About David

David has an Honours Degree in Printing and Packaging Technology and has worked in both technical and sales roles in both the Paper and Printing industries for over 20 years.

How to Choose a Book Size

How to Choose a Book Size   The question of book size is very important. By size, a printer means the page dimensions and by orientation they mean landscape or portrait. Many authors will have seen an book and want to replicate the size and feel of it, some will have a typical genre book [...]

By |August 22nd, 2023|Book Printing|

Section Sewn Binding v Perfect Binding

Section Sewn Binding v Perfect Binding   Although they are not so obvious to see at first glimpse, these are 2 completely different methods of holding pages together in a book. If you are thinking about printing a book you need to consider your options and the effects of each option on the look, feel [...]

By |June 16th, 2020|Book Printing|

Which path should an author take to get their book into print?

So, how should an author get their book into print? I hear this question asked a lot by authors once they have written their book. Many authors assume that the best way to get their book into print is to approach traditional publisher. Even when they have eventually found a Publisher willing to take them on, [...]

By |July 17th, 2018|Book Printing|

Mmmmm. There is nothing like the smell of a good book!

Researchers at University College London's Institute for Sustainable Heritage conducted an experiment asking how participants felt about a number of different aromas. Among them, of course, was an old book. Their findings were published in Heritage Science (https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-016-0114-1). Without knowing what they were smelling, participants overwhelmingly described the smell of books as being like chocolate. [...]

By |June 19th, 2018|Book Printing|

How do I make my book feel thicker?

How do I make my book feel thicker? Sometimes a book that does not have many pages will benefit from being a little thicker to give it more perceived value. This is often easily be achieved by just increasing the paper weight, but the disadvantage of doing this is that the paper cost increases proportionally [...]

By |March 21st, 2018|Book Printing|

Make your book look and feel like a best seller

Make your book look and feel like a best seller Every year I go to the London Book Fair where I meet with lots of first time self publishers, many who have just had their book printed. Sometimes their excitement is tinged with disappointment about how their book has turned out. I hear them tell me [...]

By |July 21st, 2016|Book Printing|

Book Typesetting and Page Design

So you’ve written all the content for your book and maybe you’ve got some photographs or drawings as well. You are right to be concerned about the elements of making your manuscript actually look like a book. There is, as you suspect, the potential to make a world of difference to the appearance of your [...]

By |July 7th, 2016|Book Printing|

Which is the best paper for printing my book?

Choosing the best paper for your book is a decision that should not be rushed – I pick up many books only to notice that the choice of paper is in conflict with the content. This might not be so obvious to the novice, but often there will be something that is difficult to put your [...]

By |March 3rd, 2016|Book Printing|

Achieving a beautiful printed result – FM Screening

To enable an image to be printed it must be broken up into a matrix of dots – called a halftone image. Traditionally the process of converting an original photograph into a halftone was done photographically with a halftone screen and the number of lines per inch (the resolution of the screen) was called the [...]

By |February 10th, 2016|General Printing|