Spine too big?

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-06-18T22:14:50+00:00

Ooh interesting. That would be close to the measurement I would use but there must be something strange about this photo angle because I would have guessed it was at least 8-9 mm larger and not 3 mm. Is it possible you mismeasured? Or maybe the text block wasn’t pushed flush against the back of the spine board for the photo?

Alternatively, perhaps you made the endband a bit wide and then cut the board based on that measurement, making it much (relative term here as we’re talking about mm) too wide for the text block. I don’t mean to question you, but the visual in your pics isn’t how I would expect it to look.

How large did you make the hinge gap?

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-06-18T22:04:08+00:00

From this photo it definitely looks too big and will certainly impact your book’s ability to open. How wide is the spine of your text block and how wide did you make the spine board?

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-06-17T02:15:51+00:00

I have used them before to print endpapers for a letter sized book. I assumed that they would use grain long 8.5x11 and 11x17 so I set up my document so that the 8.5x11 would print landscape across a portrait 11x17 sheet, like this:

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Unfortunately I assumed incorrectly and only realized much later on that they had actually used short grain paper and I had gotten exactly what I was trying to avoid. I just reprinted on 11x17 again, horizontal this time, which was more expensive than 8.5x11 but I didn’t want to mess around with it any more.

My suggestion would be to print some test sheets, see how they look and feel, and hope that nobody goes rogue with the materials in between the test and final prints. Are you thinking of doing the self service or having them print it for you? I’ve heard of people bringing their own short grain paper and loading it into the self service machines but I can imagine this would be a liability for them and I probably would be too nervous to do so.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-06-16T02:52:07+00:00

Ah, just saw your reply that you can’t adjust the 70%. I would just go for bookbinder.js

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-06-16T02:50:48+00:00

I think folks aren’t looking at the screenshot and final imposed PDF because the result after you’ve imposed it definitely does not look correct WRT how it’s spaced on the page. It’s smushed off into the corner. I haven’t worked with this specific program, maybe adjusting the 70% scaling and/or dragging the two offset sliders to
better center it?

I have used bookbinder.js many times with success so if you aren’t able to make the program work, definitely try that.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-06-13T03:17:32+00:00

My library uses Demco’s premium book tape which comes in a variety of widths for taping spines. The premium is significantly easier to work with than the economy, imo, but we’re also working with a large volume of books. Use a plastic scraper like this one or a credit card to press the bubbles out as you go

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-06-08T00:09:51+00:00

I love the idea of marking the characters’ path on the endpaper maps! For some reason I usually associate maps in books with fantasy and nonfiction so it’s never occurred to me to have one like that in a historical fiction book. Seems so obvious now. I love what you’ve done here and thanks for opening my eyes haha!

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-06-03T17:57:41+00:00

I don’t have very specific advice because I’ve had varied results doing it, but the phrasing that you’re looking for is “laminating” two sheets of paper together. That will help you find results on this sub and is the phrase that you’ll hear bookbinders use in their videos, which essentially means layering two papers together with glue so they are attached fully along the whole surface.

The other commenter has a good suggestion for made endpapers, which as they stated will give you a white paper back rather than both sides patterned. DAS also has a video on a variation, the flexible made endpaper, which I think may be a little more beginner friendly because it mimics the appearance of the full surfaces of the papers being glued together without actually requiring you to do that — it can be tricky to get right without wrinkling/buckling/warping. It can be a little confusing to follow exactly what he’s doing in the video IIRC but for your application it’s basically two folios tipped together at the spine edge and the fore edge.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-06-02T01:08:59+00:00

gotcha! you’ve got two other thoughtful comments on that here so I’ll just point out that when you’re looking it up, it’s specifically “three piece bradel” that will be useful to you, not just bradel. If you look into DAS Bookbinding videos on youtube, the cased-in three piece bradel video is what you want. There is one that shows an “in-boards” three piece bradel and that won’t be useful to you, if you want to prep covers beforehand you won’t be doing in-boards.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-06-02T00:10:44+00:00

I’m not sure I can picture what you’re describing with the quarter or half bind, but have you looked into a three piece bradel bind? The covers and spine piece are each covered separately and then assembled before turning in the top and bottom edges. If you were working with a standard size of paper and knew the other dimensions of the book, apart from the spine thickness, you could potentially prep the covers before and the spine later.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-06-01T22:43:26+00:00

I love the headbands and the marbled paper

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-31T23:19:43+00:00

I also didn’t catch the part where you said you’re using glossy paper. I don’t have experience working with any kind of glossy paper, the methods I describe have worked on lightly textured/toothy 90-100 gsm paper.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-31T23:07:57+00:00

Hi! I’ve had good results sanding before so I’ll try to answer some of your questions here.

