#bookbinding tutorial

First things first, you need to get your word document set up. From the top ribbon, go to Layout, then select Margins > Custom Margins which will open a page setup popup window. Here are the page size, margins, and layout settings I use:

My margins are set based on US Letter sized paper. I find that they're not too big but allowed me to trim the foredges and don't eat up the text in the spine.

HOWEVER, if you're typesetting a really large fic, you're going to want to increase your side margins! For example, I am typesetting a tandem read of TRTTD/ATWT that is 900+ pages and my side margins are .65" to compensate for the deeper, rounded spine and the amount I'll have to trim off the foredge.

If you're uncertain if you like your margins, you can do test prints of the first signature to see how your margins end up looking.

Our page orientation is landscape because, although we want our individual pages to be portrait, each landscape page will have two portrait pages.

By setting the "multiple pages" setting to book fold, you will automatically print into signatures that you can then sew and glue into a book.

Sheets per booklet is really personal preference, just in mind that one sheet of paper is equal to FOUR book pages (two front and two back). So my 32 page booklets take 8 sheets of paper. Some people do 7, others do up to 10! It's harder to punch holes in 8+ pages of signatures, but easier to sew in my opinion.

From here, you can input your text! You can post the raw html from AO3 into the document which which bring over the text and general formatting, and you can format chapters, headings, title pages, etc. from there. This is a time consuming process but is really helpful when familiarizing yourself with how typesetting works. If you do go with this option, I'd again recommend Hana Bobb's detailed tutorials - she goes over incredible info for newbies and I wouldn't be half as good as I am without her guidance.

If you're not interested in deep diving on typesetting, you can do what I do now which is use a Word macro from the macro mommy herself - Blak Books Bindery.

She has some incredible macros which allow you to quickly and easily add text dividers, drop caps, and so much more to your typesets! The one I use the most is her "Raw-Text Formatting" macro which allows you to copy raw text directly from AO3 into the word document and turn it into a formatted typeset through computer magic. I usually just use this as a starting point and heavily adjust the aesthetics from there, but it saves so much time moving author notes, formatting chapters into sections, adding title and publishing pages, etc.

After your typeset is formatted how you want it, you can print it! I typically go into File > Print and select "Print to PDF."

This allows you to save the document as a PDF. You can print directly from Word but I haven't tried it since people say it really messes up the formatting.

Your finished typeset file should look something like this:

Just print this double sided with "flip on the short edge" selected, and start folding! Even if you're super confident about your typeset, I would highly recommend test printing your first signature on paper you don't care about. I've caught misaligned page numbers, margin issues, and other problems this way and saved myself the headache and reams of paper.

2. Folding of papers to create signatures.

1. Printing out of materials (If you intend to print out a book, not just bind a blank book)

I personally use this cream coloured paper from staples (about 17$), as a nicer paper than the harsh bright white, but also a paper that isn't super high end and expensive.

I just use my hands at first, and then I either use a triangle/protractor/creditcard-type thing or a seal's rib I found on a beach to go over it again to entirely flatten it (normal people who aren't a cheapskate purchase a bone folder. But I've honestly found using a triangle works perfectly for this, so I haven't really been inclined to buy one). Normally after this I set it in a 'press' either squished beneath books, or set inbetween books on a bookshelf that then is tightly wedged with other books, to fold them as flat as possible. As of 2026, normally I skip all the putting into the press part until punching the holes for the signatures, or once it's sewed together and I glue on the linen backing (since I need to put it in the press by then anyways).

Please ignore how messy my desk is god the triangle is beside the papers in the middle to be folded into a signature.

3. Punching sewing holes into the signatures.

I've created a punching cradle for myself, and I use a template to first denote where the holes will be punched and then punch them through with an awl. Then the signatures go back into the 'press'

Difficult to see, but the long piece of paper in the middle has marks along specific lengths where I leave marks for where to punching holes through. I prefer an open ended cradle as that I can hold the papers down with my thumb, but most people prefer a close ended one as the papers in the signatures are exact (which... Yeah I can see why. I find that I get exact enough paper alignment however, but I guess I'm not the most picky perhaps in that manner).

