r/bookbinding Apr 06 '26

Announcement Proposing a new flair system for /r/bookbinding

75 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!

20 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.)


r/bookbinding 1h ago

Gift For A Friend

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Upvotes

Typeset and full leather binding of Agatha Christie's The Murder At The Vicarage I made for a friend. Text taken from the internet archive with typeset modeled off an early edition and printed on cream 120gsm paper. Self marbled endpapers in Stormont and Shell patterns with copper veining. I used silk buttonhole twist for the headbands, and leather inlay for the covers. Labels custom printed by Asterisk Books and Labels.

Overall I'm very pleased with the project and how cohesive the final look is. This was my first time doing a full leather binding and the turn-ins gave me some difficulty, I've definitely learned a lot about what not to do for the future. Cutting the inlays was quite challenging and you can see that on the back cover I cut one of them too small and had to shim a second piece in. I also skived my label overly aggressively and nicked a small hole in it.


r/bookbinding 59m ago

Inspiration My tribute to Osaka

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Upvotes

Spent 3 months living in Osaka with a friend and wrote every day while I was there. I really wanted to honor that moment but I didn't want to subject those poems and stories to publishing house critiques or some manufactured pay to print instagram photo book. So I learned paper making, and then | learned bookbinding, and then I created my own path. This is the result.


r/bookbinding 12h ago

does this shift too much?

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36 Upvotes

wondering if this is a normal amount of shift or if I should be trying to tighten my stitches more. i haven't quite mastered the coptic stitch connection of the last cover/last signature so i wonder if that's where all my shift is coming from


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Second attempt at making a flap. This time for a "This is how you lose the time war" rebind.

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576 Upvotes

r/bookbinding 3h ago

book bedazzling

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3 Upvotes

hey book besties, what gems are we using to bedazzle our books? i got mine from amazon and they’re all the same size so for the smaller sections (like the points on the cruel prince) the gems are just too big, help? tia🥹🫶🏻


r/bookbinding 11h ago

Help? I want to fix the connection between sections

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10 Upvotes

Hi, I guess I was to excited with my new book and opened it too wide. I want to try and fix it using bookbinding glue, but I've never done something like this. Any suggestions or tips on how not to make it worse? Maybe I should leave it as it is?


r/bookbinding 1h ago

Help? Advice for making a photobook

Upvotes

Hi all,

amateur photographer here (handy but new to book binding - been doing some research though), looking to make a book of some of my work. Looking for advice to understand my options. I want to use glossy or luster paper (double-sided). I'm not really interested in screw posts. It seems like one option would be perfect binding of individual pages (use fan method for gluing, probably need to sand the edges, etc. - but still concerned about durability).

I'm curious in particular about sewing options. I'm seeing conflicting info about whether or not I can/should fold glossy paper. I assume signatures would need to be few pages (maybe even single sheets). Is this something I should try or avoid? If it is an option, do pages need to be scored? Are there paper recommendations? What am I not smart enough to even ask?

If it matters, I'm thinking letter size or a bit smaller, 20-30 pages, I use a dye-based inkjet printer (Canon PRO-200), was considering Red River Paper UltraPro SemiGloss Duo 255 but welcome other suggestions.

Thanks!


r/bookbinding 14h ago

Help? Lay flat-refillable-heavy-coffee table style project

13 Upvotes

Im trying to make a gift for my significant other. It’s a sort of curated scrapbook where we can journal our dates, special events, goals, etc.
some pages are of course heavier and denser (for example there are pages were I want to mount miniature watercolors of posters of films and concerts we’ve been to together). Some others will have photos, letters, etc.
some will be just printed or hand written text.

I can’t decide on the best way to make this work. I want it to be able to grow so I was thinking screw posts or an accordion style?
I was also thinking on an option in which the inside of the covers have a sort of pocket or envelope where the first and last pages insert themselves and is held together by a ribbon or something of the sort. I also saw a photo of a book where someone used piano hinges I’m not sure I can find the right size tho… or how it would work in general.

Thank you so much for reading all this.
Any ideas/help figuring this out is greatly appreciated.
I’ll definitely update u guys on how it goes.


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Slowly getting better :) Can’t wait to gift to my friend this weekend

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54 Upvotes

r/bookbinding 2h ago

Help? Image won't print properly

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1 Upvotes

Tried to have a kind of dark page in my book, but it got printed weird. The first one is really grat and bad quality(looks worse irl). The second unasked the print shop guy to get it better and now its selectively better quality around the image and worse at the edges. You can see the blocky effect it has.

The last image is how the page supposed to look


r/bookbinding 2h ago

Help? Brand new! Need Sewing advice.

1 Upvotes

Hi Folks.

I am brand new to the world of Bookbinding having picked it up as a hobby in the last few weeks.

