" X 11").

As mentioned in the post on imposition, the page sequence is critically important. The first signature of the final version of my book looks like this in Excel:

The thick horizontal line represents the sheet of paper. The information above the thick horizontal line is what is printed on the top of the sheet of paper, and the information below the thick horizontal line is what is printed on the reverse of the sheet of paper. The numbers are simply the page numbers.

Make sure that the sheets are in the exact sequence shown above in the Excel plan. Carefully and gently fold the 4 sheets together and inward but without creating a crease. Then take a look at what sequence the pages will be in when you proceed to the final fold that will have the crease. If the sheets are in the correct sequence, with their tops up and facing you, you will see that the booklet is correct.

Now to complete the fold, bring the edges of the sheets together and make sure that they are perfectly aligned. I plan to use a square ruler to guide the pages. Once you feel that the alignment is as good as can be, run an index finger down the middle of the sheets to create the beginning of the crease. Once the crease begins, run your finger to the left and right to complete the crease.

Now use your bone folder to press down on the crease to make it as sharp as possible.

You will notice that the page edges are not perfectly aligned. Close maybe, but not perfect.

The good news is that while it is important to aim for perfection, there are later steps in the book binding process that allow perfect edges to emerge (see the post entitled Bookbinding challenges - Ploughing and sewing), and even shine (that is not a joke, I will show you shining page edges as part of the gilding process).

That's it for now. The next step in the process of building the book, once all the signatures are folded, is to pierce holes in the signatures and sew them all together. Lucky for you I already published a post on that, so if you don't already have a migraine you can continue the journey here: Bookbinding challenges - Building a piercing cradle.

There will be no more talk of folding in the face of challenges.