4. Sewing the signatures together

Here there's a lot of variability depending if you want to use ribbons, cord or just sew the signatures together. I use ribbons, since that's the way I learned in hand bookbinding, although that's a bit overkill for small novels. I've whipped up a shoddy but functional sewing frame, which makes this much easier to do. I cut three ribbons to align with the holes in one of the signatures which I'm laying flat on my frame; I tape them to the bottom of my frame and pin them to the frames bar so they align. Then I sew the signature together, passing over and around the ribbons so that the ribbons get clamped to the signatures. For thread, I use white Gutenberg thread (it's just what I have on hand) that's been passed over a chunk of beeswax to both make the threads stick to each other while sewing to minimizing knots, which also makes them a bit stronger and makes the thread last longer. I find keeping the ribbon and thread white minimizes the obviousness in the areas where you can see the thread or ribbons. I buy really cheap white ribbon from the dollar store, since it doesn't need to be nice. I sew using the kettle stitch, so tying a knot at the end of each signature to keep the signatures tight to each other; I press down with my fingers of my other hand when I tie a knot, to make sure it is as close as possible. After that's done, I put it back into the press to flatten again.

A just about finished textblock in the frame.

My (old) beautifully versatile 'press'- there's a half finished book in there, plus a bunch of signatures ready to be punched being pressed. Today I generally just use clamps (the quick release-type, as not having to manually crank them is really helpful) to squarsh the book between books as it adds more pressure.

5. Linen backing

I then cut some linen (I buy those cheap Micheals squares of linen. Also best to be white/light coloured for unobtrusiveness) to paste onto the back of the book; I cut it so it just covers the ends of the sewing holes on the top/bottom, and with about 3 cm of linen off each side of the spine to be glued to the bookboard that will become the covers. I paste it onto the sewn signatures by clamping the signatures between two large books, and then rounding the spine of the signatures, so they can fit nicely within the spine cover once it's made. I do this by lightly hitting the signatures with the flat area of the handle of an Swiss Army knife (normal people use a mallet). I make my own book binders paste to paste the linen down (it's literally just boiled flour and water). Most of the time now I will just mold it with my hands; try to make sure it's rounded evenly the spine and the top and bottoms of the signatures are flush. You can use any glues as well, and most people prefer to use pH neutral PVA since there's issues with acidity in paper and longevity. I use bookbinders paste because it's (theoretically, in my brain) pH neutral, and I'm... A bit cheap. With bookbinders paste, if it's too wet then the papers in the signatures might get wavy though, so you want to make sure it's pretty thick and rather the texture of custard (just follow the recipe properly. I generally make a smaller amount; so usually 1 tablespoon flour/cornstarch to 1/3 or 1/2 a cup of water). I also suggest you try to get the backs of the signatures as close as possible to where you clamp it between the books, as this means that once you've clamped it as much as possible, the signatures will be glued into a closer position to each other, and will not gape between signatures (or at least, not as much) when you are flipping through the book later.

Were ignoring that in this photo I've already added endbands (again, you can move around some steps- I like to add endbands after the bookboard is added as the textblock rests on the bookboard instead of the textblock, which minimizes any bending of the textblock. It's a little annoying to push the needle through the linen on the back, but I don't particularly mind). Rn I tend to do endbands after the linen backing and before bookboards. I like to measure and add lines for where I should be attaching the linen so it's not wobbly.

6. Cut the bookboard

There's a lot of things you can use as bookboard, and I've used varying things as well. I've used chipboard, backs of sketch books, and actual bookboard; many people also talk about thrifting old out of date/offensive books to take apart, or thrifting old shitty binders to rip up. I like to cut the bookboard so that there's a 4 mm overhang from the signatures inside, with a 7 mm space from the hinge for the bookboard.

I find using the heavy duty fixed x-acto blades is best for hand cutting bookboard, as they are the least liable to snap when putting pressure while cutting (I use scalpels for cutting the actual paper, not board, as a rounded edge cuts through cross-grain paper better as the cutting pressure is less horizontal and more downwards, and will not 'snag' the paper and give it little rips which can happen with the above). I find it best to not put a great amount of pressure to get it cut through in one cut, as you're more liable to slip your triangle/ruler- going over it a couple times with more moderate pressure tends to give me more accurate results. As well, using a ruler or triangle that has a flat surface that touches the paper surface will be more accurate as well- there's some rulers out there that hover over the paper since they have a cork bottom, and that means you're going to have more wobble in your cut as well, even when your ruler doesn't move at all.

