Today I've been working on page arrangement. As I mentioned in part 1, I'm going to be screen printing my book therefore I have printed each page onto acetate. I've printed them as a double page spread as they would appear in the book. However, for the binding method I'm using I need to arrange them on the A3 piece of paper in a particular manner so that when the A3 paper is folded the pages appear in the right order. Depending on how many times you're planning on folding the paper, the layout can change. For this reason I always fold a piece of paper the way I will fold the final piece and I number the pages as they appear, then I open the paper out and take note of their positions. The image here illustrates this, click on it to see a larger version. There is a quick mathematical equation to work it out, but the folding way is good too (opposit pages always minus to get the number , and the pages on the other side of the paper are always 1 digit different +/-)
One of the easiest 'at home' ways to complete page layout is simply by using sticky tape & a photocopier. Print out your pages as you regularly would on loose sheets of paper, or if you're hand drawing just draw them as usual. Cut all your proposed pages to size (ie the size of the pages as they will appear in the book) and then lay them out in the correct positions according to your numbered practice folded sheet. Carefully fix them together by sellotaping them on the back (if you're using this method, it doesn't matter if you sellotape on the back as you'll make a new 'layout sheet' for each side of the final A3/4 paper). Photocopy this layout onto fresh paper. Do the same for the pages on the other side of the A3, and just photocopy on the back of the already photocopied sheet (phew, keeping up? don't forget, this isn't exactly beginners stuff, but i'll be posting an easy tutorial later this week for you!).
Depending on how many sections the book has, you should have your completed unfolded, fully layed out A3 sheets all ready to fold! For me the next step is actually going to be sellotaping together the seperate 'pages' of acetate print outs ready to be printed onto the A3 (kinda the same as the photocopying, but using screen printing), and then I'm going to be printing the images.
In part 3 of this diary, I will be showing you folding of the sections!
