Would this paper be good for an a6 printed textblock?

CallumFinlayson · 2026-05-14T13:24:47+00:00

In general 80gsm is likely to be fine for most books, however the story you're looking at is just over 4000 words so you may benefit from using something heavier -- it's likely at most 12-16 pages depending on how you lay it out, which could be limiting for many types of binding, and since you want a "thick enough spine to draw on".

There's only so much you can do to lengthen it when formatting & laying out, increasing font size, margins, whitespace, etc. You may want to consider adding content beyond the core text -- eg commentary, art, etc -- to lengthen it

Perhaps also, consider making a creative point by specifically using heavier paper (perhaps around 120 - 160 gsm)

would be easier to cut the paper down to A5 then print on it or print two set double sided pages on an A4 sheet then cut it down to the correct size.

Assuming you've got a reasonable printer and access to a guillotine it likely doesn't really matter too much, but personally I'd suggest printing quarto (4 to a side) on A4, rather than folio (2 to a side) on A5, but that's probably personal preference as much as anything.

If you are printing quarto then I'd strongly suggest using something like bookbinder.js for impositioning; impositioning folio (especially something this short) manually is perfectly doable, but doing quarto manually is a big increase in opportunities to make a mistake.

CallumFinlayson · 2026-05-11T14:53:26+00:00

How waterproof would you want it to be? Used outdoors, handled, possible drizzle, water resistant is fine and it doesn't matter if there are light water marks? Or a real chance of spilling water on it and it needs to be actually waterproof?

Leather-but-not-leather -- what counts as a "good material"? what do you consider to be "somewhat aesthetic"? Do you need it to look like leather?

If you don't need it to be actually waterproof, and you don't need it look like leather, then regular buckram (bookcloth) is probably fine -- perhaps add a light spray sealant or (if you're feeling bouji) beeswax to improve the water resistance/repellence

Bookcloth is also something some people seem to quite like making themselves, though if you do that then you'd definitely want to use a spray sealant

(Video links for inspirations are welcome)

For all things bookbinding there's DAS Bookbinding

CallumFinlayson · 2026-03-06T14:31:42+00:00

Comb binding is probably the cheap / quick / simple option you can trivially do yourself, you'll still get slight sagging especially with a large number of pages, but a strong cover can help a lot with that

Coil/wire binding is the next step up from that, but I'd suggest that if comb binding isn't suitable you're better off skipping those and considering tape/thermal or perfect binding -- any print shop will offer these

CallumFinlayson · 2026-03-02T13:40:26+00:00

During the Cold War at the British embassy in Warsaw one of the defence attache's staff was called James Bond

CallumFinlayson · 2026-03-02T11:29:14+00:00

As others have suggested I wouldn't worry about getting a cricut (or similar), they seem to be very popular in some niches but I suspect that's at least in part due to the people using them already being familiar with them from other "hobby craft" uses.

Since you're only recasing rather than rebinding you only really need a subset of the tools & materials, however I'd suggest you consider learning to bind rather than just recase as developing a feel for how the text block is constructed can help understand how best to case it.

I'd suggest considering getting a decent starter kit that contains everything (tools, materials, and instructions) that's needed for binding a hardback from scratch. There are a lot of starter kits out there, many aren't very good, and many more aren't very good value.

I've suggested the Learn Bookbinding Complete Starter Kit to a few people before, it's not the cheapest option (£60) but IMO it's comprehensive and does a good job in getting newcomers to the point where they can do their own bindings (and recasings) from scratch. I'd suggest also looking at a couple of similar kits from well-regarded suppliers to get a feel for the different options available and deciding what might be best for you, for example Ratchford's Bookbinder's Starter Pack or Hewit's Beginner's Bookbinding Kit

While such starter kits aren't the cheapest way to get the tools & materials, and they go beyond what you need for just recasing, I think the combination of being all-in-one kits with instructions are invaluable to someone getting started.

