Binding your own books is easier than you think, and the machines that do the work are surprisingly inexpensive. Here are some tips for printing and binding your own books at home.

Setting Up:

Once you have the text of your book all together, in order, copy edited and proofread, you can start to either flow the text into your layout program, or simply keep in in your word processing software. The margins should be set as following: one inch on the top, the bottom and to the left of the page. The right margin should be two inches, as this will leave some extra space for the binding process.

Headers and footers are next. If you don’t know what a header is, grab the nearest book. The header is that line that is at the top of every page in the book. Often you will find that the header on the page to the right is the title of the chapter, while the header on the left side pages is the title of the book itself. You can place page numbers either up top or on the bottom of the page. While the vast majority of books place the page numbers in the corners, you can put the page numbers in the center bottom if you wish as well. Depending on the software program you are using, you may be able to number your pages automatically.

As far as a footer, they are generally optional, and using one or not may depend on the type of book you are printing. For instance, if you are putting together an annual report, marketing material, or something along those lines, you may want to have the name of your company as your footer. If you do decide to use both a header and a footer, make sure that they don’t affect readability or distract the reader from the main text.

Title Page, Formatting, and Chapters:

Choose an appropriate font and letter size and start to put together a title page. Center the title and the author’s name (if any, or the name of the organization if not).

Create a table of contents that will allow your readers to find what they need easily. Make sure that you have informative chapter titles and that your page numbers are accurate. You might also want to give some thought to producing an index if you think your readers or your document would benefit from one.

Make sure that your text is properly broken up into sections and that it is, above all, readable. Most readers find long blocks of text intimidating, so break it up with bullets and subheads as much as possible, if it makes sense for your publication.

Printing and Binding:

Once your book it all put together, you can send it to the printer, or print it yourself. If you are using color images, you are going to want to use a four-color digital process. If it is all in black and white, laser printing is your best bet.

Depending on what type of book you are putting together, you have a few options. Plastic comb and spiral coil binding are common and allow for great functionality and fairly decent durability. Hardcover binding machines are also inexpensive and easy for even beginners to use, so you can have a bookstore-ready books within minutes, even from home.

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Category: Arts and Crafts
Keywords: page numbers,coil binding,spiral coil binding,putting together,place page numbers,nearest book