what I like

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[classicalcanvas]

Flowering Garden (1888) by Vincent van Gogh

[lookcaitlin]

[70sscifiart]

Seth Jaben's interior illustration for chapter two of Scholastic Computing: An Introduction to Computers, by Jack L Roberts, 1984

[celestial-sphere-press]

Book Decoration: AKA All The Ways I Don't Use a Cricut

(this post is for people who don't want to buy an expensive cutting tool, or for those that do have an expensive cutting tool that would like to mix things up a little)

1. Print That Shit

If you're already printing your own textblocks, an easy step for titles is to print them. Above is a title printed onto an "obi" of decorative paper. I measured out where I wanted things on the finished book and laid it out in Affinity, then printed it on a full sheet & trimmed it down to wrap around the book. A more simple method is to print & glue on the label into a slight indent in the cover (to protect it). A third option is to do the spine in bookcloth, while you print on paper for the cover and then glue that paper onto the boards (this usually looks even better when it is a three-piece bradel bind).

2. Foil Quill / Heat Pens

The heat pen is one of my go-to tools, but it can be a bit touchy about materials. The most popular version is the We R Memory Keepers' Foil Quill (which is one of the most ergonomic), but other pens exist that can get you to a higher heat temp, finer lines, or more consistent foil. For example, I have a pen created by a local Japanese bookbinding studio that fares way better on leathers than the WRMK quill & with a finer tip, but it's hell to control. Best results in general are on paper or smooth bookcloth (starched linen, arrestox, colibri - even duo will work but its less solid). The fuzzier a bookcloth is, the less your foil quill wants to deal with it. This means the heat n bond method of making bookcloth does not play nice with a heat pen usually, but there are two solutions: 1) use this tutorial on paste + acrylic medium coated bookcloth instead that will get you a perfect surface for the heat pen, or 2) use the pen on paper & then glue onto the cloth. I did a video tutorial for both foil quill use and this type of homemade bookcloth for @renegadeguild Binderary in 2023.

You get the most consistent results by tracing through a printed template that is taped in place, as I do in the video above.

3. Paint That Shit

Acrylic paints will do you fine! The above is free-handed with a circle template, because I wanted that vibe. If you need straight lines that won't seep, lay them down with tape first & then paint over it first with a clear Acrylic medium, then your color. Same goes for stencils. Two more examples of painted bookcloth:

4. IT'S GOT LAYERS

By using layers of thinner boards, you can create interesting depths & contrasts on your cover. You can also make cutouts that peep through to the decorative paper behind. The most important part to this technique is the order in which each edge is wrapped. To get a good wrapped inside edge, you will split the turn in into tabs to get them to conform to a curve. You can also layer multiple colors of bookcloth without multiple layers of board, as seen below left, so long as you mind your cut edges for fraying.

5. Inlaid... anything

Mirrors! Marbled paper! I saw someone do a pretty metal bookmark once! The key is creating a little home for it to live in, which is pretty similar to the above layering method. On one layer you cut the shape, & glue that layer onto the bottom solid board before covering. You can do the top layer as an entire 1 mm board (like I did for the mirrors) or a sheet of cardstock, like I would use for inlaid paper.

6. Decorative Paper

Decorative paper is always helpful & adds to the paper hoard... & its effects can be layers with other techniques, as below. Marbles, chiyogami, momi, or prints & maps of all kinds can be great additions. Some papers may need a protective coating (such as wax or a sealer).

7. Stamps (with optional linocut)

While I've not used many more regular rubber stamps, I do know some who have, successfully! And I've used one once or twice with embossing powder (see photo 3 up, the gold anchor on the little pamphlet bind). What also works is to carve your own linocut or stamp, & then use block printing ink to ink it onto your fabric (as i did above). A bit time intensive, but it was nice how easily reproducible it was, and I liked the effect I got for this particular bind.

These methods are not exhaustive, just ones I've used, and there are of course many others. I haven't gone too into detail on any of these for the sake of length (& post photo limits) but feel free to ask about more specifics. Usually I'm using them in combination with other options.

[pngsforthepeople]

Button pngs

[canon-in-too-deep]

Tumblrary Directory

Imprints: in_D Press (main)

This directory is ongoing and updated as needed. Everything listed as Free is indeed free to use (for personal use only), just please leave credit and consider liking/reblogging or following this blog. Any errors found, feel free to let me know. (づ◕⩌◕)づ For free access to my files/library, click the link and request access (and send a sworn oath written in blood to never violate the sanctity of the library).