7. Paste the bookboard to the signatures

I always make marks on everything where it should be aligning to, to keep everything as straightened out as possible. I put paste on the outside of the linen, with cardboard/or some sort of film underneath so no paste gets on the signatures; I then press the cover on, and gently flip it to do the other side. I then place it between books with clamps to press it and it dries correctly without warp. After, I glue on the ribbons in much the same manner. After the ribbons are dried, I trim them along the linen, (or keep a extra centimeter or two on the ribbons off the linen) so it keeps them tidy.

Post ribbon trimming; unfortunately you can't see the outside lines on the linen I denoted for where the boards should be attached. Scalpel which I used to cut the ribbons and the paper is also within the photo (I bought mine off of Amazon for 20$ I think? I got one handle and a pack of 100 blades).

8. Create head/ends bands.

I follow this tutorial for sewing headbands; there's lots of different ways to do it as well. For materials I use DMC embroidery thread (which is pretty thick... At some point I'll probably try actually thread, rather than embroidery floss as you can get more exact and even lines with thread) and cotton twine- I like this one as that I've found it keeps its circumference even, while other twine I had previously been using didn't always do that.

I now use the double-core endbands method, as seen in DAS's video. For the core I use a faux leather cord from either Michaels or a dollar store, and I use polyester embroidery thread, as I was unable to find proper silk embroidery thread, and it was a lot less expensive then what I've looked at online. I bought a set of different colours from Amazon for 30$.

9. Attaching cover papers and spine.

The way I've done them varies depending on my plans for the cover. If you are doing a different coloured spine to the covers, I tend to paste down the paper of the covers first before the spine paper. It is actually better to paste down the spine before the covers; as the spine paper inevitably will not lie straight. As a result pasting the cover paper over the spine paper hides that issue, and covers the wonky edge with a flush, straight edge from the cover paper.

For the spine, what I do is I first add the title, before attaching the spine paper (I do my titles by printing out the title to the size I want, rubbing graphite to the back of it and then tracing aggressively the title over the spine paper). I like to use Oxford hollows for my spine, and generally follow this guide (also done by one of the renegade bindery folks). I however like to paste in a thicker sheet of paper which over the area of the spine to add some heft to the spine and then curving it once it's dried, before glueing the spine paper onto the signatures. An important thing for when you're pasting paper/cloth to the covers, is that when it dries, if you haven't placed it under books/in a press it'll immediately start to curl the covers edges up. To minimize that, place it in a press immediately after you're done with pasting. Adding endpapers will remove/minimize the effect, although you can also get the covers to curl in the opposite direction then.

Cover paper added before spine, which is not recommended. The previous type of embroidery thread I use for endbands is to the right.

Spine being worked on. For this one I cut out tabs for where the spine goes for an easier fold-over, but either way is fine I find.

10. Endpapers

Make a mark of where the text block ends on the covers; measure the amount of space between the edge of the cover to the mark, so you can make guiding marks for where you want the end papers to go. I cut the end papers and actually line them up before pasting- you want to make sure the paper will align to the textblock, so adjustments are often required to the marks you've made following the edges of the textblock. I apply paste to the bookboard, then align the paper to be just inside the marks, gently smoothing it with my hands (I find doing it with an implement can cause warping/tears in the paper or if it's not staying down go over after using your hands with a tool. It's the same with any paper, although thicker paper definitely can take a lot more, and the stock coloured paper I use my triangle on for flattening, but only for edges). Once the end paper is gently pressed down against the cover, I press a triangle into where the spine would bend the endpapers to begin making a fold there; after going over it once or twice, I then begin to fold the book with the triangle still in, so that the crease remains, and after going over it another few times, I put a piece of cardboard and thin plastic (old overhead plastic papers, but others often used wax paper) and let dry overnight. If you don't add cardboard and plastic, the moisture will migrate into your textblock making it wobbly. Once it's dry (and not cold to the touch. Cold means it's not actually dry) I open it back up to add a small strip of paste on the first page of the text block near the hinge, so that it sticks to the end papers, and leave it again to dry over night with the same set up. And voila! You've got a finished book!

