So I’m going to, as I work on the next book I’m binding, give a step by step of the way i do it. Now, this is by no means the best most perfect way to bind a book, and I take a lot of shortcuts. But it works.
So, we start with the digital side of things. For this example I’m using the xf fanfic Amish Country by Lolabeegood on Gossamer. I start by copy and pasting the entire fic into a word document. If I’m using a fic from AO3, you just click the little download button at the top and it gives you options - I use html and copy it from there.
In the word document, you then want to edit the text so it looks like how you want it. I find that size 18 times new Roman font works the best for the look I want to achieve - when the pages are scaled down into signatures and printed the font size drops quite dramatically.
You also want to create a cover page - I just use a word preset because I’m lazy.
Add page numbers and check they’re in the font you want - it’s a little detail but having them in a different font can be quite jarring sometimes.
Once it’s done to your liking, save it as both a word document (so if you notice a problem whilst printing you can go back and edit it) and a pdf.
I then use a Java program by Quantum Elephant called bookbinder to turn the pdf into signatures.
It can be intimidating at first, but you just import the pdf you’ve just saved and check the settings are correct. I usually leave the units as points, paper size as A4, single sided, with alternate page rotation on because I don’t have an automatic duplex printer. For book size I use standard paperback, keeping proportion, and I add a fly leaf. I use the standard signature format.
And then all you do is hit generate document and it will create a folder of pdfs containing your signatures.
I tend to find that the first page of the second side of the first signature is upside down so you just need to rotate that one in your pdf viewer, and you’re good to go.
I’m going to leave it here for now, because I have to do stuff for my dissertation to be submitted tonight, so when I print it out either tomorrow or Friday probably I’ll do another step by step of that.