Note: I do not use AI to make these. Just my own mediocrity ᕦ(◕⩌◕)ᕥ

Free Typesetting Resources

Font Book

Dingbat Book for Dinkuses

The Blue Fairy Book (Font Sampler Edition) edited by Andrew Lang

Typesetting Template (Affinity, Letter Folio): Notes for Typesetting Template and Tutorial for Typesetting Template

Font Recs

Typesetting Tips

Free Public Domain Typesets

[Books listed in order of upload date. Previews and details of each typeset can also be found in their original posts.]

Persuasion by Jane Austen (Letter Folio)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (Letter Quarto)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Letter Folio)

The Merry Adventures of Robinhood by Howard Pyle (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (Letter Folio)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (Letter Folio)

The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft (Letter Quarto)

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Letter Folio)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (Letter Folio)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Letter Folio)

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (Letter Folio)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Letter Folio)

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Odyssey by Homer (Letter Folio)

Tales of Space and Time by H. G. Wells (Letter Folio)

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (Letter Folio)

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (Letter Folio)

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Letter Folio)

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (Letter Folio)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Leave it to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse (Letter Folio)

Lord Peter views the body by Dorothy L. Sayers (Letter Folio)

The Room in the Tower by E. F. Benson (Letter Folio)

Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (Letter Folio)

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (Letter Folio)

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Letter Quarto)

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie (Letter Folio)

Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Letter Folio)

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (Letter Folio)

Andersen's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (Letter Folio)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (Letter Quarto)

Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare (Letter Folio)

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (Illustrated) (Letter Octavo)

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (Letter Folio)

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne (Letter Folio)

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Letter Folio)

Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (Letter Folio)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (Letter Folio)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Letter Folio)

The Blue Fairy Book (Font Sampler Edition) edited by Andrew Lang (Letter Folio)

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Letter Folio)

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (Letter Folio)

Emma by Jane Austen (Letter Folio)

Paradise Lost by John Milton (Letter Folio)

Moby Dick by Herman Melville (Letter Folio)

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (Letter Folio)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (Letter Folio)

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Letter Quarto)

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (Letter Quarto) (Illustrated)

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Letter Folio)

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin (Letter Folio)

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Letter Folio)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Letter Folio)

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

A Modest Proposal by Dr. Jonathan Swift (Letter Octavo)

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit (Letter Folio)

The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

White Fang by Jack London (Letter Folio)

The Call of the Wild by Jack London (Letter Folio and Letter Quarto)

The Republic by Plato (Letter Folio)

Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Letter Folio)

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

Free Calendars/Planners

2025

Personal Typesets (My Fics)

The Flowers We Pick

Free Graphics

Dividers

Headers

[canon-in-too-deep]

69

[enchantedbook]

'An Elf's ride through space on horseback' from 'Down - adown - derry', Walter de La Mare, illustrated by Dorothy P. Lathrop, 1922.

[perfectlynormalbooks]

pull the rider down, a 19k Bernice Summerfield fic I wrote as an exchange gift for a friend some time ago. Bound as a request for that same friend! Done in quarto - I went with a green-gold combination because I liked the look of it, and I always love working with this particular gold HTV.

[nodeadfandoms]

Binding of Titanomachia by and for the brilliant @nothingbutchaff!

All art on this binding by Ekachaka, including a commisioned cover/endpaper illustration of the climactic scene in the work: a boar stalking a Greek forest full of Greek orchids. Gold cloth cover and endpapers.

[landsccape]

[ur-daily-inspiration]

[homokommari]

[delicatethunders]

[baravaggio]

one of my favorite facts about gekko hayashi (artist who drew gay erotica) is that he was straight guy who pivoted from sci-fi & monster stuff to illustrating for gay & bdsm mags at like 50 years old because he wanted to expand his artistic horizons, and compensated by lack of lived experience by setting up a phone line for gay men to call in & recount their stories so he could illustrate them...legend

[baravaggio]

it's just like all bangers all the time with him

[firebound-press]

hello I heard you mention bookbinding resources in response to my tags and I wanted to ask if u know of any beginner ones for someone who has never tried it before? 👀

HIIIII YES I DO!!!!!

Here’s a fun infographic the renegade server made for cheap materials!! And here’s a fun infographic on what programs are available for typesetting!

Here is the doc that can get you started on bookbinding with step by step instructions,

How to Make A Book, by ArmoredSuperHeavy

And here is a link to the renegade hub! Come join the discord server for more tips and resources!

https://renegadepublishing.carrd.co

If you go to the tumblr page, @renegadeguild, you can see a collection of other peoples binds. Lately they’ve been reblogging peoples first binds to new binders not get overwhelmed or intimidated!

I really hope this helps, feel free to send another ask if you have more questions, I love helping new people get into bookbinding :D

[ayamemes]

this is so cute, laios is such a good brother

[omruc]

I cannot stress this enough, this is my all time favorite news story

[wiionme]