DIY Bookbinding

CREATE SIGNATURES 3

Collect your pages into six groups of 32 pages each, dis-

carding leaves that contain only ads. Clothespins do a

good job of keeping them sorted while you work. (Note

that I turned around the first page, so that the book now

begins with the Table of Contents, rather than an ad—just

a small personalization you might as well make if you’re

going to all the trouble of hand-binding the darn thing

anyway.)

Start with the first group, moving the others to the side.

Opening the group as if it were a book, split it in half, such

that pages 16 and 17 are facing as verso (left) and recto

(right) pages, respectively.

Create Signatures

If you turn a hardcover book on its end and look into its spine, you’ll likely see the pages

grouped into signatures. Grouping pages like this makes the book’s spine much stronger

and more durable, keeps pages from falling out (as sometimes happens in a perfect-

bound book when the glue wears out), and allows larger books to lie flat, which will par-

ticularly come in handy for a magazine like this one, which contains instructions you’ll

want to keep open for review as you work. Since our perfect-bound magazine is now just a

collection of loose pages, we’ll need to create the signatures.

4 DIY BOOKBINDING

Now, pair pages 16 and 17 and set them aside. ...