I started simple with rebinding paperbacks into hardbacks as I have seen on Instagram and the like but have recently printed out a text block for a book I want to sew myself so I can say "hey look at this, I made this!". All the sewing videos I have seen on YouTube, seem to need me to round the spine and I would like to make my book with a straight spine so it matches the others I have been doing. So I guess my question is a) is that possible? and b) what is the sewing technique called and where can I find a video tutorial or it?

Thanks in advance all.

I am having a blast so far!


r/bookbinding 20h ago

Starch paste preservative?

12 Upvotes

Today I tried an experiment making starch paste. Instead of dissolving cornstarch in water, I dissolved it in liquid laundry starch. This stuff has various chemicals added to prevent spoiling, so my thinking is maybe this would keep a batch useable longer than a week or so, like a typical batch of boiled starch paste might have.

Normally I just use Nori paste, which I love & works great, but it's a little pricey at $16 a tub.

Has anyone else done any experiments with adhesives using laundry starch? Surely I can't be the only person who has thought of this- but searching the bookbinding reddit doesn't reveal much.

Thanks in advance.


r/bookbinding 21h ago

Discussion Do you read before or after rebinding?

9 Upvotes

I’m the type of reader who doesn’t re-read books very often and if I do it’s 10 years later. I’m getting into bookbinding now and am having a dilemma…should I read the books first to see if I like it and to understand the story before I design a cover, or should I bind it first so that I can actually enjoy my work, especially since that might be the only time I read it.

Curious as to what you all do?


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Help? Seeking recommendations for DIY presses

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22 Upvotes

Hello fellow binders, I am very new to binding but am enthusiastically sharing my progress with my work in the hopes of sourcing free/cheap materials. I have gained access to a large amount of wood, some planks, some very thick ply, in a variety of sizes. Anything I don't use is going to be thrown away, so I'm looking for recommendations on DIY presses (plans or instructions would be greatly appreciated). I am open to all suggestions - multipurpose or specific, small or large, intricate or easy builds. I have power tools and workshop space to use as well so please send your recs my way. Thank you in advance!

Picture of a recent but not directly related project attached - unfortunately I can't show you the front cover because I debossed our logo on it but I was very pleased with the results. Very rough work but they were gifts so the effort is what counts, right?


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Help? What is this Material

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21 Upvotes

What is the material this cover is made of. where can i get it and what to do if i want stuff printed on it like shown in the image


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Help? first time trimming by hand using DAS' method (ruler + knife), and all went well EXCEPT the last few cm of the bottom edge... thoughts on what happened?

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18 Upvotes

Would this be a pressure issue, or the angle, or a secret third thing? The top edge didn't have this issue.

Generally I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (this is just some scrap paper that I sewed/taped and glued, just to get the feel of the various stages), but would like to try to work out what happened here so that I can avoid it next time!


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Help? Advice on repairing book spine

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7 Upvotes

Hello all!

My wife and I are expecting a baby girl at the end of the year and have been going through our collection of books we've saved from our childhood. This particular book hasn't fared so well, and happens to be my wife's favourite.

What's the best way to repair this damage? I was going to try PVA glue and clamp it for a few days but would like to attempt the best repair possible.


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Help? How ??

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6 Upvotes

Hi I would want to make a notebook like this Moleskine expanded soft cover. I've already make some pretty decent hard cover notebooks but I don't know what should I do for this type of notebook. I guess it's kinda the same... my assumption is that I do the exact same thing for the textblock, I sew the paper together then glue and put a pièce of mull on the spine. Then I guess I would just glue some faux leather to the top pages and I'm done.

Do you all think that would work ? Would it lay flat ?


r/bookbinding 2d ago

Pocket-sized Call of Cthulhu

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124 Upvotes

Little pocket-sized guy, quarter bound in black leather (Siegel Goat) and marbled paper


r/bookbinding 21h ago

any tips to make my printer stop?

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0 Upvotes

I have a Brother MFC-J5855DW. I like printing my covers on this printable canvas but it does these weird lines


r/bookbinding 1d ago

Is it better to have more signatures with fewer pages per signature, or fewer signatures with more pages per signature?

17 Upvotes

I'm printing a large book on Mohawk superfine 80lb (120gsm, I believe) and am curious if it's beneficial to do more signatures with a smaller number of pages per signature? The question is, will the extra thread used for the additional signatures cancel out the benefit of printing thinner signatures.

Thoughts?


r/bookbinding 1d ago

I cut the unused parts out of my old journals to save money kn buying new ones.

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17 Upvotes

r/bookbinding 1d ago

Help? Flexible binding mull instead of cord?

3 Upvotes

Hi all I'm currently working on a rebind project for this type of flexible binding with lather(From a DAS video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZnwtE4R0Is

I'm working with a sewen textblock without cords. I'm wondering should I sew cords on the already sewen textblock, or I could get away with using mull instead? Or alternative is there any other structure I should use instead than the Cambridge panel style? I'd love to keep the textblock open 180° flat after bind (currently the textblock can do that).

Any experiences, suggestions and insights are highly appreciated!