Tracing the edges of the textblock for endpapers

Using a triangle to guide the fold of the endpapers

11. Extras

You can also at this point make a extra cover, or add art to the covers on the book, like a nice title or something. You can also add a waterproofing step, which I've been meaning to get around too in my books. Some people have suggested spray acrylics, or simply clear acrylic medium as well, as it'd work (there's some resources out there about it). I personally apply a beeswax/mineral spirits mixture, which another binder in the Renegade discord has been recommending (it's a 50/50 ratio recipe. I just heated my beeswax slowly in the microwave at 1 min intervals, and then added and mixed in the mineral spirits). It very minimally at worst darkens the paper, and leaves a nice sheen along with making the cover water resistant. The book may be at first a bit tacky feeling, but as your hand oils get onto the cover it'll feel nice and smooth. Today I use clear acrylic spray; I find with the beeswax I didn't like the tackyness, and found you could accidentally add too much beeswax to the cover. Also, less involved and both make the book smell bad for a while, lol.

One note: For the icha icha books I swap around some of the stuff as that the paper I purchased isn't big enough to wrap around the whole book- so I actually attach the spine before the bookboards and wrap the bookboards with the cover paper before assembling all of it, to avoid having a line though the bookboard covers. I prefer the way I've outlined above over this method though as this method I personally find a bit more messy. Or, if your paper wraps all the way around you will simply apply it after the book boards and the spine titling is finished.

Bookbinding tips and tricks master list 

How did I get into bookbinding?

Believe it or not, this actually started as a New Years resolution! The past two years were very dull for me creativity wise. Just as I was adjusting to college life, which was hard enough, my parents told me they were getting a divorce at the beginning of 2019 (on April fools day my dudes... they didn’t plan that one well). 

I tried several times to find a craft that I could burry myself in during this time, but honestly? Nothing I tried kept my attention span for long. Instead, I began reading books and fics (and was busy getting DEEP into Mob Psycho 100). 

That’s when I began reading Issho. I normally don’t read long books (because my attention span is… bad), but it was exactly what I needed with what I was going through at that time. Once the fic was finished, I literally sat there and thought to myself, “Oh my god if there was a physical copy of this I would 1000% buy it right now like... holy shit that was so good.”

And I was like, “Why don’t you just make your own–” “HOLY SHIT I CAN JUST MAKE MY OWN!”

And then I got really into bookbinding XD

Supplies & Such

The essentials (and the low budget alternatives):

PVA Glue - This stuff drys as hard as a rock and is great for paper crafting in general.

Ruler (but I’d get a safety ruler for, uh, reasons)

Cutting mat

Chipboard - You can also use the cardboard from the backs of sketch pads, or even cereal boxes as the cheapest option.

Book Fabric - Here’s a tutorial on how to make your own

Thick white thread (You can do other colors, but they normally will show through the book so that’s a style choice on your side)

Cardstock (for endpapers)

Specialty Paper - This just means paper with a pretty pattern. You’ll use this for your cover if you don’t want a to use book cloth for the whole cover.

Utility blade - To cut the edges of the book to make ‘em smooth.

Sandpaper - To smooth out the freshly cut edges.

Bone folder - Okay, honestly? I just use a butter knife to get nice crisp edges when folding the actual paper for the books XD.

Heavy books - this is to make sure the glue dries nice and secure)

Needle - to sew but also to poke holes in your text block)

Awl - You can just use a thick needle to poke holes if you want.

Binder clips - I use small ones to clip the end pages to the actual cover itself before I glue it.

Something to smooth out a thin layer of glue - I use a silicone paint brush but I’ve seen a regular paint brush and even a rubber spatula!

Not needed, but I encourage these for “pro” binding:

A Printer - Clearly, you can make plain books without a printer, but if you want to print fics, you kind of have to buy one unless you want to go to a print shop. And if you invest in a printer, MAKE SURE IT PRINTS DOUBLE SIDED!

