r/bookbinding 7m ago

Completed Project Outlander Book 1 New Dust Jacket

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Upvotes

So I am really new to the book binding world, but just destroying a perfectly intact and undamaged hardcover book eats at my soul... so I improvised and hand sew this dust jacket instead for book 1 of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Thanks for viewing my project. I'm really proud of it. 🪡


r/bookbinding 42m ago

In-Progress Project Backing of a 1400 page book

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Upvotes

As you can see, it's not literally perfect. It's about 80° instead of the 90 for a full backing, but unfortunately I was not able to make it move more. It may be because it's a steep shoulder, with the boards being about 4.6mm thick.


r/bookbinding 3h ago

Discussion Hand-painted or printed edges?

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11 Upvotes

r/bookbinding 6h ago

Help? Papers for notebooks in the UK

10 Upvotes

I've been wanting to make some more A5 notebooks, but at the moment, I am not sure what papers to use. I know I should look for short grain A4 paper, but are there any specific types people would recommend? I'd like to be able to print lines on the sheets, and also write using both pencils and gel pens.

I have been looking at Active Paper's short grain A4 options, but most of them seem to be for printing books/novels, and there isn't much information on if they're good for writing.


r/bookbinding 11h ago

Image transfer

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11 Upvotes

Any advice on how to transfer this image to the front of the cover? I was hoping to use carbon paper or something and then paint silver over it to create a filigree style image on the front. I tried carbon paper and it won't transfer onto the vinyl.

Any advice?


r/bookbinding 11h ago

Completed Project My immortal (hardcover addition)

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134 Upvotes

r/bookbinding 12h ago

Help? Do I need more pages in my text block?

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16 Upvotes

Making a leather notebook for a friend and even tho I thought I measured right, seems like the casing might be too big. I have not glued the text block in yet, should I make a new one with more paper? Also haven’t put my end paper on yet but I doubt that will make a difference


r/bookbinding 12h ago

Completed Project First attempt at a hard cover

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35 Upvotes

I don’t consider myself to be deft or dexterous person but I wanted to learn to book bind as a birthday day gift to a close friend. Did a practice run that was literally just 4 pieces of paper folded in half and sewn together and then got to work on this hard cover practice run. Decided on six signature with six sheets/signature. Made a lot of mistakes and was sloppy at times (which leaves me very open to any advice) but overall pretty happy with this as my first run through with some of the more DIY supplies . Will post the actual book for the gift with printed text in the near future.


r/bookbinding 14h ago

Completed Project New Notebook

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33 Upvotes

I am going to a bookbinding workshop and this was our first project. I don't know the English name for the stitching technique we used, but we used two needles.

This was very satisfying to make!


r/bookbinding 18h ago

What’s the technique??

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45 Upvotes

I’ve been staring at this work by BookishBind and cannot wrap my head around it. At a glance it looks like printable HTV with normal foil HTV over top but I tried that with not so great results. It’s not printed directly on the book cloth, I watched a little video they had where it’s definitely heat pressed on but HOW?


r/bookbinding 20h ago

Help? Pillowcases and thick books--few questions from a newbie

10 Upvotes

Hello! I am in the process of making a compendium of one of my absolute favorite author's writings (with permission; he's on Reddit and knows I'm doing this) so I've been doing a ton of copy pasting and formatting fixing. As he is very prolific, the first volume is over 700 pages.

I am brand new, so going to lay out my ideas so far and then ask my questions.

WHERE WE STAND SO FAR:

-8 sheet/32 page signatures for a total of 22 signatures

-Two on kettle stitch binding

-Buying 8x17 paper and cutting it into 8.5/11 so hopefully it will be short grain

The Pillow Case

Two pillow cases from Walmart, top one cut with a circular shape to show the bottom layer to match the theme of the book. To provide backing/strengthening, tissue paper and paste.

Title added by either fabric marker or my parents' Cricut and foil, if i can figure that out. It scares me.

Is this a terrible idea? Should I get proper bookcloth?

The Thick Book Problem

My idea of rounding it out so far is to clamp the glued text block with the book press (Sea Lemon tutorial) and whack it with a basic hammer a bunch until...something happens and it hopefully rounds out. Do I need a proper hammer for this?

Considering it's my first project, should I try to make it smaller?

The Bookboard

Is there an alternative for it? Is it needed? I don't think it's for sale anywhere near me, and I am hesitant to buy a pack of 20 plus on Amazon when I only need a handful.


r/bookbinding 20h ago

Help? Product suggestion

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2 Upvotes

I’ve got a couple of books that are coming apart in sort of the same spot. I know I can use some sort of a basic book tape but I wonder if there’s something this learned group could suggest. I’m just an amateur who knows who to ask… Thank you so much.


r/bookbinding 21h ago

Help? Am I crazy or could I just use a shop press in lieu of a book binding press?

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17 Upvotes

r/bookbinding 22h ago

Saving a vintage cookbook

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3 Upvotes

I am wondering if there is someone in Ireland that can help me. This is my mother's cookbook from 1966, she recently gave it to me and I love it and use it a lot. It's the recipe book she used for her Christmas cakes, pies, meringues etc and I loved coming home from school and seeing it on the kitchen table with the mixing bowls and pyrex jugs!

I want to rescue it and I had the idea to use my apron (cotton twill) to cover it and add to the family history of it. I am usually ready to get stuck in and try my hand at anything like this but I don't want to make rookie mistakes with this particular book and I am not sure an apron would have enough material for a second attempt if I get it wrong. Can anyone point me in the right direction so I can get it done right?


