Books

Ever thought about creating your own book? It doesn't have to be a novel -- maybe a short story, or simply a guest book for your special gathering? It can be a lot of fun, and the result is something you'll treasure.

A Quick History of the Book

Sumerian clay tablets are considered the earliest form of the book, dating back to 3500 B.C. Sumerians used a cuneiform alphabet (meaning wedge-shaped). Inscriptions were made by pressing the triangular tip of a reed or a stick into wet clay tablets. The wedge marks were then combined into signs representing objects and ideas.

The earliest surviving writing on a papyrus scroll dates back to 2400 B.C. After that, it was not until 150 B.C. that paper was first made in China from hemp fibers and water.

There's Got To Be An Easier Way!

Finally, in the middle of the 15th century, a German lawyer named Johann Fust gave Johann Gutenberg money to invent the first printing press -- then to publish mankind's first book from movable type, the famous Gutenberg Bible. Around 1457, Fust partnered with a calligrapher named Peter Schoffer. Together, they published the Mainz Psalter, the first successful attempt at colour printing.

Do It Yourself

Skip ahead almost 550 years, and we can now create and print our own books right at home! It's possible to produce an entire book from "soup to nuts", or any part of it that you wish. For our purposes, we will focus on formatting and printing, and getting your book ready for binding.

What You'll Need

• PC (with necessary applications)
• Lexmark Printer
• Quality paper in standard and larger specialty sizes depending on the size of your book
• Card stock (if you are printing your own cover)
• Hot glue gun (if you are binding your own book)

Formatting Your Text

Assuming you have produced the content of your book (text, graphics or just blank pages), you will need to decide what size book you want to produce. Common sizes range from A5 to A4. Once you decide this, you can set up your pages. For smaller sized books, we recommend a 2 cm margin all the way around the page. For larger books, we recommend two columns per page, with 2 cm margins around the edges, and a 0.5 cm between columns. You want your book to be easy to read, attractive and uncrowded.

Here are some basic rules:

• Numbering your pages. Even numbers should be on the left side of the book, odd numbers on the right.
  
• Fonts. Use only two or three at the most. You want a cohesive look.
  
• Spacing. Use only one space after a period instead of two.
  
• Table of contents, dedication, introduction, and chapter heading pages should always be on the right.
  
• Collating Your Pages. Once printed, it is important to check that all the pages are accounted for, and arranged correctly, before binding. Be sure to check for upside-down, blank, duplicate or missing pages.

Designing Your Book Cover

If you are going to tackle design, we recommend working in either PageMaker^TM or Quark XPress^TM for the highest quality result.

• Information You will need to include the basics: an appropriate illustration, what language the book is written in, name(s) of author(s), illustrators, and collaborators, and a description of what kind of book it is.
  
• Layout The cover must be set up as one piece with the front cover on the right, the back cover on the left, and the spine in the middle. Each side should be the size of your book pages, added to the width of the spine, plus an extra 0.3 cm all the way around. Measure the stack of your printed pages to get the width the spine.

You can laminate a clear plastic coating onto the cover after printing to make the paper stronger, more durable and resistant to humidity and stains.

Binding Your Book

There are several ways to bind a book. Three of the most common are:

• Perfect This is the basic paperback book binding. The book is bound using hot, flexible glue and a wrap-around cover. It makes an inexpensive and attractive binding. You can do this yourself with a hot glue gun and your printed cover. Include a blank page on the top and bottom of your stack of book pages to glue the cover onto, in addition to the spine.
  
• Hard Cover The most durable, attractive and expensive of all bindings. The page signatures are sewn together, reinforced and attached to the hard cover. A publisher or binding company can do this for you.
  
• Spiral Can be plastic or wire. An ideal binding for books that must open and lie flat, such as cookbooks, workbooks, guest books or manuals. You can take this to a local copy shop to have it done for you fairly inexpensively.