Taking Skittles One Step Further

Question about ur bookbinding: ive done blank journals before but i cannot figure out how to get printed stuff in the right order. Are you manually editing pdfs? is there an easier way? (please tell me theres an easier way than manually editing pdfs)

hi! yes i’m manually editing them. it’s not the easiest way but it gets the best results.

if you don’t want to do that you may find this video tutorial for printing pdfs helpful: https://youtu.be/EGuED0m51lc

if you decide to typeset it yourself here’s what i did, using libreoffice: start by copy/pasting the entire body of text, then style it, then format for print. i followed this doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Boa-vauo-Sig10zuqAVpA3fuOPPFsVNiV-gSkmcCE0s/edit i would say page numbers are absolutely necessary so be sure to add them, although you may want to exclude them from title pages, table of contents, etc. so set them to a different page style than your main one/s (you can either have just one for simplicity’s sake or left and right styles which can also help with assembly).

either way, printing and assembly goes like this (this is for at-home, have no idea how this would work if you used a copy shop):

-make sure you know what size paper you’ll be printing on. i used 8.5x11 because it’s simple. it’s important to know the difference between a sheet of paper and a page, because with this technique (which is the one i used and the one in that video) 1 sheet holds 4 pages, since they’ll half-sized (5.5x8.5) and double sided.

-you don’t print the entire book at once, you print one signature at a time. i did 24 pages per signature, which was printed on 6 sheets of paper (twice, since they’re double sided). to do this open the print menu (i’m talking specifically about libreoffice but most editing and reading software is similar), type in the “pages to print” as 1-24 (to start), set it to “booklet” or “brochure”, and “flip on long side”. (i’m not sure whether it’s libreoffice or my printer, but i had to rotate it in addition to flipping because the second side would print facing the other way). if you did it correctly, you should see that the page on the top of the stack has two very far apart page numbers (1 and 24), and the one on the bottom has page numbers that are right next to each other (12 and 13). and remember that title pages/table of contents/etc sometimes make the page number inaccurate/not literal so be sure to figure out if you need to adjust for that.

-the next signature is pages 25-48, then 49-72, 73-96, 97-120, and so on. be sure the keep them in order with paper clips or alternating the orientation you stack them in (like in the pic i posted). you might end up with a bunch of blank pages at the end of the very last signature because it has to be a multiple of 4 (if you’ve ever wondered why mass-produced books have that, that’s why). i think it will adjust for those blank pages automatically if your document doesn’t have the right number of pages, but if you’re editing it yourself i would add in the number of blank pages you need to be safe.

-now on to folding them. i start from the bottom of the stack (12 and 13) and work to the top (1 and 24), with each new sheet wrapping around the one before it (the second sheet should have both the previous page and next page from the pages on the other side of the first sheet, which i think would be 10 and 15?). when you’re done 12 and 13 should be facing each other in the middle and 1 and 24 should be on the outside. repeat for all the signatures, make sure their last page (24) goes to the next signature’s first page (25), and then you’re ready to sew them together

i think that’s pretty much it. it’s definitely confusing, i had some trial and error before i figured it out. once you crack it it’s a great skill to have so i’d suggest continuing to hunt for instructions until you find some that make sense to you (like i watched sooo many youtube tutorials but what finally made it click for me was 2 sentences on the adobe help forums)

i am At Work (technically) so I can go into more detail later if u want, but rule 1 for longer lasting clothes is making sure they are 100% one type of fiber. Rule 2 is making sure that fiber is a natural fiber. Natural fibers are stronger than synthetic ones, and mixing fibers always makes them worse than their weakest link.

oh that’s fascinating, i’ve obviously not been paying close attention but i’ve never seen mixed fibers presented as a negative? some manufacturers almost seem to make that a selling point as if they’ve made some kind of scientific breakthrough and their polyester/cotton blend is like the second coming of bronze

i am At Work (technically) so I can go into more detail later if u want, but rule 1 for longer lasting clothes is making sure they are 100% one type of fiber. Rule 2 is making sure that fiber is a natural fiber. Natural fibers are stronger than synthetic ones, and mixing fibers always makes them worse than their weakest link.

oh that’s fascinating, i’ve obviously not been paying close attention but i’ve never seen mixed fibers presented as a negative? some manufacturers almost seem to make that a selling point as if they’ve made some kind of scientific breakthrough and their polyester/cotton blend is like the second coming of bronze