THE OLD SCHOOL PRESS

Moments in the making of The Colours of Rome.

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Labelling the stack


The final, important trick is to label each stack of sheets with its dark end and its light end and to ask the binder to ensure that all the first impressions are bound together, all the second together, and so on! (The stack is of course made up of tens, with their dark and light ends in the same place.) That way, each copy has sheets from the same point in the tens: third sheets are bound together, fourth sheets are bound together, etc. Each copy is then consistent within itself, or as consistent as your touching up of the ink will allow. Of course you have to ensure that there are complete tens otherwise the whole scheme goes to pot and you get copies with the darkest sheet bound in with the lightest!
On this occasion I am folding and gathering the sets of sheets myself, so it is down to me to make sure I keep all those markers in place and get the right sheets gathered together into each copy of the book.

Copyright © Martyn Ould 2013.