That bookbinding class I took in Portland taught me something about grain direction

Every other student in that class was cutting their paper wrong for the spine. They lined up the grain perpendicular to the spine, which makes the book never lay flat. I watched 8 people do it before the instructor finally stepped in and showed them. Has anyone else noticed newer binders skipping this basic step?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesfox15d ago

Wait, the printer just ignored the grain specs on a whole print run? That's insane. How does a professional printer not know that? I would have lost my mind if that happened to me. I get what you're saying though. It's wild how many people skip the basics because they're focused on the fancy parts. They want the beautiful covers and neat stitching but forget the book has to actually function as a book. You see it in all kinds of crafts too. Everyone wants to do the flashy stuff and skip the boring fundamentals. But that's where the whole thing falls apart.

jana_fox5029d agoTop Commenter

The grain direction thing is such a massive pet peeve for me too. Its like people forget paper is basically a bunch of tiny fibers all lined up and if you fight them the book fights back. My buddy runs a zine distro and he had to reprint a whole run because the printer ignored his grain specs and now none of the zines stay open on a table. Makes you wonder if some newer binders even understand why paper has grain in the first place or if they just skip that part of the manual.

holly_walker7629d ago

Oh man, I feel this. I once made a notebook where the grain was completely wrong and it looked like a sad accordion every time I tried to close it. Learned that lesson the hard way.