User:Sevgi/Bookmaking Guide

After Varia's bootleg bookmaking day(thank you Simon!) we realised we could do the same with facilities of the school. Here is a quick guide on how to proceed.

At the Print Studio as of 12.05.2025 you can ask Darina or Jasper for help. This is sometimes crucial since they will sometimes assume you don't know anything and they will hover over you if they are suspicious of this. They might not even offer help, just spy. Choose to be kind.

To make a bootleg book at WdKA, you will need:

• A pdf of a book preferably made of single pages so it looks neat.
• A thicker piece of paper for the cover.
• Printer access + 5 euros on your student card(I dont know why we have to do this and I think we should protest against it).

Print (Mac+windows)

Easiest way to send a pdf to print is to download the HR printer as a printer for your computer here. After downloading the printer, we need to slice our pdf into smaller pdfs because the HR printers can't print more than 30-40 pages per pdf.

Make sure the application called : uniFLOW is running on your computer, there should be a tiny sign with a red and white square inside each other the top toolbar.

You can split your pdf through https://www.ilovepdf.com/split_pdf . I like doing it this way here because it is free and works for both Mac and Windows computers. Easy. After splitting the pdf, we need to resize it and print it at least 71% smaller than the original to achieve an A5 size. I prefer my books smaller so I print smaller, and I also do this directly on Preview, not via any other program.

You can use any printer at the school. My fav printers are the ones in the Interaction Station.

⚠️This tutorial is specifically for glue-binding books! Do you wanna print a booklet and bind with the stapling machine? I gotchu, come ask me, I can show you how the machine works as well.

• Choose short edge binding for booklets, choose long edge left for single paged books.

With Preview

How I do this is pretty easy, I open the pdf on Preview and on the printing screen I choose 60%, double sided printing, long edge then send it to print through Web Submission Printer.

With Adobe Acrobat

You can also split, resize and create cut marks for your pdf on Adobe Acrobat, this is how Fred prefers to do his.

• Split the pdf:

Go to > Organize Pages > Split > Number of Pages: 30 > Output Options (make a new folder for all the output pdfs) and Split.

• Resize the pages:

??? I know this is also from Organize Pages > Set page boxes and but couldn't figure it out today for some reason.

• Create Trim Marks:

Use Print Production > Output Preview > Add Printer Marks > Select Trim Marks and set Page Range to All.

You can also add Trim Marks through the Advanced Print Setup options of Acrobat.

At the printer

Now we have to choose on the printer :

• Double sided printing Long edge and let the printer roll. I prefer to keep an eye on the printing because you can never trust a printer and turn your back on it.

• To print on your own paper: Load your paper to the printer and select the option for it.(what was this called? multipurpose tray?)

Print (Linux)

To print with linux computers we gonna use the print portal : here.

We can either

• use a command line script made by Martino to make the pdf A5 sized. Download the script and go to the folder of it. Put your pdf there and run:

bash booklet YOURBOOK.pdf

it'll make a booklet pdf on the folder.

• or print the pdf from the online source and upon saving it change the scale to whatever size we want. This works on my Debian 12.10 Bookworm, but I am not sure about every version(we can update here as we go).

After that we will have our pdf and can put it in the print portal!! yayyyy!!!!

The first measurement.

Cut

Cutting machine sketch by me, put thumbs there, the pedal is underneath.

Now we have 80 pages of bootlegged paper, we need to measure how big we want our book to be.

There is one mandatory cut and the rest is optional.

Using the cutting machine and cutting towards the spine

• Hold your stack upright like a book and measure from left side to where the spine would be. This cut is necessary for glue-binding. The machine will clasp our book from the spine side and glue the cover. We need to make sure this measurement leaves space for legibility and is not too close to the text.
• Align your stack of paper to the right side of the cutting machine. Push the large wooden block into the paper stack to straighten it into the corner.
• Punch in your measurement on the little screen, no commas use the dot instead. like: 21.9cm instead of 21,9 cm.

• After you punch the number press the = button multiple times, usually 2 times works but sometimes you need to press it more. You can hear and see the machine move, beautiful we are so on.

This is the button you press multiple times

• ⚠️Make sure there is nothing on the way of the light sensor - you can see red lights coming from the sides of the machine. Nothing should be breaking the laser going through one side to the other. This is so that we can keep our fingers.

• Clamp the stack with the large pedal underneath the machine. Press the pedal with your foot.
• When you are sure this is the cute you want to make push the double button mechanism with your thumbs. That's it!

Proper Measurements for Proper Cutting

If you are a fan of measurements and love order:

• Measure the distance from the top, bottom and right side of the paper to the book size you want at the end. We will use this measurement after the binding to get our final book.

Chaos Cutting

This is the cuts I make because I like working with a smaller stack and I can estimate where the cover is gonna go easier. I do not advise anyone to do this because this is not only stupid but you will have to measure later at the end again. I don't care this is how I do it:

• Measure how much off the top and bottom you want, roughly. Write this down somewhere, maybe on the first page itself. Cut it off!
• Leave the right side of the stack alone, we can cut this later and it is nice to have something to hold when we are putting the stack on the glue binding machine.

Bind

Tiny sketch

The binding machine is gorgeous and beautiful, first be grateful that we have this opportunity. Also remember Varia also has a glue binding machine and they would be happy to let you in to use it. Contact via Zulip, this is the signup link: https://whoosh.vvvvvvaria.org/join/soogokg6h55342dh5b3po4ij/.

• First place your cover under the clamps. The clamps don't hold anything too much but there are censors underneath them and if you don't put something under, the machine won't start.
• If you want no cover, just the binding get a peel paper from the box and put it glossy side up.
• Put your stack of paper at the large slit at the left end of the machine spine side down. Toggle (=) to make the slit open more, put your stack in and remember to stack the bottom side neatly. This is going to be your spine so you want it to be all on the same level, no fly away papers.
• After you make sure everything is in order, toggle (-) to clamp it tightly. This is all really easy when you are next to the machine but doesn't read super easy.
• MAKE SURE THE KEEPING WARM SWITCH IS OFF. If not, the machine will be in standby mode and won't work.
• Watch your book get glued!! This is fun, don't be scared of all the mechanical stuff, just hit START. Worst case scenario: we print again, no worries!
• When the machine binds your book and moves it from left to right, it will drop it on the cover part. Hold your book when the machine gets to the right end. Let it drop and keep it there for a second. Then wiggle it through the right end to make sure it slides off the machine.
• Get your book out and hold the cover tight for a little bit until it dries completely. This will take maybe a minute or less. I don't really do this actually, I just give my newborn book a good squeeze and inspect the glue.
• TURN THE KEEPING WARM SWITCH OFF IF YOU ARE DONE AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE IN LINE.

Did you mess up this whoooole process? Does you book look shit immediately of the binder?

• Remove the cover immediately after the binding is done.
• Find another cover and make sure this time it will be ok/ish.
• Run the book through the machine again with your new cover under the clamps.(Yes this is possible, but not many times, just 1-2 times is pushing it.)

Cut Again

Now we have a nice bookish thing, we need to shape it into a book.

• Get your measurements from the first Cut out! This is where we will use them.
• Make sure the measurements are right. You don't have to be 100% sure just select a page with a lot of text and remeasure things quickly.
• CUT!
• Now you have a new book! Enjoy your free book!!!