I have a solution for an issue, that I'm quite sure that you are or will be affected in the future. I'm talking about uncountable amount of PDFs that you have laying around your storage devices and which are not in an easy to read and access physical form.

What if I were to tell you that you can print them out in your own home and all that you need for it is a "working" printer, some hobby tools and a little bit of free time.

Everything that I had described bellow I had done myself.

Tools and Materials

It will depend on what you want to bind.

For small booklets all you need to have are:

• standard A4 office paper
• stiff, but a fucking sharp knife
• and maybe a stiffer peace of paper for a cover
• a thread and a needle or a office stapler
• cutting surface, ruler, something heavy as a makeshift press
• paper glue

If you want to have a, hardcover than you will need:

• thick cardboard ~1.5mm to ~3mm
• bookbinding cloth or a wallpaper or only God knows what
• thicker paper for end paper

Many people will say that you will need X to start bookbinding, but they are wrong 😏 Here is a list of those things:

• waxed thread
• bone folder
• awl
• press
• heavy duty bookbinding paper guillotine - but that would be rally nice 😞

Preparing a pdf

If you don't want to bind loose pages, then you will need to prepare your pdf before printing it out.

You will have to create a booklet. On linux I'm using pdf2book, but you will need to figure out an alternative yourself for your os.

Printing

Print double sidedly and check the margin settings before printing.

Pray to the machine goods, so the devil, which a printer is, will work alright.

Binding

Please read the whole Troubleshooting section before starting.

And remember have fun 😁

There are to many methods of binding books to count, but bellow I listed those that worked best for me.

Zine

It is a simplest think that you can do. After you have everything printed, you only need to fold the pages in halve and stamp or saw them together.

Like in this video by LFONinja.

Signatures

You fold each signature like you wold do with the zine. Then you connect everything with string and glue, after which you add a cover.

Das Bookbinding created a great video about this process.

Lose pages

I have done two of those.

The first one was using traditional Japanese binding. This process can be seen in this video by Treasure Books.

I used a drill for drilling the wholes. The patent is to ensure the area where you are drilling is pressed nicely.

Another method I steeled from Solitary RPG's video.

Troubleshooting

If you have another one which I didn't described - don't be shy and write it down in the comments section or contact me.

Edges of the booklet have visible cuts and torn

You will need a sharper and stiffer knife. Remember to use nicely pressed to pages steel ruler, and cut slowly, but precisely.

Great video by Das Bookbinding about this process.

Hardcover board warping

Oh shit. This one is quite annoying and I'm not qualified to talk about this issue. Check out Das Bookbinding's video about this issue.

The final book looks ugly

You need to practice more.

Legality

I don't know, ask your lawyer.

To my knowledge, it is legal in my contry, if only for personal use. It heavily depends on your "Copyrignt" over specific PDF.

If in your country it is illegal, that contact me, because I will be quite interested why???