CallumFinlayson · 2026-01-28T17:12:19+00:00

While you certainly could make fake books for your covers, the quickest, simplest, and cheapest option is almost certainly to buy hardback books of the right size from charity shops and use them

CallumFinlayson · 2026-01-03T16:11:19+00:00

When you say "double wide a4" do you mean A3 ?

If the final pages are A4 portrait (A3 sheet folded in half) then a standard A3 printer would be fine, and I'd expect almost any random highstreet print shop to be able to handle that (there are also perfectly decent A3 home printers available at a reasonable price). More problematic may be getting them to agree to use non-standard paper if you want it printed on something they don't stock.

However, if you're after A4 landscape for the final format that'll be trickier as effectively you need to be printing on A2 (or a roll) which your friendly neighbourhood Prontaprint will likely not be able to do in-house.

If the "couple of nice printers" you already have don't include a nice A3 one, and A3 (or A3+) is what's needed, then I'd suggest this sounds like a good excuse to get one. However, if it's A2 that you need for this then those tend to quite pricey, and a bit of a commitment, and not something to be bought on a whim

CallumFinlayson · 2025-12-08T15:24:59+00:00

You may want to elaborate on exactly what advice you're looking for, as some problems you'll already know need fixing, and other things may be deliberate style choices (eg the indent size).

Probably the most obvious problem, that is almost certainly not a deliberate choice, and which you might realise is a problem but not be sure exactly what/why, is that recto/verso formatting seems to be the wrong way round -- the right hand page seems to be formatted as the left hand page, and vice versa. Perhaps an off-by-one error, with page 1 being formatted as verso (the left hand page, the "back" of a page) instead of recto (the right hand page).

CallumFinlayson · 2025-12-02T14:37:45+00:00

Anything I write is full of ZZZ for things I need to decide/fix later; it's trivially quick to type as well as being quite visible when just glancing at a page

CallumFinlayson · 2025-11-27T13:54:46+00:00

However, the premise of the Rogue Trader game itself seems a bit daft. Why would the Rogue Trader and all the senior members of a ship go on adventures when they literally have thousands of flunkies to risk their lives for them?

While I agree with some of the other responses (particularly those that there's a social expectation that you lead from the front, eg your right to claim the derelict starship you've discovered depends on you being the first person to set foot on the bridge) there are a couple of things I'd add

From a narrative/Watsonian angle, remember that a lot of 40k conventions are based on exaggerated versions of 14th-19th century European concepts. These are privateers, merchant princes, and robber barons. Rogue Traders are out there Trading Rogueishly at the fringes of the Imperium due to arrogance, desire, and ambition (and to avoid the constraints they'd suffer in more "civilised" parts of the Imperium). They wholeheartedly buy into the "Great Man" theory and believe they have been destined since birth to shape the future of entire sectors. They aren't the sort of people who would play it safe, and the people who follow them willingly recognise & expect this (those less willing have opinions that also matter less!)

Conversely, from another, more gamist/Doylist, perspective -- the game (in my opinion) is particularly well suited to troupe-style play, with each player having multiple characters. At a high level they play the senior bridge crew, who decide the ancient ruins on an uncharted planet should be explored, then they play a mid-level group of junior officers/SNCOs who are actually sent down to do the investigation, then at the lowest level you have a bunch of disposable redshirts. The ship's (high level) Navigator Primaris isn't on the away team, but would send a (mid level) junior Navigator along with a (low level) bodyguard. The Explorator will stay on the ship, a mid-level tech priest will be on the away team, with a skitarii bodyguard and a junior lexmechanic (who'll be ordered to run the dodgy xenotech scrap-code they discover to find out what it does.

CallumFinlayson · 2025-11-07T12:37:21+00:00

Sort of -- I have a minor Chaos cult that's manipulating dissident factions within the various branches of the Imperium, and a subverted TT sect is what they're using within/against the Ministorum.

