Bookbinding - I Am The Paper In A Well Bound Book
The range of bookbinding / printing paper available today is greater than at any time in history
, from the cheapest newsprint, to the finest hand made paper, and everything conceivable in between
Anyone skilled in bookbinding would stop and think when faced with a book printed on cheap wood pulp paper; this type of paper in particular is full of lignin, a plant acid, which in the medium term leads to yellowing, brittle paper.
Someone experienced in bookbinding, when faced with a book printed on this sort of paper, may well question the wisdom of spending perhaps a considerable amount of money on having a book bound which is going to decay so rapidly.
So the choice of paper for a good bookbinding is of great importance.
Developments in printing technology have to a certain extent dictated what types of paper have emerged to satisfy them.
What is known as "art paper" is a good example.
Lithographic printing required a smooth surfaced paper, so papers were developed that had used a relatively small amount of plant fibre, the remainder of the paper being bulked out with China clay.
This produced a very smooth paper with relatively little strength, particularly folding strength. Also damp posed a great threat to this type of paper, this can be seen by the many examples of early art papers which have suffered from being exposed to moisture.
I saw one example of a bookbinding printed on early art paper, in which most of the pages had become stuck together, as moisture partially dissolved the loading of China clay.
At the other extreme are hand made papers made by small independent mills, which are of wonderful quality.
Many of these hand made papers find their way into bookbinding or paper conservation, no doubt they find other uses.
Hand made paper for use in bookbinding makes use of many different fibres; European papers make great use of linen, cotton and jute. Japanese hand made papers are legendary and make use of indigenous plants, such as the paper mulberry to make bookbinding papers of great strength and beauty.
While these hand made papers are true examples of a valued craft, they do not find their way into the arena of mass book production.
If a book is going to be mass printed the paper cannot be so expensive as to make the final price of the book too unattractive. So a compromise has to be made.
The Dover publications group, have for many years produced books which were printed on machine made, wove acid free paper, so it can be done, in many ways Dover led the way for other publishing houses.
Now there are many papers, acid free/woodfree papers, made from re-cycled waste paper, this type of paper may not have the greatest strength, but does it need to be for an average book?
There are also rather more costly papers made from a very pure form of paper fibre called "Alpha cellulose" This type of high quality paper is used by the smaller presses or in print making. In bookbinding they also find use as quality end papers.
By Richard Norman
Bookbinding - I Am The Paper In A Well Bound Book
By: richard norman
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