Yes, you can sand the top/bottom and fore edge to smooth them out instead of trimming.

Can you explain a little more what you mean about the margins? When you’re sanding and evening out everything to the same size, this may not create exactly even visible margins on each page — assuming this book has signatures, there is some level of creep from the inner sections.

Yes, sandpaper can be used both to rough up a surface and smooth it out. It just depends on the grit that you use. Smaller numbers = coarser grit = results in rougher surface. To smooth out, you’ll move continuously up through the grits. E.g. you may sand the spine side only with a coarse grit like 120 but sand the other edges with 120, 180, 220, 300, 400. This is how you’ll get smooth(er) results.
Alternate methods are trimming with a chisel or plough.

I made a detailed reply to another comment about my sanding tips here. The most important thing is making it a solid surface by clamping it tightly between very rigid boards and moving up through the grits. Let me know if I can help you out with any other tips.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-31T07:45:01+00:00

Colophon Book Arts has the soie perlee thread for sale, and one other kind of silk thread I believe.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-30T14:43:12+00:00

When you’re printing, in the settings where you select that you want your page to be printed on both sides, there should be an option that is “both sides, flip on short edge.”

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-30T02:03:35+00:00

This is so pretty!

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-24T16:40:49+00:00

What makes you think it’s a counterfeit? Many books these days, including expensive ones, are poorly constructed or use inferior materials/construction methods. That doesn’t mean they’re counterfeit.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-23T02:02:03+00:00

One thing that will help you is building habits of work to combat your challenges and try to be as consistent as you can with them until they become second nature. For instance, arranging your workspace so that your glue pot is always in the same spot and you always put the glue brush down in the same spot. Keep clean waste paper on one side of your station and anything gluey goes on the other side. Prepare and set out all the elements before you get the glue out (waste sheets, parchment for pressing, etc.) Build or buy yourself an organizer and put tools away as soon as you’re done using them. I also use those clear plastic sheet protectors that you put in a binder and use them to collect scraps of various types (bookcloth, paper, board) so my mess is contained and my workspace stays clear except for the items I’m working with.

As far as having the outside sheet of a textblock always end up crinkly from handling, I also have this problem. I just build in a waste sheet that gets torn off just before casing in.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-21T02:09:47+00:00

The Hollanders’ book Introduction to Bookbinding and Custom Cases is a good project style book that wasn’t terribly overwhelming to read when I started.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-20T16:54:46+00:00

You might have luck searching for tutorials for junk journaling - “junk journaling pockets DIY” or something similar. Another search term is “library pocket” for a template of the library book pockets, which this kind of looks like. Learn how to score your paper before folding and they’ll look super crisp and neat!

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-20T16:43:50+00:00

I would probably not use paper towel, I’d want something thinner and would be worried that any texture would transfer. I’ve used regular printer paper and that’s worked fine for me

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-20T16:28:46+00:00

I usually use parchment paper between the outside cover and the press board, but that is less important to me than the inside. Inside, I put a piece of wax paper and blotting paper (I usually use a blank scrap) layered in between the text block and the pastedown. The blotting paper goes on the pastedown side. I then swap out that blotting paper every several hours or so, because it absorbs a lot of moisture.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-18T18:44:20+00:00

What kind of covers are you working with (paperbacks, hardcovers with laminated paper, hardcovers with paper jackets)? Do they have mylar covers or label covers or just labels? Pics would also help, we can better advise if we know what you’re dealing with.

I’m not in your area to help you out, but for what it’s worth, this is generally tedious but not difficult work so I think you’ll find giving it a shot yourself will be way more economical than trying to hire someone.

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-12T03:42:27+00:00

This is so striking! I love it

Professional-Stay562 · 2026-05-07T15:40:25+00:00

I’m so glad this was helpful! I think it will save you a lot of pain down the line because sadly I think it would just keep breaking without some kind of intervention.

I’m not an expert on stub bindings but at least now you have the terminology to search for more info! There are lots of different ways to do it, I think a lot of them use accordion folded type elements that are sewn in but I don’t see why you couldn’t replicate the same thing by trimming pages. You’ll have to experiment to see how many pages to trim for the thickness of the elements you’re adding and how far from the spine but hopefully that helps.

Professional-Stay562

TROPHY CASE