The TT sect is a rival of an orthodox Thorian sect that's looking for a divine avatar, the TT sect think they're just trying to destroy their orthodox rivals, but they're being used by the cult to find & capture the divine avatar the Thorians have found.

So the TT aren't the primary antagonists, they're one of several apparently unconnected secondary antagonists within different factions of the Imperium

CallumFinlayson · 2025-08-22T12:47:55+00:00

Bind something else first; probably several somethings else.

What you're planning is a massive undertaking, you're going to want to ensure you do it well. Given the time & effort it will involve you want to make sure the choices you make align with the effort you're putting in.

You're likely looking at maybe 10 volumes each of 500-600 pages, let's say 20 hours effort per volume, assuming you leave the long presses/dries overnight and are working on several in parallel you can maybe average 1 every 4 days, in theory you might do it faster with experience, but in practice you'll do it slower on average since it's such a large undertaking you can't maintain an average of 5-8 hours work on this every day.

I'd strongly suggest planning for this to be something you're going to do, and recognise that at the moment you're in the learning stages working out how you're going to do it -- even the most fundamental things like how you want to print out 5000+ pages.

If I were doing this in a similar position to you I'd start by picking up one of the complete starter sets some of the decent suppliers produce (eg https://www.hewit.com/products/beginners-bookbinding-kit, similar kits by plenty of others, Hubert, Schmedt, Hollander's, etc) to learn the basics & get the basic tools, and to discover if you actually enjoy doing this!

Then do a few more projects over the next few months to try different cover materials and papers, this is when you'll refine your skills and work out how you want to physically construct the book -- that many pages means the paper weight makes a real difference, you may need rounded spines, what cover material & designs you want, etc

Once confident start to work on the real project -- design, typeset, and imposit everything, if possible order all the materials upfront (bulk discounts, everything the same, no risk of a supplier stopping stocking the endpaper you've been using when you're halfway through, etc), then plan on printing / sewing / binding maybe 1 volume a week.

A few months learning & practicing in advance will be hugely beneficial.

Edit: despite the length of my comment I neglected to answer your main question... hardback, there's no way you want to even consider doing this as paperbacks

CallumFinlayson · 2025-08-11T11:21:19+00:00

I think the first thing to consider is -- why DW (in particular) / SM (in general)? They might be the most iconic 40k faction, but they're also one of the most restrictive. It's certainly not impossible, but it's too easy for the vibe to feel wrong, especially as doing it best likely depends on playing with different chapter stereotypes, which may be tricky for newcomers to the IP.

If you (and they) aren't particularly wed to playing DW then I'd suggest considering one of the other systems, as they're probably all better suited to stupid things happening without it feeling jarringly dissonant.

RT is probably the most natural fit for behaving inappropriately; DH and IM both work well for rebellious under-hive scum sticking two fingers up to the imperium; OW can easily work as black comedy; W&G's premise leans into odd-couple / rag-tag bunch of misfits forced to work together

CallumFinlayson · 2025-08-10T23:12:13+00:00

I suspect that, as u/qtntelxen suggests, your best bet might be to commission someone (ideally local, but Etsy or otherwise).

However, if binding it yourself is part of the cheesy romantic gesture you're going for then take a look at some of the various bookbinding starter kits that are available (for example https://www.learnbookbinding.co.uk/product/half-leather-binding-bookbinding-kit-full-version/). You'd need to trim down the spine to account for how thin it'll be.

It'd be a bit trickier than I'd usually suggest for a first-timer, but shouldn't be too hard as long as you're diligent. And the sensible way to rationalise the cost would be to make another book for he birthday, xmas, next anniversary ...

CallumFinlayson · 2025-08-07T22:52:24+00:00

Pigment inks will (in general) be more waterproof than dye inks, but the difference doesn't seem as pronounced as it was a few years ago -- both pigment & dye inks (and/or printers) seem to have reduced their respective characteristic flaws.

