How you set up your text layout
(margins, gutter, page size, pagination) will depend upon which print option
you choose for your family history book.
Step 3—Choose a
book-binding style
•Coil,
Comb, and Tape-bound—Single pages, can be printed front and back (duplex
printing). Lie flat. Service of office supply and copy centers. Simple
formatting.
•Velo-bound—Single
pages riveted together with plastic strips on front and back. Requires
formatting for a wider gutter (margin down the center of a book). Service of
office supply and copy centers.
•E-book—Digital
delivery in PDF format. Best to use Adobe
Acrobat full version to make PDF’s so hyperlinks
remain intact. Upload to website, email, save to a disk. Simple formatting.
Change layout to 8” wide and 6” high. Use san serif font for easy reading on a
computer monitor.
•Print-On-Demand—Upload
your text in PDF form to a publishing service. Can order small quantities of
your book in paper-back form for a reasonable price. CafePress or Amazon.com’s CreateBooks. Another one is Fidlar Doubleday Digital Printing. Some will
perform impositioning (format your text so that it prints folded pages in the
proper order).
•Hand-bound—Do-it-yourself,
hand-sewn, hard-cover book. Requires a duplex printer (printer that will
print on both sides of the paper), guillotine paper cutter, awl, book-binders
needle, cardboard, cloth, and waxed string. An impositioning program like ClickBook($50) will be necessary if you are
using a word processing program and your book is lengthy. Hammish MacDonald has
an article and forum for complete and entertaining instructions on how to make
your own hard-cover or paperback book.
•Perfect-bound—Paperback
book you can make yourself with Hammish MacDonald’s tutelage. Same layout
process as hand-bound.
I’ve made small hand-bound books (40 pages or less) with MS
Word and an inexpensive duplex printer. One 8 ½” X 11” sheet of paper folded in
half makes 4 pages.
In MSWord, go to File>Page Setup. On the Margins tab, select
Landscape, Left and Right Margins at 1”, Gutter 0.5”, and from the pages
drop-down menu choose Bookfold. On the Paper tab, set the paper size at Width 5.5” and Height 8.5”. Then click the Print Options button and select Front and
Back from duplex printing. Print, following the printer instructions. Write and
print 5 pages at a time. Adjust the pagination so it continues where the last
set left off.
Choose a book binding style that suits your family history
book goal. You will end up with a book that your family members will
appreciate.
