Work in Progress: the Craft of Printing

It takes a village to raise a child; a book is the work of many hands.

In today’s digital world, most of us pay far too little attention to the fact that many of the things that we use every day still need to be actually made. Printed books are a good example. We’re so used to seeing them around the place – in fact, in many parts of the world we’re coming down with them, to a point where some charity shops have stopped accepting them as donations* – that we give little thought to how they made their way into the world.

Writers talk about “works in progress”; the same is true of a printed book. We recently received photos of just such a work-in-progress – the various parts of the book Refuge by Fatema Alarabi, prior to binding. Here at Third Age Books, we’ve dealt with hundreds of books over the years – and each one is different. Yet it still came as something of a shock to see all the elements of this particular book laid out, before being assembled.

There are a number of different components, each of which is produced separately.

The text itself. Known as the “text block” – because that’s what it is, a block of text. The meat in the book sandwich, as it were. This one features illustrations – including of pomegranates (which are mentioned in the text) at the end of each chapter.

The case binding. Cloth covered, in this case. Choose your colour carefully. This one includes foil blocking on the spine. For the blocking, you can have any colour you like – as long as it’s silver or gold (as Henry Ford might have put it).

The endpapers. These are fixed between the text and the case. Refuge is about a couple who flee the Middle East for Ireland, where they make a new life. So the endpapers at the start show the Middle East, and the ones at the end show Ireland: alpha and omega. This progression echoes the cover design.

The dustjacket. Originally intended to keep the dust off books in a dusty bookshop. Nowadays, it’s more of a design feature. The upper and lower images reflect the Middle East and Dublin respectively – as with the endpapers above.

It’s also important to say that all of this is somewhat beside the point if the writing is no good; in the case of Refuge, the writing is very good. Needless to say, we’re very much looking forward to seeing the finished product shortly.

Years ago, I led a group of colleagues on a tour of a printing company, where we were shown the presses – and the printers – at work on the factory floor. At the end of the tour, one of my colleagues said something along the lines of: “It’s an art in its own right.” She was right. The next time you pick up a book – of whatever type – spare a thought for the work and skill that has gone into making it – by more people than you might imagine.

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The jacket of Refuge, and the endpapers, were designed by Baker @ Plan B Associates. The inside pages were designed by Mindmaxtech. The book is being printed by CPI Anthony Rowe.

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*It is estimated that 200,000 new books are published every year in the UK and Ireland. I’ll be writing more about this in a future post.