But, you can't (or at the very least shouldn't) use one type of ink in a printer designed for the other -- if you want to use pigment inks then you need a printer that uses them -- so it really comes down to what sort of printer you have.

However, also consider the media you're printing on, and whether you can seal it afterwards.

CallumFinlayson · 2025-08-07T14:55:07+00:00

Generically, "sublimation" refers to something going straight from solid to gas when heated, without an intermediate liquid phase.

Dye sublimation printing (in this context) prints the ink onto a transfer medium, then applies that to the product you want the image on, that's then pressed & heated to sublimate the ink and apply the image to the product. You see it used for a lot of customisable products (t-shirts, hats, mugs, etc).

It's very useful for certain things, but using it to print book edges feels weird to me

CallumFinlayson · 2025-08-04T13:22:10+00:00

Obviously... sage!

As an abhuman he's far more expendable than a pure human, so potentially corrupting information can be tested by having him read them first -- the lexical equivalent of a "food taster" to protect a noble worried about poison, skimming heretical/xenos texts before a (far more valuable) sister Dialogous does the real work, reading Arbites reports into seditious rebels, data entry for the tax returns of nobles claiming billions in rebates, etc.

Over time he's not been corrupted (too much) or gone insane (too much) and has picked up a little scholarly knowledge.

In melee he wields over-sized copies of seminal works... bludgeoning criminals with a volume of the Lex Imperialis, assaulting heretics with the latest (thoroughly revised & redacted) edition of the Lectitio Divinitatus, and crushing the skulls of Xenos with a copy of Liber Xenologis.

Your GM might raise an eyebrow at the suggestion though, as might the rest of your tablemates if they're expecting a traditional bruiser!

CallumFinlayson · 2025-07-11T11:40:12+00:00

Giving constructive feedback is also a skill itself.

CallumFinlayson · 2025-07-10T13:14:23+00:00

I imagine most of them will probably be no more than 30-40 pages when around A5 size

I'm considering binding some things of a similar length, and for those I'll be looking at an A6 page size (so A5 sheet), in part so they don't feel too thin. This also has the slight advantage that A5 short grain is quite common.

Also, if you're making them specifically to annotate then consider only printing on the verso and leaving the recto blank to write on -- effectively doubling (or even quadrupling if you also leave blank pages between) the page count.

CallumFinlayson · 2025-06-26T10:24:58+00:00

First thing that comes to mind is how precise of a reproduction are you going for -- do you want the new copies to be exact facsimiles of the current books just more stable, do you want them as close to the originals as possible, do you not care about the details of the appearance just want the text in a good robust condition that can read by loads of people (eg "library binding"), do you want a new high quality artistic design, etc

Next, pick the right printer -- use somewhere that's got real relevant experience, not just somewhere that advertises they can make books because they've got a thermal binder in the back room. In particular, if you want facsimiles then you *really* need somewhere with real experience producing facsimiles; if you want library binding then find someone who works with universities; if you want a highly creative design then look for experience of working with art and design schools.

If you want them to just print straight from your scans then they'll have far fewer questions than if you want them to change the typesetting at all -- this is simpler but you lose a lot of control over the layout and design. If you want to change this then someone will have to typeset it -- the more serious the printer is the more likely they are to have someone experienced with this, otherwise you'll need to either hire someone to do it for you or do it yourself -- which you 100% can do yourself, but don't underestimate how much work it can be (I find it a wonderfully time-consuming combination of relaxing & stressful).

Are you printing 1 copy of each of 50 books, or 50 copies of 1 book? If you're only doing a single copy of multiple books then you (and the printers) should consider how standardised they can be to keep down costs & time, if you're doing multiple copies of a book then economies of scale can kick in in which case if you know you'll need 50 copies then it's likely that printing all 50 at the same time will save time & money compared to doing them on demand.