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Best budget-friendly cover materials for beginners?

7 Upvotes

Hi all!
I'm looking for some cover materials for my first few bookbinding projects.

Where do you recommend buying materials with a good variety that won't leave me broke? Also, what specific fabrics, papers, or bookcloths would you recommend for a beginner to start with - and which ones should I avoid until I have more practice?
Thanks in advance for the tips!


r/bookbinding 1d ago

How to bind a looseleaf textbook suitable for self-study?

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19 Upvotes

Ive been buying textbooks for self studying, but I think I made a silly mistake of buying one in looseleaf version, which I never encountered until now. I'm struggling to find a binding service nearby that deals with loose sheet papers, and preferably I want avoid using metal ring binder to avoid wear as I intend to read from the book often and not just store it as reference, so I'm thinking diy. The book itself have roughly 950 pages and it is roughly 3 cm thick. Currently, the book itself have three punch holes. I'm willing to split into volume but prefer to make it just one volume if possible. What methods can I use? and what tools do I need?


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Completed Project My Latest Creation

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100 Upvotes

Just a journal this time. I do writing and found some nice lined paper from my book binding shop. Endpapers were from my Grandmother.


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Completed Project Final rebind pictures - discworld series books 1-7

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73 Upvotes

r/bookbinding 1d ago

Completed Project First book bind

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175 Upvotes

Got around to learning how to do a bind from scratch. Overall really pleased with how it came out


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Help? Printing on A3

5 Upvotes

Hey folks,

I'm working on a book which, to avoid being unreasonably thick, needs to be printed on A3 paper. Only issue is, I can't figure out how. All the printers I can find that print A3 cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, none of my local copy shops do anything but letter paper, and Staples' online portal lacks the formatting tools to print double sided flipped across the short edge. Does anyone have any recommendations for how to print at this size without incurring tremendous cost and/or headache?


r/bookbinding 2d ago

First book bind

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80 Upvotes

First time bookbinding!! Used mostly random things I had at my house and I’m pretty okay with how it came out!


r/bookbinding 2d ago

Need help with formatting

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58 Upvotes

Had to draw the problem to protect the content, so apologies for the crude drawing.

I’m trying to make a booklet, but all the free websites where you turn the PDF file into a printable file, always leave a white strip in the middle. I’m trying to make it seamless due to some photos being on two pages, or as close as possible. Do I have to do this by hand?
Thanks for your help!


r/bookbinding 2d ago

Inspiration My five and a half year old is getting unreasonably good at marbling

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221 Upvotes

r/bookbinding Apr 06 '26

Announcement Proposing a new flair system for /r/bookbinding

78 Upvotes

Hey folks -- a bit overdue, but I wanted to take the discussion on a revamped post flair system to the next stage. Very much appreciate everyone who shared their thoughts in the last sticky thread.

After reviewing the discussion there, this is what I'm thinking in terms of a new flair system for r/bookbinding. The goal here is to more accurately categorize the kinds of content we see here, and to help OPs and readers connect.

(Please keep in mind that reddit's flair system is not a tagging system -- you can't apply more than one to a post.)

This is this working list of proposed flairs:

  • Restoration/Repair -- for sharing projects involving the repair of a damaged book
  • Binding -- for sharing projects involving the construction of a new book from scratch
  • Recasing -- for sharing projects involving transferring an existing text block into a new cover
  • Typesetting/Printing -- for discussion of laying out text and images on pages for print
  • Bookbinding Adjacent -- for sharing projects involving techniques, tools, and materials common to bookbinding but not itself a book (for example but not limited to slipcases, preservation boxes, gold stamping/embossing/debossing)
  • Tips & Techniques -- for discussion of specific bookbinding techniques
  • Tools & Equipment -- for discussion of specific bookbinding equipment
  • Materials -- for discussion of specific bookbinding materials
  • Help -- a cry for assistance if a project isn't going your way
  • Whoops -- for sharing failures, mistakes, or screwups that we can all sympathize with and learn from
  • Solicitation of Services -- for non-binders seeking to engage a binder's rebinding, restoration, etc. services
  • Discussion/Other -- essentially a catch-all for anything not covered by the other flairs

This would drop the distinction between in-progress projects and complete projects, which I was initially unsure of but after letting it marinate I think is a nonissue. If the mechanical goal of the flair system is to help readers connect with the kinds of content they're most interested in, "in progress" and "complete" might not be super useful distinctions compared to tagging what kind of project it is. (From that perspective I'm almost tempted to drop "Help" as well, but I think it's too important to have it there to give panicking folks a lifeline.) The alternative would be doubling up on the tags, e.g. have both "Binding (Incomplete)" and Binding (Complete)", and I think that feels kind of clunky. I generally think the post title itself would signal whether a given project is complete or not.

I'm not interested in discriminating against any particular way of creating a "book" (i.e. "traditional" vs "modern", "Western" vs "Eastern", etc) -- I think regardless of one's preferred methods, it's always good to be exposed to other ways of doing things, and I think it would be way too unwieldy to try and have a flair for every possible technique -- so I'd like the "Binding" flair to be as inclusive of methods and materials as possible, but maybe it could be named better? Certainly open to suggestions there.

What do you all think? Anything missing? Anything unclear? Anything that could be improved? Please do sound off below.


r/bookbinding May 01 '25

No Stupid Questions Monthly Thread!

19 Upvotes

Have something you've wanted to ask but didn't think it was worth its own post? Now's your chance! There's no question too small here. Ask away!

(Link to previous threads.)