Silhouette cutting machine - This is for making vinyl titles on your books. (YA’LL WHILE I WAS TYPING THIS I JUST GOT A NOTIFICATION THAT MINE CAME IN THE MAIL TODAY I’M SO HYPED!)

The Guillotine™ - I’m getting one of these so I don’t have to use a utility blade.

Book Press/Finishing press - This replaces the heavy books. You don’t need it, but if you don’t want to mess around with accidentally shifting the book while the glue is drying, I highly recommend it. You can even make your own!

Then there's the optional fun stuff. If you wanna go all out and do gilded edges, rounded spines, or gold leaf imprints on leather, I recommend looking at TALAS for these items. They’ve literally got anything you could ever dream of for anything bookbinding. For paper, I get all of mine either at HobbyLobby or Michaels (Both have different selections, so if I can’t find what I want at one store, I go to the other). As for fabric, I always go to JoAnn’s. They have sooooooo many cool types of fabric that can be make into book fabric!

Typesetting a fanfiction 

Aaaaand now for the hard part... 

Typesetting.

Theres many MANY ways to typeset, but here is how I do it as a Word user:

First, you’ll want to change the size of your document to be US Legal. To do this, go to the layout tab at the top of the document and select size. It should be there as a preset.

Next, in the same tab, go to custom margins and change the margins to these settings: top 1.5″ bottom 1.5″ Left 1″ Right 1″. This way, when you are cutting the edges of your text block with a utility blade, you won’t cut too close to the text.

Now for the set up of the first few pages! First, you’ll want to set up two blank pages. That way, when they print out, you’ll have one page of nothing before the title page.

The third page is where you’ll put your title page (title of book, author, artist, etc.)

For me, I like to use the fourth page for all the info Ao3 has on the book (the link, the fandom, tags, published date, all that jazz). This is optional though, so if you don’t want to do that, leave this page blank.

Then, for the fifth page, you can begin writing your paper!

Because you are changing the size to US Legal, you’ll want your text to be pretty large (remember, 4 pages are fitting onto one piece of paper). I recommend starting with font size 18 as the smallest and then working up from there.

This is just a suggestion, but I also recommend using the “Justify” option for your paragraph alignment. It just makes the book look cleaner as a whole!

Then, export your document to a PDF!

Now for the signatures. A signature is a booklet. To make your full book, you stack multiple signatures on top of each other. 

For this to work, you’ll need Adobe Acrobat (alas, I don’t know of a freer alternative atm. I’ll do some research).Get ready though... this is the tricky part. (Here is a good tutorial I found for this part!)

Are ya ready for some math??? I wasn't 

First, after you open your PDF document, you need to check the number of pages your document is. It must be a multiple of 4 (So you must be able to divide the amount of pages by 4). If not, you’ll need to add some extra pages.

You’ll want to add the extra blank pages at the end of the document. To add extra pages, go to “Organize Pages” and there should be a tab at the top of the page that says “Insert.” Simply click on “Insert Blank Page” and you're set!

Now, to figure out how many signatures you need. 

Signatures tend to be in groups of 12, 16, 20, or 24 pages (so booklets of 3, 4, 5, or 6 pieces of paper) and you need to decide how to divide your pages.

I’ll take the fic Break as an example. It was originally 117 pages and I needed to make it a multiple of 4, so I added 3 blank pages to the end. That way, the number of pages added up to 120.

The next step is some trial and error (and there’s probably a better way to do this, but I suck at math so here we go). You need to figure out which of the groups (12, 16, 20, 24) fit into your amount of pages. With Break, I got lucky and knew that 20 x 6 = 120, so I need to print my pages in groups of 20.

TIME TO PRINT!

So, although Acrobat is great, it does this dumb thing where it shrink the page to ‘fit everything in’. To stop this from happening, go to print and then, when the window to print shows up, you’ll want to click on “Page Setup.” There, you’ll get a window that should have the option of “Paper Size.” Go to “Manage Custom Sizes” and change each of the “Non-printable Area” measurements to 0. Now, it won’t shrink your stuff!

Time to print signatures! Select “Booklet” and then go to the box that has the number of pages. Back to the Break example. I wanted to print 6 signatures with 20 pages each, so I want to input that into the pages section by printing first pages 1 - 20, then 21 - 40, 41 - 60, etc. in a booklet form.