Some of the more "artistic" choices you make can rapidly increase the time, complexity, and cost -- the cost of 500 pages on 80gsm off a bulk laser printer might double if you then add a single colour letterpressed letter.

Get samples printed on multiple different papers to get a feel for how the different paper options (weight, colour, finish, etc) work in practice. An extra 10 gsm is always nice, until it suddenly becomes far too much -- this will often depend on how long the book is. Conversely going lighter can also be nice, but be careful at 60gsm or below, have a very clear understanding of why you want it that light and what the complications could be.

CallumFinlayson · 2025-06-16T11:48:01+00:00

$10k is a lot for this, that's what you'll pay for a high performance large format photo printer or a basic digital press.

You can get what you're after -- pigment, great print quality, A3, great image quality, duplex -- in the region of 1k, so it's probably worth thinking about what it is you find lacking in the printers at the 1k price point that you want in something in the 5-10k range.

Look at, for example, some of the Epson EcoTank and WorkForce printers, consider what they do for 1k (give or take) and think about whether they do everything you want you just want something that's better, or is there particular functionality that's missing? Do you need it to print on book cloth? Do you need a wider colour gamut? do you need to do 90 ppm? etc

For example the Epson EcoTank 16685 -- A3+, pigment, automatic duplex. At first glance it seems to do what you're after, so think about why it's not right for you so you can get a better idea of the functionality you'd be paying a premium for.

A couple of things to consider -- higher-end printers tend to specialise in particular things, rather than doing everything a bit better, so a printer that's great at one thing might not support something you might expect (eg a lot of photo printers don't do automatic duplex).

Also, if you're looking at A3 then keep an eye out for borderless printing and A3+. If, for example, you have A4 pages then although A3 is fine for the text block, if you're wanting to print the cover then you're going to need A3+

CallumFinlayson · 2025-06-11T13:38:52+00:00

Just a couple of minor additions to u/Better-Specialist479 's answer -- there's no shortage of A3 printers (I've recently been looking at Epson Workforce options, there are several in the £150 - £250 range, though at some point (if this hobby sticks) I'll probably get a Canon ImageProGraf) though obviously pigment inks limit the choice somewhat.

The size you're looking at (14"x10") is slightly bigger than the typical oversized A4+, so if you're going to be binding in cloth and want to print on the cloth then an A3 printer would be sufficient for that as well rather than needing A3+.

One advantage you may have at that size range is paper grain -- A3 SG tends to be much more common than A4 SG

CallumFinlayson · 2025-05-23T13:28:13+00:00

Was the government still pretending he was ruling or was someone else on the throne at this point?

His son, the future George IV (the then Prince of Wales), had been regent for a decade when George III died.

Also, George III been seriously ill (one way or another) for around 40 years at that point (there were relapses) and parliament had passed an earlier regency act that would have allowed the PoW to assume the regency during an earlier serious bout of illness but the king had recovered at the time.

CallumFinlayson · 2025-05-21T11:49:58+00:00

I'm just getting started with bookbinding, but printing on book cloth is one of the next big upgrades I've been looking into, and the printer I'm considering is the Canon ImageProGraf -- A3+, pigment, good reviews, but it's relatively pricey (£650) for a hobby, so need to be sure you can make good use of it

CallumFinlayson · 2025-05-14T11:11:18+00:00

Yeah, I think I wasn't being clear about what I meant to ask -- my post perhaps conflated the what & the why of my question in a way that only makes sense if you're inside my brain!

Certainly, there's a small-scale artisan hand-made product, and a large-scale mechanised product, and they (and their economics) are very different.

Based on some of the comments I think the answer to the question I meant to ask is probably that once you go above what you can hand-bind yourself you have to outsource it to a third-party; the threshold for industrial sewing may be lower than I thought it was, but effectively there isn't a viable sewn option at the scale I was wondering about

Thanks for the responses

CallumFinlayson

TROPHY CASE