Now, my printer sucks and doesn’t do double sided pages, so if yours is like mine, you’ll have to manually make them double sided by printing the odd pages first then the even pages. But, if you have a printer that actually, ya know, does its job, you should have an option to print double sided. Be sure to check that box and your signatures should print like a charm!

Please let me know if you’d like me to make another post or video about this part. This is the section that took me weeks to figure out so if it doesn't work out the first time, same my dudes...

Processes of binding a book

I’m honestly just gonna link my YouTube playlist for this one! My favorite people to watch are SeaLemon for beginner bookbinding, and then DAS Bookbinding (YouTube ; Website) for more advanced (and expensive) bindings. He’s got crazy cool techniques like rounded spines and leather book covers which I hope to do when I have the funds (shameless Ko-Fi plug)

Tips and tricks I’ve learned the hard way so far

Cut once measure twice! Those little 1/16 of an inch can make or break your finished product.

When you are working on the actual case of the book, make sure to apply the glue to the board. If you apply it to the paper directly, it can warp the page and it’s really hard to stick it to the board properly.

When gluing your special paper to your cover, make sure to stretch it out (but careful not to rip it). You just want to make absolute sure there are no air bubbles. Use the bone folder/butter knife to smooth it out.

When it comes to PVA glue, you need to apply a thin layer. Be sure to smooth out the glue in some way to make this happen. 

After you’ve glued your end pages and your book is ready to press, make sure there is some sort of thick page (I use the cardboard from my cereal boxes) between the glued side and the actual text block. Otherwise, when it’s put in the press, the body text could warp (and that sucks... I had to throw away my first book because this happened...)

Be careful with blades (yikes)

Speaking of blades, if you use a utility blade to cut the edges of your paper, make two slits on either side of your text block before going ham with it. That way, when you’re cutting, you have a guide and the sides don't slip and cut funky.

Take your time. You don’t gotta rush. I already need to redo one book (cinderella-esque) because I rushed the heck outta it. Yes, you get that serotonin when it’s finished, but now the sides of it are all weird and I can’t really fix it.

Always check that you have added an extra page when printing! If you are going in groups of 20 and you print 1 - 20, remember to START with 21 and print pages 21 - 40 so you don’t re-print page 20 (I did that with Break... so much wasted paper and ink :’))

Step 1.

Carefully fold each sheet in half, making sure to keep everything straight and even. Once you’ve folded all the pages, do the same for the cover, before putting everything together.

Step 2.

Keeping the papers together, unfold them and lay them flat with the cover on top.

Measure along the fold with your ruler...

...and divide the length of the fold by 5. This will be the space between each hole. For example, my folded edge was 8.5 inches long, so 8.5 inches divided by 5 is 1.7 inches.

Step 3.

Let’s mark the spots where you’ll be making holes for your stitches.

Keep the ruler in place. After finding the spacing, take your pen/pencil, starting from zero before adding that number. You should end up with 4 evenly-spaced marks.

Step 4.

Now, we’ll use the awl to make the holes.

Keeping the papers flat in one hand, take your awl in the other and carefully push the sharp end against each mark until it pokes through the other side.

Be careful so you don’t prick your fingers! When you’re done, you should have 4 holes to sew through.

Step 5.

Cut about 2 feet of thread - it should be more than enough for what you’ll need.

Take the needle and thread it by taking the end of the thread in hand to get it in the hole (this may take a few tries).

Double-knot the thread around the needle.

Step 6.

Let’s finally get to the best part - sewing the saddle stitch!

Take your needle. Starting from the outside, pull it in through the top hole, leaving a few inches of thread on the outside.

Step 7.

Push your needle through the second hole, going from the inside to the outside. Make sure the tail of your thread isn’t pulled with it!

Step 8.

Go back inside through the outside of the third hole.

Step 9.

Finally, go back outside through the inside of the fourth and final hole.

Step 10.

Both ends of your string should be on the outside of your notebook, on the same side as the cover. Cut the needle off so that you can take both ends of the string and tie a double-knot like you would a shoelace.

You’re done!

Now go and enjoy your brand new, handmade notebook!